Meet the people of CRSS: Andrew Quinn

February 23, 2024

Q&A

What’s your favorite part about being a teacher?

That’s a good question, I feel like working with students. I think sometimes the best moments are when–– especially in office hours it usually works out–– where I can get a somewhat smallish group and actually get to know people. I think our class sizes are such that a lot of times lectures are just a sea of humans in a room, and we do our best to be welcoming. But it’s really hard for us as well as very hard for the students. But in office hours it's usually a lot more intimate. Those are my favorite moments. Especially when you get a group of people and you’re asking a question and somebody gets it and you can see someone else got it at the same time, and sort of experiencing that. 

 

Do you have a favorite band/artist?

It changes really frequently. For a long time I’ve been a fan of classic rock, like the Beatles were my favorite band for a really long time. I don’t know, I listen to kind of everything, there’s not much I don’t listen to in terms of genres. My most listened to artist last year was Taylor Swift. It was not actually that close which was kind of wild. My wife is a huge swiftie and I’m at the right age where she’s like three years older than me. So every life moment that I have she’s had a very similar thing, it’s weird how similar it is. I don’t know, I really like Phoebe Bridgers, I think she’s really good. I was super on a Boygenius kick in the last month and I started listening to Chappell Roan you should check it out. 

 

What kind of research do you oversee?

I have seven grad students; two of those seven of them are co-advised, and the other five I am their advisor. So yeah, we do research, we do a lot of different stuff. I’m kind of driven by their passions. So for the most part I have a central thing I’m interested in, but I kind of figure out what they want to work on and I do my best to help support them. 

CRSS Contact: Quinn, Andrew