News

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September 2023
De Loera and Chaudhuri recognized for exceptional graduate mentoring
The 2023 UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards have been formally announced and the recipients include two mathematicians: Rishi Chaudhuri and Jesús de Loera. In the words of Grad Studies: "Every year, outstanding individuals are recognized for their dedication to guiding and mentoring graduate students. Their exceptional guidance and unwavering support have profoundly impacted the lives of those they have mentored." Congratulations to Rishi and Jesús!
August 2023
De Loera honored for promoting diversity in service
Jesús De Loera was honored with an ADVANCE Award this spring. This award is a research award for mid-career and senior UC Davis faculty who advance diverse perspectives and gender equity in STEM through their teaching, research and service. Awardees were celebrated and gave presentations in April. Jesús gave a well received lecture entitled "When is Your Data Sufficient? Let Geometry Help You Decide!" Congratulations Jesús!
August 2023
Elena Fuchs' work discussed in Quanta magazine
What sort of collections of circles fit into a larger circle without overlapping? This question has motivated mathematicians for millenia. Here at UC Davis, Elena Fuchs has studied Apollonian circle packings and found that the curvatures appearing in such families of circles exhibit certain combinatorial features. Her results have led to stronger conjectures, widely accepted among number theorists, but one of these conjectures turned out to be false. This was discovered (via extensive number crunching) during a summer research project involving two students (one graduate, one undergraduate) led by Katherine Stange at the University of Colorado in Boulder. An article in Quanta magazine tells the story of the students' discovery and provides mathematical details.
August 2023
Two successful conferences wrapped up in Summer '23

This July, our Department hosted two conferences! Both were part of annual traditions, namely the Trisectors workshops and the Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC) annual meetings.

The Trisectors Workshop took place June 26-June 30 and was organized by Alex Zupan, Laura Starkston, Jeffrey Meier, Maggie Miller, and Gabe Islambouli. This year's workshop emphasized connections with symplectic topology. It was preceded by introductory lectures delivered over Zoom during the week leading up to the conference and featured several afternoon devoted to group projects.

The FPSAC meeting, a much larger event, took place July 17-21 and was organized by a much longer list of people including several from UC Davis: Monica Vazirani, Matt Silver, Anne Schilling, Dan Romik, Alex McDonough, Gladis Lopez, Fu Liu, Shelby Kustak, Sean Griffin, Tina Denena, Jesus DeLoera, and Eric Carlsson.

Both conferences were reported to be very successful! Let's thank our colleagues and staff for their hard work!

Learn more about these conferences at the websites for FPSAC 2023 and Trisectors Workshop 2023.

July 2023
Casals receives incentive to pursue large grant for research training

Roger Casals is one of four recipients of an Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program aims to support faculty pursuing grants over one million dollars. It provides faculty with up to $80,000 over the course of two years.

Together with Laura Starkston, Eugene Gorsky, Motohico Mulase and Anne Schilling, Roger will pursue an National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Research Training Groups (RTG) focused on topology, geometry, and combinatorics. The group hopes to create a vertically integrated training program that provides high-quality research experiences and training in the mathematical sciences for undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Bonam Fortunam!

July 2023
Professor Arsuaga recognized with Fellowship for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Professor Arsuaga was one of 5 faculty selected for the 2023 Chancellor’s Fellowships for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for their exceptional contributions in supporting, tutoring, mentoring and advising underrepresented students and/or students from underserved communities.

"Professor Arsuaga has contributed to DEI efforts across all UC campuses, having served first as chair of the Affirmative Action and Diversity Committee at UC Davis and subsequently as chair of the systemwide University Committee on Affirmative Action, Diversity and Equity. He also participated in the task force that led to the Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative, has been a member of the Cal-Bridge program leadership, and organized a workshop on the role of DEI in STEM fields. He currently directs the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Math, focusing on underrepresented students."

June 2023
Professor Casals selected as College of Letters and Science Dean's Faculty Fellow
UC Davis' Letters and Science has selected Professor Roger Casals as a College of Letters and Science Dean's Faculty Fellow for 2023.
June 2023
Professor Chaudhuri's research on decision-making featured
UC Davis' Letters and Science interviewed Professor Rishidev Chaudhuri about the details of his research, which spans neuroscience and math. The article, Perception Inception: Exploring Decision-Making in the Brain with Rishidev Chaudhuri, provides an accessible view into what he's researching, and why he finds it interesting.
May 2023
Richard Kenyon to deliver Thurston Lectures, May 10-12
The Thurston Lectures, named in honor of Fields Medalist and former UC Davis professor William Thurston will this year be held on May 10, 11, and 12. Established through a generous donation from Ian Agol, the Thurston Lectures have been held annually at UC Davis since 2017 (suspended during 2020-2022).

