UNITY — Jason Keller, who graduated from Unity Composite High School in 2013, went on to post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan.
After earning a degree in engineering, the spring of 2022, Keller earned a masters degree in mathematics. He was recently featured in a story on his successes with university in an article, .
Keller says, “I started engineering in the fall of 2016 and chose engineering physics to be my discipline after the common first year.”
The first degree in engineering physics was obtained online, due to COVID-19, in June of 2020. Keller says during the summer of 2019 and 2020, he worked on plasma physics research with Dr. Alexey Shevyakov (PhD) from the math department as an undergraduate research assistance. It was following the first summer, Keller decided to pursue a masters of mathematics under Dr. Shevyakov, starting the master’s program in fall of 2020.
Keller recently began employment with Siemens EDA as a software developer and plans to be there for the foreseeable future. He adds, “I am still studying some mathematics in my spare time and finding it quite enjoyable.”
UCHS mentors came from Keller’s math classes, offering a special acknowledgement to teachers Mr. Parker and Mrs. Gartner, whom Keller felt kept things exciting.
Ken Parker responds, saying, “I am flattered with his words as I saw him as a real perfectionist with academics.”
Parker adds, “I find students, including my own son, who are also involved in music, particularly piano, have a connection with math and piano as it has beats and fractions. Those habits are part of the way the brain operates. I have been witness to kids that are in music/piano also do well in math.”
When asked if he felt 小蓝视频 a musician and a math wizard are complementary, Keller responds, “I do not really think so. I worked hard at music during high school and did not put much effort into classes but then switched my efforts around when I attended university.”
“I guess playing music helped me keep some discipline of work ethic throughout high school years and it transferred easily to the more technical courses at USask.”
Keller is still an accomplished musician continuing his love of music playing with several musical groups in his spare time.
Keller’s thesis highlighted in the USask story, was titled Exact Equilibrium Solutions of the Magnetohydrodynamic Plasma Model.
Keller explains the technical essay in layman’s terms, saying, “If you add energy to a solid it transitions to a liquid. If you add more energy the liquid becomes a gas and if you keep adding energy there is a point that the electrons are stripped off of the atoms and you essentially have a gas composed of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. This phase of matter is (loosely) regarded as plasma. To be more precise it has to exhibit something referred to as collective behavior. A large area of mathematical physics and applied mathematics studies fluid mechanics (hydrodynamics).
“Whenever you see those diagrams or videos showing the aerodynamics of a vehicle or an airplane, which is in the realm of fluid mechanics. Now plasma dynamics is like a case of hydrodynamics when the fluid in question is composed of charged particles (electrons and ions). The evolution of a plasma system can be described by many different mathematical models that have different advantages. One of the most common, for its simplicity and practicality, is the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) system of equations. Notice that the word hydrodynamic is just prefixed by the word magneto, as the moving charged particles create a magnetic field. The MHD system of equations is essentially the combination of the Euler fluid equations (from hydrodynamics) with the Maxwell equations of electrodynamics.”
“In my thesis, the work was focused on finding fresh solutions to the MHD system of equations. These new solutions were found by looking at cases when plasma takes on certain types of symmetries (specifically axial and helical symmetry), in these cases the complicated MHD system of equations simplifies to a single equation which one can find some remarkably interesting solutions to using modern mathematical techniques.”
Asked to offer the Class of 2022 advice on pursuing post-secondary education, Keller says, “As you go out into higher education or industry try to pay attention to yourself and notice what you like and don’t like, taking opportunities where you can try new things. Try a different position in a company or take a class that you might not know much about. You may have never come into contact with something you might absolutely love.”
Perhaps Keller will be the next UCHS Wall of Fame Inductee for his work. The UCHS Wall of Fame accepts nominations each year for students who have been out of school 10 or more years and have achieved extraordinary things in their career and lives.
