2008 Woodie Awards
Weekly Featured Profile: Faculty/Staff
Lidia Luquet
DJ Bowen III
Issue date: 9/25/07 Section: News
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The Signal Theory. Three hundred stolen pastries. Only one student in attendance on the final day of class. All these topics have crossed the path of Saint Mary's math professor Lidia Luquet, who received her doctorate in mathematics by discovering the Signal Theory, which involves determining the limits of an integral, but in a very complicated manner.
Despite this seemingly solely intellectual personality, Luquet said, "My main problem is students take too seriously what I say." A former student of hers has created a website with several of her funny quotes on it, according to Luquet.
The 300 pastries were stolen from the Saint Mary's dining hall on the weekend of a math teacher convention at the College. Emergency replacements had to be found in the morning for the two hundred math teachers in attendance. In regards to the lone student in the classroom, he was left out of the loop on a hoax her students played on her on the final day of school while she was teaching at the Monterey Naval Post Graduate School. The students sat in the room next door as she stood shocked in her normally orderly classroom.
Luquet has spanned her teaching spectrum from teaching elementary school in Argentina, her country of origin, all the way here to teaching high level mathematics at Saint Mary's College. Her teaching has also placed her in Mississippi, doing summer jobs in Santa Clara, and as an assistant at Cornell University.
Luquet carefully balances intellect and humor. Any student who has experienced a day in one of her classes can attest to this. When describing her classes, she said, "We laugh all day." When entering her office, one would find an immense collection of mathematics books in one corner of the room, but just opposite of it, a colorful flower vase painted by none other than Luquet herself.
A normal day for Luquet would entail a record player setting the tone for the evening as she cuddled up with her latest infatuation of novels about the lives of America's founding fathers. She did say she likes studying this county's past because, "It helps you understand the present better."
Luquet also showed great pride and sentiment when speaking of her older students by saying, "By the time they get to juniors and seniors, you know them."
If one were fortunate enough to have this sentimental, opera-loving, free-spirited Argentine painter-historian-mathematician as a teacher, they would definitely be enriched as a student and have a fun time while doing it.
Despite this seemingly solely intellectual personality, Luquet said, "My main problem is students take too seriously what I say." A former student of hers has created a website with several of her funny quotes on it, according to Luquet.
The 300 pastries were stolen from the Saint Mary's dining hall on the weekend of a math teacher convention at the College. Emergency replacements had to be found in the morning for the two hundred math teachers in attendance. In regards to the lone student in the classroom, he was left out of the loop on a hoax her students played on her on the final day of school while she was teaching at the Monterey Naval Post Graduate School. The students sat in the room next door as she stood shocked in her normally orderly classroom.
Luquet has spanned her teaching spectrum from teaching elementary school in Argentina, her country of origin, all the way here to teaching high level mathematics at Saint Mary's College. Her teaching has also placed her in Mississippi, doing summer jobs in Santa Clara, and as an assistant at Cornell University.
Luquet carefully balances intellect and humor. Any student who has experienced a day in one of her classes can attest to this. When describing her classes, she said, "We laugh all day." When entering her office, one would find an immense collection of mathematics books in one corner of the room, but just opposite of it, a colorful flower vase painted by none other than Luquet herself.
A normal day for Luquet would entail a record player setting the tone for the evening as she cuddled up with her latest infatuation of novels about the lives of America's founding fathers. She did say she likes studying this county's past because, "It helps you understand the present better."
Luquet also showed great pride and sentiment when speaking of her older students by saying, "By the time they get to juniors and seniors, you know them."
If one were fortunate enough to have this sentimental, opera-loving, free-spirited Argentine painter-historian-mathematician as a teacher, they would definitely be enriched as a student and have a fun time while doing it.