This year's speaker is Richard Kenyon from Yale University who will give three lectures on May 10, 11, and 12.
April 2023
Department ranks high in discrete math and combinatorics
Mathematics at UC Davis has ranked among the top tier universities on the recent US News and World Report rankings. In particular, in the speciality of discrete mathematics and combinatorics, Mathematics at UC Davis is tied for 13th place. This is a testament to the excellent work by all faculty and students!
April 2023
Grad Hans Oberschelp one of 10 finalists in 2023 UC Grad Slam
Our graduate student Hans Oberschelp was among the top 10 finalists who competed at the semi-final round of the 2023 UC Grad Slam on April 6, 2023. UC Grad Slam is an annual competition where masters and doctoral students from all the UCs are invited to share their research in a compelling presentation that is three minutes or less. UC Davis has been participating in UC Grad Slam since 2016.
March 2023
Data Science course on privacy and fairness
“Many decisions now are done by automated systems and the question is, how fair is this?” Thomas Strohmer asks. Strohmer has been teaching a MAT 280 topics course entitled “Fairness, Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Machine Learning.” The course, aimed at graduate students in mathematics, statistics, and computer science, aims to instill an understanding of the responsibilities involved in the collection and use of big data in the next generation of technologists. Students in the course express their appreciation for the knowledge gained and Strohmer plans to teach the course again in two years.
February 2023
Professor Wein awarded Sloan Fellowship
Professor Alexander Wein has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship for 2023. This prestigious fellowship is awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to 125 early-career scholars representing the most promising scientific researchers working today. Professor Wein will receive $75,000, to be spent over a two-year term in support of his research.
February 2023
Prof. Schilling to deliver Noether Lecture at JMM 2024
The Association for Women in Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society are pleased to announce that Anne Schilling, Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Davis, will be the 2024 AWM-AMS Emmy Noether Lecturer. The Noether Lecture will be delivered at the Joint Mathematics meetings, to be held in San Francisco from January 3 – 6, 2024.

AWM established the Emmy Noether Lectures in 1980 to honor women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences. In April 2013, the lecture was renamed "AWM-AMS Noether Lecture" and in 2015 was jointly sponsored by AWM and AMS. Schilling was recommended for this award by a joint selection committee (William Goldman, Rachel Kuske (Chair), Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, and Emily Riehl).

Please join AWM and AMS for the JMM 2024 in San Francisco.

January 2023
Prof. Schilling interviewed by ECA
Volumes of the Journal Enumerative Combinatorics and Applications (ECA) include interviews of high profile combinatoric mathematicians. The most recent Interview #S3I5, in volume ECA 3:2 (2023), features our very own Professor Anne Schilling. We recommend perusing this interview for its educational value and for the joy it exudes. Congratulations to Anne on being selected for this honor!
September 2022
Alex Black finalist for INFORMS student paper
We are pleased to announce that Mathematics graduate student Alex Black has been selected as a finalist for the INFORMS 2022 George Nicholson Student Paper Competition. The competition, organized by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), takes place annually. As one of 6 finalists, chosen from 129 submissions, Alex will present his paper at the Nicholson Student Paper special sessions at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in October. The winner(s) will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the Annual Meeting. Alex's presentation will be on lattice polytopes. We wish him all the best!
July 2022
In Memory of Gary Kurowski
Our colleague Gary Kurowski passed away peacefully at his home on July 26, 2022. Born on March 22, 1931 in Fargo, North Dakota, he attended Ford High school. He then attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1954 before being drafted into the army during the Korean War.

After two years in the army, Gary pursued graduate studies in Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon. Throughout his life he remained interested in military applications of mathematics. He joined the UC Davis Department of Mathematics in 1963 after a brief stint at Duke University.

He is fondly remembered by his children, especially for always being available to help with their homework from the comfort of his recliner. He will be missed.

A video interview of Professor Kurowski was filmed in 2002, describing what inspired him to pursue math. Watch it on AggieVideo.

June 2022
Köppe and Scrimshaw awarded 2015–2021 SageMath Prize
Professor Matthias Köppe and Travis Scrimshaw are among the 10 awardees of this new prize, created to acknowledge and encourage contributions to the Sage codebase and third party ecosystem, along with spreading the use of Sage via workshops and other mechanisms, maintenance of infrastructure, and organization and funding of Sage development. From 2022 onward, at least two prizes will be awarded each year.

Professor Matthias Köppe's award is for "incredible and consistent contributions to the core Sage library, especially the modularization effort, which has the potential to massively extend the sustainability and broad impact of the Sage Python codebase."

Travis Scrimshaw received his Ph.D. from UC Davis Mathematics in 2015 under the direction of Prof. Anne Schilling. His award is for "major contributions to the core library, his excellent review of trac tickets, and his major long-term contributions to Sage's participation in Google Summer of Code." Scrimshaw is currently faculty at Osaka Metropolitan University.

SageMath is an open-source mathematics software system developed since 2005.

