There were many Pi-themed entries, but Professor Heather Barker’s mini strawberry pies with the digits of Pi written on each pie took the award for Best Tasting Bake. Math major Tyler Rosen’s savory meat pies won the award for Most Pi Bake.

Following the Bake Off, the party went outside for the main Pie-Your-Professor event. 消消犯 could spin the wheel with equal odds of: pie a professor, pie a student, Professor of Statistics Laura Taylor, or the students get pied.

Five faculty members from the Math and Stats department (Todd Lee, Nancy Scherich, Laura Taylor, Ryne VanKrevelen and Larry Cantwell) and three students (Tyler Rosen, Kelly DonovanAndrew Pipeling) volunteered to be the pie-ees.油 All volunteers got pied, and some got pied more than once.

The colloquium lecture was titled “Knots and Braids with a Little Bit of Dance.” Scherich started off the lecture with an introduction to the mathematical field of knot theory, which is a subfield of topology. She showed her Math-Dance video “Algebra, Geometry, and Topology; What’s the difference?” which explains how the three fields of mathematics are different. (You can watch the video .)

Twenty minutes into the lecture, Song took over the lecture to discuss their collaborative knot theory research project that they have been working on for a three semesters. The lecture concluded with Scherich returning to the stage to discuss her research about the danceability index, which is another student project she has been working on for two years with alumni Sol Addison ’25 and Lumen Scholar Lila Snodgrass ’26.

Together, they performed a minute-long hip-hop routine to the Black Eyed Peas song Boom Boom Pow choreographed by油Meghan McGarrigle. After the performance, the audience voted for their favorite faculty/staff dancer, crowning Melissa Scales the audience favorite for the second year in a row!

Follow the Elon Dance Team on Instagram @eudanceteam to learn about upcoming performances and events.

Elon alum Sol Addison ’25, and Lumen Scholar Lila Snodgrass ’26, presented at the Bridges 2025 Math-Art conference at Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The Bridges conference was attended by over 400 mathematicians and artists. This annual conference embraces interdisciplinary work, which aligns with Elon���s values and the core of Addison and Snodgrass���s research in math and dance.

Addison and Snodgrass have been working with Elon professor Nancy Scherich for nearly two years researching the danceability of knots���a blend of dance performance and theoretical mathematics research. In a culmination of a series of published papers, this research trio had their paper titled ������ accepted to the Bridges 2025 conference, where Addison and Snodgrass gave an oral presentation of their work. Their presentation was well received and followed by lively discussion where the audience considered future directions of the work.

To accompany the paper, Addison, Snodgrass and Scherich made a dance film describing the novel concepts of their research. Their video was accepted and shown in the juried film festival at the conference (油Following the screening, Addison, Snodgrass and Scherich spoke in a panel session of the filmmakers.

As a conclusion to Snodgrass��� Lumen work, she will present a live Math-Dance performance in spring 2026.

After winning competition in 2017, Scherich’s work in math and dance has garnered international acclaim. Over the years, her math-dance videos have been showcased in several film festivals including the Raw Science Film Festival and the Bridges Math-Art Conference Film Festivals. She has been interviewed on 油and even featured on the cover of . One of her videos also won an award through the .

A photo from Scherich’s article was chosen as the cover for the November issue of the journal. To learn more about Scherich’s philosophy and process of creating math-dance works, read her article on page 1385 of the .

Addison, an applied mathematics and sociology double major and Snodgrass, a Lumen Scholar, mathematics and dance double major, have been conducting research with mentor Nancy Scherich, assistant professor of mathematics. All three members of this research team are both mathematicians and dancers.

Their interdisciplinary research studies the ���danceability��� of knots, which is a new area of research in the mathematical field of knot theory. As a dancer travels the stage over time, their path traces out a knotted curve. If multiple dancers are on stage, and it is assumed that each dancer ends in the starting position of another dancer, the total paths danced by all dancers forms a large knot. The danceability of a knot is the minimum number of dancers required to create the knot.

Addison, Scherich and Snodgrass wrote a research article on their work with danceability that has been accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal. Over the 2024 summer, students Addison and Snodgrass gave oral presentations about their research at two different conferences. The first conference was the Unknot V conference at Seattle University, a two-day 消消犯 knot theory conference. The schedule for the conference was to have two parallel sessions for 消消犯 talks. However, shortly after Addison and Snodgrass submitted their abstract for their proposed oral presentation, the conference organizers were so intrigued by the proposal that they decided to single out Addison and Snodgrass���s talk as the only featured 消消犯 presentation with no other parallel sessions at the same time. The organizers said they thought everyone would want to come to the danceability talk and changed the schedule to feature Addison and Snodgrass.

Later in the summer, Addison, Scherich and Snodgrass attended the 2024 Bridges conference at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Addison and Snodgrass gave an oral presentation on their danceability research, and Scherich presented her Math-Dance video about Alexander���s Theorem in the Bridges Film Festival. To top off the conference, Addison, Scherich and Snodgrass performed in a play about Alan Turing on the last night of the conference. In addition to several speaking roles, the three researchers also sang and danced in the one musical number, donning outlandish mathematical costumes from the Bridges Math+Fashion show.

Scherich just returned from the annual Joint Math Meetings in San Francisco, the largest national math conference, which hosted more than 5,000 mathematicians this year. For the conference, Scherich produced a Math Variety Show as an outreach entertainment event featuring acts of math-dance, math-magic, math-comedy and much more. The sold-out show was emceed by the famous mathematician and stand-up comedian Matt Parker, known for his popular YouTube channel ���Stand-up Maths��� and his #No.1 international best-selling book ���Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World.���

Besides Parker���s appearance, the show had another dozen acts, all prominently featuring mathematics and performed by professional mathematicians or math educators. World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker opened the show with his award-winning poem ���A Love Poem of Lonely Primes.��� Math professor by day and conjurer by night, magician Tori Noquez performed her original magic trick ���Can You Beat the Odds,��� which she recently performed on the television show ���Penn & Teller: Fool Us.��� The California-based dance company MoveSpeakSpin performed three mesmerizing dances about mathematics, including a dance proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

Other performances included mathematical mime by Tim and Tanya Chartier of Davidson College, acapella by the Klein Four Group, math-inspired traditional Bharatanatyam Indian dance by the world-renowned dancer Sahana Balasubramanya, and a rock band parody of ���Flatland California.��� The 油offers more details.

The show was hosted at the beautiful Alcazar Theater in downtown San Francisco. The 480-seat theater was sold out and dozens of would-be attendees were turned away at the door. The audience was a mix of mathematicians attending the conference and local math enthusiasts, with several families and children in attendance. This one-of-a-kind show was a great success and left the audience buzzing with excitement and just a little bit smarter too.

Scherich and colleague Dan Margalit of Vanderbilt University spent a year planning and organizing every aspect of the variety show, from the theater rental to the Eventbrite ticket sales, to performer recruiting. Scherich, usually known for being on stage and screen with her own math-dance performances, worked behind the curtain as stage manager, using her years of musical theater and dance performance experience to orchestrate the show.

To learn more about Scherich���s math-dance and other math outreach events, check out her and .