Skip to main content

Moon Duchin

Tisch College Senior Fellow

Moon Duchin

Moon Duchin

Tisch College Senior Fellow

Phone 617.627.5970
Biography: 

Moon Duchin is a Professor of Mathematics at Tufts University and was one of the faculty founders of the interdisciplinary Science, Technology, and Society Program. She runs the MGGG Redistricting Lab as one of the research groups at Tisch College of Civic Life.

Duchin's areas of mathematical expertise are in geometric group theory, low-dimensional topology, and dynamics. Her applied research program is in data science for civil rights, where her Lab has become a leading voice in the national efforts to better understand census data, redistricting, and electoral systems. Duchin's co-edited volume (with Olivia Walch) called Political Geometry was published in 2021.

The Lab built the Districtr public mapping tool that was used around the country in the redistricting cycle in 2021-22 by line-drawers and community groups. More than 130 localities have used Districtr to collect official public input, including New York City and the state of Michigan. A second major project of the Lab is the GerryChain software packages that harness the mathematics of Markov chains to build high-quality ensembles of alternative districting plans, helping people explore the range of possibility in redistricting. This has enabled ensemble analysis that featured in redistricting litigation in Texas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and more. Other major research and software development areas for the Lab include differential privacy in the Census, ranked choice voting, race and polarization analysis, and the future of the Voting Rights Act.

Education: 
PhD in Mathematics, University of Chicago, 2005
MS in Mathematics, University of Chicago, 1999
BA in Mathematics and Women's Studies, Harvard University, 1998
Selected Honors and Awards: 
Evelyn Green Davis Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2018-19
Guggenheim Fellow, 2018-19
Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, since 2017

Related Links