Welcome New Faculty Member Daryl DeFord

In August 2020, we were joined by our newest faculty member, Professor Daryl DeFord. However, he was not new to many of the faculty nor was WSU new to him since he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics from WSU in 2013.

After graduating from WSU, DeFord earned a doctoral degree in mathematics from Dartmouth College in June of 2018. While at Dartmouth he received college-wide awards both for his teaching and scholarly work. He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his postdoctoral appointments he worked with researchers from both universities to investigate mathematics involved in redrawing voting districts. With them, he developed the open source software GerryChain that can detect gerrymandering in redistricting plans. This has received media attention, including from the New York Times and Harvard Data Science Review, and has generated interest from several U.S. states as they work on redistricting.

This summer, DeFord will be directing an undergraduate research project of Elliot Kimsey. Elliot won a research scholarship from the College of Arts and Sciences to pursue research in malapportionment in legislative districting, using Washington state as a case study. DeFord will also supervise a research team funded through the University of Washington's Data Science for Social Good Program.

If you would like to know more about DeFord’s work please visit his web page. You will also find more information in this department article, and this WSU News article.