Mark Curtis

Mark took the undergraduate MMath Course (2005, Exeter) and a DPhil in Applied Mathematics (2009, Brasenose and St Catherine's).

What do you do now?
I am a secondary school Maths Teacher.  As a student I imagined I'd go into events organising or teaching, but knew it wouldn't be further research.

What success in your life are you most proud of?
Meeting my now wife at the Oxford Graduate Maths Modelling Camp in 2010!

What advice would you give your student self?
Don't think that going from a DPhil into teaching is a step down - it is anything but.

What's the best thing about your current role?
Laughing throughout the day at little things here and there - kids are hilarious!

How much maths is there in your day job?
There's the National Curriculum stuff (GCSEs, A Level Maths + Further Maths), and I run a few lunchtime clubs teaching selected content from First and Second Year University. Last week we put together a predator-prey model (the Lotka-Volterra equations) and did a phase plane analysis. A year ago we did Cauchy's Residue Theorem to tackle harder integrals.

What do you like/miss/remember most about Oxford Mathematics?
Doing pages and pages of algebra and calculus! I loved all that stuff. I also miss the European Study Groups in Industry as these were particularly memorable and entertaining.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Helping with the Adventure Society at school (climbing, biking, kayaking, hiking etc), learning Spanish and looking after our two kids.