Rumors have been swirling for years about one of the philosophy department’s most recent graduates. Legend has it that Aaron Nielsen quit a lucrative engineering job in Denver to get a teaching gig at CSU for the sole purpose of taking free college classes for the rest of his life.  While there were a few more steps – and academic degrees—in the process, Nielsen confirms that this pretty much sums up the last ten years of life.

The Fort Collins High School valedictorian was on a standard STEM track after high school. He attended CSU, double-majored in electrical engineering and mathematics, and earned his first undergraduate degree. Nielsen went on to earn a graduate degree in electrical engineering at CU.  He then secured a job with a defense contractor in Denver and put his engineering skills to work in service to US intelligence-gathering efforts.

While the overall defense project was fascinating, Nielsen admits that his own work within it “sounds a lot more interesting that it actually was.”  Nielsen longed to return to university and convinced his employer to sponsor his next graduate degree in applied mathematics at CU Denver.  The degree tally then stood at three.

At this point, Nielsen was coming to terms with his deep love of learning and his desire to be in a university setting full-time.  After some travel time in Europe, Nielsen returned home to Fort Collins and to CSU. This time he chose statistics for his next degree. “Statistics is more interesting than math because math doesn’t always have the obvious applications right away. But with stats, when you’re working through a problem you can explain what everything means in the context of the problem. I think it’s more fun based on these applications. I’ve just always enjoyed collecting and analyzing data, so statistics was a natural fit.”  Nielsen completed his fourth degree and taught statistics the following semester. He was then completely hooked on teaching and knew it was his calling.  “I probably could have been hired full-time by the department then, I’m almost sure. But I really wanted to finish up and complete a PhD.”

Nielsen returned to CU Denver and his former advisor to continue work in applied mathematics, the department under which statistics is housed. It was through his work there that Nielsen re-encountered philosophy—the first time since his brief exposure in an introductory course as a freshman at CSU. Nielsen’s doctoral project was rooted in the philosophy of biology and the use of mathematical models to study the evolution of cooperation within populations. Nielsen also used this time to intentionally focus on his skills as a teacher and taught eight different courses while finishing his degree. In 2018, Nielsen then reached the pinnacle of academic success—a Ph.D.

There was only one goal left to achieve. While preparing to enter the academic job market, Nielsen approached the CSU Statistics department about possible employment. Nielsen’s kismet—and five academic degrees—prevailed. He was appointed an assistant professor with primary responsibilities in teaching. “The fact that I could get a job at the place I wanted is so incredibly rare. I was immensely lucky.”

Having secured his dream job, Nielsen used his employee study privilege to fulfill his mission of continuous learning. “At that point, I was taking random classes, I took a physics class on thermodynamics, and I took a political science course on international relations. I was kind of planning on just hopping around. I studied whatever sounded interesting—and fit with my teaching schedule.”

A colleague in the Statistics department recommended that Nielsen check out philosophy professor Jeff Kasser’s 36-part lecture series on the philosophy of science available through The Great Courses. “I thought it was super interesting, so I signed up for his two philosophy of science courses on campus—the history and philosophy of scientific thought and the philosophy of natural science.”

One thing led to another and Nielsen found himself studying logic, then philosophy of mind, and then ethics. “I was open to the possibility of getting another degree, but that wasn’t really the plan. However, after taking Katie McShane’s ethics class, I started to think about it more seriously—especially since I realized I was halfway done with the BA at that point.” Nielsen officially declared a philosophy major in 2022. He admits that there was no practical purpose of doing so. “Half of my degrees I did for fun, so it wasn’t really new to me. Some people are impressed by all these credentials, but I don’t really care.”

While the degree itself is not significant to Nielsen, he is clear about the benefit of studying philosophy. First and foremost, he has enjoyed trying to map out arguments and to write about them—something he really hadn’t done before. “I’m just naturally attracted to logic, so putting together an argument felt mathematical and it was cool to see how that kind of logical thinking could translate into different areas. It really helped me to think more clearly.”

Nielsen also appreciates the way philosophy has helped him understand the history of science and its evolution. “Now when I’m teaching, I do a better job of putting the theories into context and discussing their historical development. I’ve really come to appreciate the development of intellectual thought that I’ve acquired from my philosophy classes.  I’ve gotten a better idea of how science has developed and changed. That’s something I didn’t really get with my science degrees.”

In addition to skills and academic content, Nielsen believes his teaching has improved by observing and modeling himself on his philosophy mentors. “I’ve had really good professors in philosophy. In STEM classes, it’s easy to get stuck in this routine of writing on the board the whole time.  I always wonder, How can I be better?  Philosophers do this thing where they pace back and forth in front of the room and just talk. It’s been really interesting to watch.”

Nielsen shares that taking undergraduate philosophy classes has had an unexpected bonus—deepening his relationships with his statistics students. “On the first day of class, I tell students that I love school and how I gave up an engineering job to take classes for fun. I explain that I have homework and exams just like them, so I feel like I can better relate to what they are going through. When I speak one-on-one with students, I ask them about their other classes, tell them about the classes I’m taking, and especially enjoy talking to them about fun philosophy classes.”

Nielsen’s dedication to teaching and to his students is evident in his mentorship of undergraduate research.  Though many of the projects focus on his true passion—sports analytics—Nielsen recently mentored a student in a joint philosophy-statistics venture, “A Statistical Analysis of Philosophers on Philosophy.” This project analyzes the 2020 PhilPapers Survey which asks over 1700 philosophers from around the world about their views on a variety of philosophical questions. Nielsen’s mentee, Jacob Shankles, worked to create an app that sorts survey responses along a variety of variables, including age and gender, nationality, area of specialization, and philosopher alignment. Nielsen enjoys how his various academic interests can intersect in these fun and interesting student projects.

Coming into the fall semester with his sixth degree in hand, Nielsen has no intention of slowing down his pursuit of learning. “I gave up a lot of money and time to pursue what I thought was going to be make me happier. And now, everything is great. It’s exactly what I wanted.” When asked if he thinks he’ll continue teaching and taking classes for the rest of his life, Nielsen replies, “Probably, yeah, at least that’s the hope!”