"When I was in high school, one of my favorite classes was calculus,” said Tiffany Summerscales, the latest addition to the Andrews University Physics department. The lack of an accompanying smirk suggested that she wasn't joking. The young professor added that she herself had gone to Andrews University for her undergraduate studies and had majored in math and physics.

Academics, it seems, did not present a huge challenge for Summerscales. Some of her best memories of Andrews University are of her teachers. “I was very much impressed with the professors here; they really cared for the students and made me want to be like them.”

Another positive association with Andrews University came in the form of a husband, Rodney, a fellow student. “We were friends from the first week of school … and then the last year we started dating,” said Summerscales. She added, "We got engaged the day after I graduated from Andrews,” and “got married the summer after my first year at grad school!”

Summerscales went to Penn State for her graduate studies. Her Ph.D. work focused on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, an area that she helpfully explained as dealing with “ripples in space-time.” In total she spent seven years in graduate school and is excited to now be back at her undergraduate alma mater as a teacher.

“I guess my biggest goal is to be like the professors I had … to take a real interest in students … and also maybe teach them some physics. Physics can be kind of challenging!”

Bjorn Karlman, University Relations student news writer