Dr. Mario Stipčić will join the faculty in the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University this summer in their prestigious preceptor program. As a preceptor, Stipčić will contribute to teaching, developing pedagogy, and advising in relation to the department’s calculus curriculum.  

Stipčić credits his experience in the Grand Challenges Initiative with helping him to realize new approaches to innovative teaching.“I gained a broad knowledge of active learning in higher education and had great support in applying inventive teaching methods in my classes. I also had the opportunity to receive training through several workshops organized by the program and conducted by teaching experts,” said Stipčić.    

While at Chapman University, Stipčić has also been collaborating on research in the field of harmonics with Polona Durcik, an assistant professor in Schmid College of Science and Technology. Together, they recently published papers on Quantitative bounds for products of simplices in subsets of the unit cube and on A strong-type Furstenberg-Sárközy theorem for sets of positive measure. 

 Stipčić completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. He is currently completing authorship of a new Croatian-language calculus textbook for non-majors.  

With the program now in its sixth year, Stipčić joins a growing list of Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellows who have transitioned to faculty positions. Past fellows can be found at UC San Diego, CSU Dominguez Hills, Tufts University, LA Pierce College, UC Davis, Austin College, and UC Riverside.  

“I am genuinely grateful to everyone who supported my work at Grand Challenges Initiative, and I could hardly imagine ever developing professionally and personally as much as I did here at Chapman University.”