Ashwin Vaidya is a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at Montclair State University. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is the director of the Complex Fluids Laboratory where along with students, he performs experiments and works on mathematical problems related to complex self-organizing systems. He is also interested in issues related to STEM education and to making creativity an essential feature of science and math education. Since 2019, Ashwin has been serving as Chairperson of the Mathematics Department and in this capacity he has been working on making community engagement a major focus of the math program through development of curricular and co-curricular activities.