About
Priya Devakumar joined the AB Mathematics faculty in 2017 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2023. She teaches across the AB Mathematics curriculum from differential equations through advanced topics, advises the AB Math Society, and serves as faculty consultant to the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health on epidemiological modeling.
Devakumar was born in Chennai, India, and moved to the United States in 2009 for graduate school. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2015), an M.Sc. in Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2009), and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Stella Maris College, Chennai (2007). She spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State before joining AB.
At AB she has built the "Mountain Math" program — a year-long mathematical-modeling capstone in which AB Mathematics seniors partner with regional public-health agencies, hospitals, and conservation nonprofits to build mathematical models for real organizational problems. The program has produced models that are in active use at the WV Bureau for Public Health.
Education
- 2015Ph.D., Applied Mathematics — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dissertation: Multi-Scale Compartmental Models for Vector-Borne Disease Outbreaks.
- 2009M.Sc., Mathematics — Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
- 2007B.Sc., Mathematics (Gold Medal) — Stella Maris College, University of Madras.
Teaching
Dr. Devakumar teaches three core math courses each academic year and directs the Mountain Math senior capstone.
- MTH 304Differential EquationsA required junior-level course for Mathematics, Engineering 3+2, and Physics minors. Includes a computational-modeling lab component.
- MTH 410Mathematical Modeling (Mountain Math)The signature AB senior capstone in mathematical modeling. Each senior pairs with a community-partner organization for a year-long modeling project.
- MTH 450Topics in Applied Math: Epidemiological ModelingA junior/senior elective on the construction, analysis, and interpretation of compartmental and agent-based disease-spread models.
Research, Modeling & Public Service
Devakumar's research applies compartmental modeling and agent-based simulation to public-health problems — particularly vector-borne disease, opioid-use-disorder treatment dynamics, and rural healthcare capacity. She has been a paid consultant to the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health since 2019, and built fourteen of the operational models that the Bureau currently uses for outbreak response and resource allocation.
She is the faculty mentor for the AB Putnam team, which has placed three students in the top quartile nationally since 2019, and the AB MAA Mathematical Modeling Challenge team.
Selected Publications & Presentations
- 2024Devakumar PR et al. "Opioid-Use Treatment Capacity Modeling in Rural West Virginia." Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.
- 2023"Compartmental Models for the WV COVID-19 Response: A Retrospective." WV Public Health Reports.
- 2022"Why Liberal-Arts Math Should Teach Modeling." The College Mathematics Journal.
- 2025Plenary, MAA MathFest, "The Liberal-Arts Math Major as Public-Health Workforce."
Honors & Service
- 2024Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
- 2023WV Public Health Distinguished Service Award.
- 2022MAA Distinguished Teaching Award, Allegheny Mountain Section.
- 2020AB Faculty Early-Career Award.
- 2015RPI Mathematical Sciences Distinguished Dissertation.
A mathematics major who has never built a model for a real organization with a real budget and a real deadline has not yet learned what mathematics is for. Mountain Math is my response to that fact.— Dr. Priya R. Devakumar
Beyond the Classroom
Devakumar lives in Buckhannon with her husband Raj (a software engineer at a regional firm), their daughter, and her mother. She is an active member of the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Pittsburgh, a serious cook of South Indian vegetarian food (her Saturday-morning dosas for AB Math Society members are a tradition), and a competitive Carnatic vocal-music student.
She has run the Pittsburgh Marathon three times and is currently training for her first ultramarathon.