Dr. Rachel Grotheer
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Rachel Grotheer enjoys teaching calculus and calculus-based classes, as well as applied and computational classes. She is passionate about communicating the beauty of using mathematics to solve complex problems in the world. Her favorite teaching techniques include asking questions, explorative inquiry and active learning. She earned B.A. degrees in mathematics and French from Denison University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from Clemson University. Her dissertation work focused on medical image reconstruction and reduced basis techniques. Her research has moved more into data science, but still falls under the large category of reducing large, complicated problems, datasets and spaces, to smaller ones in order to get meaningful information. She has done this through topic modeling, machine learning, and signal/image processing. She appreciates how eager the students are to learn and how invested they are in their own learning. Away from Wofford, Grotheer enjoys spending time in the water; whether it’s a pool, river, lake or ocean. She also likes traveling, learning other languages and learning about other cultures – especially trying their food. She also enjoys needle art such as knitting and crocheting, board games, singing, hiking and swing dancing.
