Mathematician Andrew Wiles once compared studying mathematics to stumbling through the rooms in a darkened mansion. “Finally … you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it’s all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were. Then, you enter the next dark room…”
It’s a quote that Maria Esipova (BMath ’23) loves because it reflects her explorations in math at the University of Waterloo. “The decision to come to Waterloo was easy because it’s one of the best schools to study math in North America, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. However, my path was not yet set.”
During her time at Waterloo, Esipova completed two research assistantships, where she discovered the field of algebraic combinatorics. During one of those assistantships, Maria co-authored a paper that was published in the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin. In 2023, she also received the Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.