Sparking Curiosity

Dr. Dan Lassiter, of the Class of 2000, traces his specific interest in language to his experience at Westminster Schools of Augusta. More specifically, he remembers how Randall Nichols had a way of approaching language with a mathematical mindset in Upper School Latin and Greek classes.

"I enjoyed English, History, Government, Biology, Chemistry, but Latin fascinated me," Lassiter said.
Today, Lassiter spends his days teaching Stanford University students about a unique topic, linguistics and cognitive sciences.

Lassiter was born in Atlanta and moved to Augusta when his father joined the Westminster administration in 1995. Lassiter went on to earn his undergraduate degree from Harvard in 2004, and then spent a year in New Zealand working toward his Masters of Philosophy degree.

Still eager to learn, Lassiter journeyed to New York City, where he worked diligently to receive his Ph.D. in Linguistics through a five-year program at New York University. A post-doctoral fellowship in Stanford's Psychology department brought him to the West Coast in 2011. He began teaching at Stanford in 2013 and has been a part of its academic community ever since.

In his job, Lassiter shares the unique art of linguistics and cognitive science with Stanford undergraduate students. He, like his Westminster Latin teacher many years ago, applies mathematics to language in ways that, at first glance, may seem unusual. However, this unconventional application of mathematics helps his students better understand the way we reason and make decisions.

This melding of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) with Humanities creates a psychological way of learning about language and how we draw inferences each day.

Lassiter has also taught at Oxford through a Stanford abroad program.