A Mathematician with a Penchant for People

On campus, I have heard Yen Nhi Truong Vu described as a “math god.” And why not? As an undergraduate, Truong Vu plowed through the core of Amherst’s mathematics major in four semesters before studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After writing a spectacular math thesis and graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst, she was accepted to Princeton, Harvard and Stanford’s prestigious mathematics graduate programs. When I asked Truong Vu about the nickname, however, she chafed at the