Alex Threlkeld (they/them, formerly Manchester)

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

I am the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computational Sciences Librarian at Stanford's Robin Li and Melissa Ma Science Library, located in the Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning, aka ``Old Chem''. In this job, I order print and electronic materials and manage the university's subcriptions in my subject areas, I am the liason between Stanford University Libraries and the Mathematics and Statistics Departments, and I teach Carpentries (and Carpentries-style) workshops on Python, R, and LaTeX.

I have recently gotten married and changed my surname. My old surname was ``Manchester''.

I don't claim to be a coder, but I do occasionally write scripts for myself, and upload them to my GitHub in case they are helpful to other librarians hoping to make more use of computer tools.

I graduated with a PhD in Mathematics from Rice University in May 2024. My advisor was Prof. Shelly Harvey, and my mathematical interests are in satellite constructions, knot concordance, and 4-dimensional manifolds, especially in the topological setting. I received a B.S. in Mathematics with Departmental Honors from the University of Chicago in 2019.

My first library paper: ``LaTeX Instruction in Academic Libraries'', joint with Cay del Junco, Kayleigh Bohémier, Willow Dressel, Amanda Schilling, Wesley Honeycutt, Mark Laufersweiler, Jerry Zhu, Marcelo Garcia, Samantha Teplinski, Misha Coleman, Brian Quigley, Seth Vuletich, Jenny Hart, Eric Schares, Sam Hansen, & Sarah Over, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of eScience Librarianship, and is being published in three parts, and the first part available now (not every author contributed to every part; I will be listed as an author on the third part).

Math research papers:

``New examples of topologically slice links'' on the arXiv and published in the Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications
``Action of the Mazur patter up to topological concordance'' on the arXiv and published in Algebraic & Geometric Topology

I have also worked as the Mathematics Collection Development assistant at Rice's Fondren Library. I assisted with the selection and acquisition of new books, as well as the weeding of of damaged and outdated books in the collection. Additionally, I contributed to our online research guides, particularly the guides on math and AI, and focusing on the history of math and the relationship between AI and accessibility. I also helped to run events introducing students to the university's Overleaf subscription.

I presented with Kayleigh Bohémier and Sam Hansen on LaTeX instruction in academic libraries at the Information Science Summit & Special Libraries Conference, by the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T), in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ASIS&T recently acquired the Special Libraries Association (SLA) in March 2026. I also co-moderated the Mathematics Roundtable at the 2025 SLA Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And, I have also attend to the following conferences as a librarian:

Joint Mathematics Meeting; Seattle, Washington (2025)
SLA Conference; Kingston, Rhode Island (2024)

As a graduate student, I co-organized the following conferences:

Nearly Carbon Neutral Geometry and Topology Conference (2023, co-organizer of the concordance section, virtual)
Log cabin conference on concordance and knotted surfaces; Sedona, Arizona (2023)

I also gave invited talks in the following venues:

Low-Dimensional Topology conference at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research; Pune, India (2023)
Low-Dimensional Topology Seminar at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics; Bonn, Germany (2023)
Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherches en Géométrie et Topologie Junior, Université du Québec à Montréal; Canada (2023, virtual)
Joint Mathematics Meeting; Boston, Massachusettes (2023)
Geometric Topology Grad and Postdoc Seminar (2022, virtual)
AMS Fall Western Sectional; Salt Lake City, Utah (2022)