June 2022
Black wins Best Poster at MIPC
Alex Black has won the Best Poster Award for his poster on Small Shadows of Lattice Polytopes, about his and his co-authors investigation into novel pivot rules, at the 2022 Mixed Integer Programming Conference (MIPC). The Mixed Integer Programming Conference is held annually and is currently in its 19th year, centering on discussion of optimization. It is one of the largest of its type in North America.
May 2022
Casals earns L&S Teaching Award
Roger Casals is among the winners of this year's College of Letters and Science Teaching Award at UC Davis. The awards were recently announced by committee chair Yaroslav Trnka and include, along with Roger, Eugenia Fernandes, Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Liza Grandia, Associate Professor in the Department of Native American Studies, Ozcan Gulacar, Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Chemistry, and Camelia Hostinar, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology.
April 2022
Strohmer awarded $1.2 million for data science in health
Together with two UC Davis Health PIs--Racheael Callcut, professor of surgery and chief research informatics officer, and Jason Adams, associate professor and physician of pulmonary, critical care and sleep--Thomas Strohmer was awarded a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant aims to fund the generation of high-quality synthetic data using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to potentially help physicians predict, diagnose and treat diseases. The Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CEDAR) at UC Davis, launched in 2019 by Thomas Strohmer, promotes interdisciplinary research. The results are beginning to show. Congratulations Thomas!
April 2022
Give Day 2022: Math Department Gift Challenge - April 22-23

This Give Day 2022, generous donors have the opportunity to transform our students' lives. Please consider supporting one of the Department of Mathematics gift challenges.

Math Department Challenge

Val Chan and Jin Chang challenge YOU to support the Math Department on Give Day! Val was inspired to support her alma mater and the Mathematics Department because of her impactful experiences with Professor Abby Thompson and Sherman Stein. Join her in supporting the next generation. Ten gifts to the Mathematics Department will unlock their generous donation!

Donating to these funds will support outstanding academic programs, the pursuit of new knowledge, and students and faculty.

The Mathematics Research Prize Challenge

Support endowing the Craig A. Tracy Research Prize in Mathematics, which will be awarded annually for outstanding research to a postdoctoral research or Krener Assistant Professor. 10 gifts to this fund meets the challenge set by Professor Emeritus Craig A. Tracy and Barbara Nelson.

March 2022
An Undergrad's Perspective on Internship
Caitlin Brown, a recent graduate of our Applied Math undergraduate program, is one of two UC Davis students who interned at national labs through DOE's Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program last fall. She attributes her love of mathematics to the UC Davis Mentorships for Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Science (MURALS) program she attended: "It really opened up my mind to the possibilities of applied math in the scientific realm ... Math is like a language we learn to speak, and it’s nice to use it to speak to things in the real world". We look forward to hearing more from her as she explores the world after graduation.
March 2022
US News & World Report places UCD Math at #32
US News & World Report has released their 2022 rankings of graduate programs. The Department of Mathematics at UC Davis has been placed at #32 among graduate programs in mathematics, tied with Indiana University—Bloomington, The Ohio State University, Penn State University—University Park, and Texas A&M—College Station! These rankings are based entirely on peer reviews. As expected, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Cal took the lead. Congratulations to us all!
February 2022
Gorsky named UCD Chancellor's Fellow
Chancellor Mays has announced this year's cohort of Chancellor's Fellows! Supported by the UC Davis Annual Fund, the Davis Chancellor's Club, and the UC Davis Parents Fund, the program has supported 178 Fellows since its inception in 2000. Eugene Gorsky has been named Chancellor's Fellow in 2021-2022. He will carry the Chancellor's imprimatur for 5 years and receive $25,000 of unrestricted funds to support his research.
December 2021
Check out our yearly Department Newsletter for news and research!
Check out our yearly newsletter for items on incoming faculty and KAPs, research on symplectic 4-manifolds and Lie groups, recent retirees, and updates from all our programs.
December 2021
De Loera elected Vice President of AMS
Results of the 2021 AMS Election have been announced. Congratulations to Jesús A. De Loera for being elected Vice President! He will serve a 3 year term. He was elected alongside Bryna Kra of Northwestern University as President and Jennifer Taback of Bowdoin College as a Trustee.
October 2021
Denena Recognized as Outstanding Advising Administrator
Every year, UC Davis recognizes the efforts of campus academic advisors for their excellent work done with students, faculty, and the community. We are proud to see Tina's hard work and thoughtfulness recognized. Tina Denena will be awarded as the 2021 Outstanding Advising Administrator.
October 2021
Teran Selected as CAMPOS Fellow
Joseph Teran was selected as a UC Davis CAMPOS Faculty Scholar. These faculty are characterized by the excellence of their research, and by their commitment to transforming STEMM education at UC Davis and contributing service to help address the problems of inequity in science, engineering and medicine. Teran was selected for leading science in computational mathematics, as well as being an outstanding mentor, and his focus on diversity.
October 2021
Workshop in honor of Craig Tracy
On October 30, the Mathematics Department will host a workshop to honor Professor Craig Tracy on the occasion of his retirement. Craig joined the Department of Mathematics in 1984 and retired in 2021. He is the recipient of the George Pólya Prize SIAM, Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, and Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research in Analysis/Probability Theory. Among his breakthroughs in mathematics are the discovery of the Tracy-Widom distribution, together with Harold Widom. Visitors will be expected to follow UC Davis' requirements for COVID.