Kevin Sackel–the young boy who dreamed about building roller coasters, the teenager who took college level math courses while acting in his high school musical and the college student who gives out compliments–has recently earned the prestigious Churchill Scholarship.
As a senior in the Honors College pursuing a math and physics double major and a music minor, Sackel is fascinated by numerous areas of mathematics, including topology and geometry.
Sackel grew up surrounded by math. He distinctly remembers being perplexed and fascinated by a homework problem in elementary school in which he was asked to subtract a large number from a small number.
Learning about negative numbers is one of a myriad of early memories Sackel has with math, which include learning the trigonometry trick “SOHCAHTOA” on a train ride, solving puzzles and problems offered by his father and learning mathematical tricks from his grandfather.
As a young boy, Sackel aspired to be a roller coaster designer and recalls “using K’Nex to build an amusement park in the basement.” These dreams changed, however, after Sackel participated in the MathPath summer program in 2005. The experience, and in particular Euclid’s proof there are infinitely many primes, inspired Sackel to become a mathematician.
When Sackel was first told of his selection as a Churchill Scholar, he recalls being “extremely happy and excited to tell [his] mom the good news.” As one of 14 Churchill Scholars, Sackel will continue his advanced study of mathematics under a full stipend at the University of Cambridge.
As the only student chosen from New York, this immense accomplishment is a testament to Sackel’s ingenuity and is preceded by multiple honors including the Freshman Math Department Award, the Stony Brook Foundation Award for Excellence in Mathematics and the Kugh-Sah Memorial Award in Mathematics.
Sackel described math as “extremely elegant and as a subject consisting of objects which are not invented, but discovered, as though placed in order by some extra-human force.”
Sackel plays the oboe in the University Orchestra, and is also the president of the Math Club, which Dr. Christopher Bishop, a professor in the mathematics department, credits him with re-energizing. In addition, Sackel is exploring a question in mathematical analysis under Bishop’s guidance.
Sackel is also well known for giving compliments and hugs along with SBU student Karen McHugh. He created the idea at an off-campus comedy festival, when he gave compliments to comedians he did not have time to watch. The positive interaction the compliments fostered encouraged Sackel to bring the compliments to Stony Brook.
“It feels good for me and it feels good for [the students],” he remarked.
Sackel often jots down thoughts and ideas on a whiteboard in his dorm room. Having used the board to help other students with their mathematical questions, he says, “it has seen everything from single-variable calculus to knot theory.” He jokes that the only time he has been high was from the smell of dry-erase markers after a long day of solving math problems before an exam.
Bishop, a Churchill Scholar himself, describes Sackel as “very smart, but also curious and disciplined; a good combination for a scientist of any type. He is modest and unassuming, so it is easy for him to work with others… Kevin is definitely not the stereotypical anti-social, awkward math geek, and he strikes me as someone who will be successful no matter what he sets out to do.”
Along with Bishop, who helped him “picture math,” Sackel cites Professor Moira Chas and Professor Dennis Sullivan as having enhanced his perception of and approach to math. He further expressed gratitude to his friends for “keeping life fun and spontaneous.” Sackel plans on pursuing a Ph.D. after his studies in Europe with the hope of entering the research and academic world of pure mathematics.
