I am from a little town called Babylon on Long Island. It's pretty standard suburbia. I don't think anyone there has heard of Amherst and anyone from Amherst has heard of Babylon.

How would you compare Babylon to Amherst?

Amherst is bigger and has the whole college town thing going for it. Babylon is small, about 15,000 people.

How did you choose your major?

I've always liked math as far back as I can remember. I came to Amherst and took math classes and they were really cool. When you get past calculus, stuff starts getting really interesting.

In concise, easy-to-understand terms, what is your thesis about?

(Laughs) My thesis is on large cardinals, which are very, very big infinite numbers. You can't prove that they exist and you can't prove that they don't exist. But if you assume that they exist, all sorts of wacky, nifty things happen.

What's it like to be the self-named "Empress of the Option"?

I love The Option. It's a lot of fun. It makes me a little crazy, sort of eats up my life for the first few weeks of each semester. Rohan and David are also the emperors, I suppose. It's a good thing that we have The Option here. I know people who have heard of it from other schools and wish that they had similar things.

You play the French horn. Do you like classical music? Do you have a favorite piece?

I do love classical music. We've done a lot of really good pieces here in the Amherst orchestra since I was a freshman, and the Eroica Symphony this semester is always a favorite among horn players. My iTunes is pretty much full of classical music at the moment.

How do you spend your free time?

Procrastinating with my suitemates. We're heavily into Text Twist. It's a game on Yahoo. They give you six letters and you have to find all of the anagram words. We've also been going through the "Firefly" DVDs. Me and my suitemates keep one another entertained.

How do you feel about Red Sox fans?

I'm dating one so I need to watch my answer. They're generally good baseball fans. They spend a lot of time being hardcore with no reward. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been raised to hate Yankee fans, which has caused a lot of trouble for me at times.

Why do you adore penguins so very much?

Why wouldn't I adore penguins? Penguins are excellent.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor and why?

Oh, tough one. Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie. Mint chocolate chip is a close second, but you can't really argue with chocolate fudge and brownies.

What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?

42.

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

Do you have any plans for post-graduation?

I'm applying to math grad schools. I'm at the moment trying to figure out which ones to apply to, which is a shockingly tricky question. I'm looking to get into a Ph.D. program and doing that for the next five or six years.

-Donatella Gallela