My name is Dr. Brendan Williamson, and I’m a Maths and Applied Maths teacher at the Institute of Education in Dublin. This website acts as a repository of resources for my students and others, and as a way for potential students and parents to learn more about me.

I graduated from Dublin City University with an Honours Degree in Actuarial Mathematics in 2013. I then travelled to Duke University in North Carolina, USA, to complete a PhD in Mathematics, specialising in Probability and Mathematical Physics, in 2019. While at Duke I also obtained a Certificate in College Teaching in 2015 where I specialised in online teaching, as even at that stage I was excited about its potential at second and third level. After a year working as a trader on the stock market I returned to the teaching world. I set up my own business, Unigrinds while working at Dublin City University and at DIFC in Griffith College, before joining the Institute of Education where I am today.

Ever since I started working as a piano instructor at the age of 16, teaching has been a part of my life. I taught grinds at a Leaving Cert and university level from my second to fourth year in DCU. In my third year I worked as the Applied Mathematics teacher in Ashbourne Community School, preparing 6th year students for their Leaving Cert exams. In my fourth year I worked in DCU’s Maths Learning Centre, an informal support centre for all undergraduate DCU students.

While at Duke University I taught or assisted classes every year of my PhD, including writing exams and giving final grades, while also working in Duke’s equivalent of the Maths Learning Centre. I also continued to give grinds at a university level, meeting on average 10-20 students per semester. Some of these students wanted weekly instruction from the first week of the semester, some wanted intensive revision sessions coming up to exam time. Material ranged from 1st year calculus classes to Master’s level statistics and financial maths, and each student had their own learning style and desired interplay between their formal instruction at Duke and our supplementary sessions.

Returning to DCU in 2020 I tutored undergraduate students of all levels online in one-on-one sessions and in groups of up to 100. As online teaching became the norm I was in near-constant communication with my peers and supervisors about educational and technological best practice.

In DIFC I was a Maths lecturer preparing 3rd level International students for the IFY exams, an exam run by NCUK that would give them access to European universities.

Finally, at the Institute of Education I teach Maths and Applied Maths to students in 4th, 5th and 6th Year, both in-person and online. I also teach Applied Maths grinds to 5th and 6th years. Since its inception in 2022 I have also run an online course with the Institute that teaches Applied Maths to students from scratch all over the country without them needing a teacher at school. As I was without an Applied Maths teacher for most of my Leaving Cert, being able to connect with students all over the country and make sure they can study the subject they want to study is a dream come true for me. You can find more information about this course here.