John Urschel, mathematician and retired NFL player
Topic: Order and Chaos
Location: Ballroom, Nittany Lion Inn
Introduction: Eric Barron
Moderator: Cheraine Stanford
John Urschel is a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of MIT’s prestigious Dean of Science Fellowship and is the author of numerous papers published in leading journals, on subjects ranging from machine learning to spectral graph theory.
Urschel is a former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. He was selected in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft.
Urschel graduated from Penn State in 2012 and received a masters in mathematics in 2013. In 2014, he received many awards, including the Senior CLASS Award, awarded to student-athletes who excel in the areas of community, classroom, character and competition. He was also awarded the William V. Campbell Trophy, sometimes referred to as the “academic Heisman,” and the James E. Sullivan award, presented to the nation’s most outstanding amateur athlete. In 2017, he was named as one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in science.
Urschel lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.