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June 2026
Shkoller's fluid research in Scientific American
Continuity equations, also known as conservations laws, are differential equations relevant in a variety of contexts. The Navier Stokes equations are examples of continuity equations that describe how fluids move. They rest on assumptions such as Newton's second law, applied to liquids and gases. The equations involve quantities like velocity, pressure, density, viscosity, and external forces. In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute established seven \$1 million Millennium Prize Problems, one of them on Navier-Stokes equations. This Millenium problem asks for a proof deciding whether smooth, physically reasonable solutions always exist for Navier-Stokes equations in three dimensions. At issue is whether or not physically reasonable assumptions can nevertheless result in "blowups" where solutions become infinite.
In a recent article in Scientific American titled Humans and AI race to "blow up" math's toughest equations, Steve Shkoller describes a vision inspired by his observations of waves while surfing. Shkoller's vision goes beyond the formal constraints used by AI led searches for this type of phenomenon. It has been turned into mathematics in a lengthy paper posted on the arXiv. While the paper may not provide any examples relevant to the precise framework of the Navier-Stokes Millenium Prize, the key insight may yet turn out to be relevant. The article is an interesting glimpse into the different areas of this emerging research.
May 2026
Gorskiy wins L&S Faculty Mentoring Students Award
The College of Letters and Science has recognized Eugene Gorskiy for his success in mentoring students, both graduate and undergraduate, with the L&S Faculty award. The citation states: "Students describe Eugene Gorskiy as having exceptional abilities in mentoring students’ research as well as their professional development. All of his nominators describe his generosity in giving his time to students and in providing them with expert individualized mentoring. His wholehearted and unconditional support gives students the confidence they need to succeed, and his graduate students have an excellent record of placement thanks in part to the time and care that he devotes to them." Congratulations, Eugene!
April 2026
Wein named Dean's Faculty Fellow
Alex Wein has been named a 2026 Dean's Faculty Fellow in recognition of "demonstrated excellence in research, high achievement, and future promise." The honor involves a financial award to advance the Fellow's research that can be used anytime during his career at UC Davis. Fellows are appointed for three years and are expected to give a public lecture during the second year of their term. Congratulations to Alex!
February 2026
Nachtergaele elected foreign member of KVAB
Bruno Nachtergaele has been elected foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science (Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, or KVAB) alongside Ive Hermans (Johns Hopkins University), Luis Liz-Marzán (CIC biomaGUNE), and Valérie Trouet (University of Arizona) in recognition of their scientific excellence and impact. The KVAB promotes and rewards scholarship, science, and the arts. It prides itself on its own and its members strong cultural involvement. It is known for its Thinker's Programme, Energy Reflection Group, and Position Papers. Congratulations, Bruno!
January 2026
In Memoriam: Craig Tracy
We are sorry to share that Distinguished Professor Emeritus Craig Tracy passed away January 29, 2026. He was 80.
Craig joined the Department as a Full Professor in 1984 and retired in 2021. He served as Department Chair from 1994 till 1998 and played a transformative role in creating the Department we know now. His extraordinarily fruitful collaboration with Harold Widom (1932-2021) had an indelible impact on Random Matrix Theory and its applications, most notably through their discovery of the Tracy-Widom distribution.
January 2026
Casals wins Gold Award at ICCM 2025
At the Tenth Triennial International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM 2025), held in Shanghai, China from January 3-7, 2026, Roger Casals was awarded a best paper award for his Annals of Mathematics paper, "Infinitely Many Lagrangian Fillings," written jointly with Honghao Gao. The Award, a Gold Award in the Geometry and Topology category, honors "papers with innovative insights and significant impact in math research." Congratulations Roger!
December 2025
Starkston recognized with Chancellor's Fellowship
UC Davis has named the 2025-2026 Chancellor's Fellow and our own Laura Starkston is among them! Early career academics with promising research are chosen as Fellows, and receive $25,000 in funds for their research and scholarly work. Laura's research is in symplectic topology and low-dimensional topology, and she has been successful at constructing four-manifolds by considering series of two-dimensional pieces that fit together to define a four-dimensional object, or by studying three-dimensional objects that change over time. Instituted in 2000, the Chancellor's Fellows program boasts a 25-year history. It's philanthropic support comes from the UC Davis Annual Fund, Davis Chancellor’s Club and the UC Davis Parents Fund. Congratulations, Laura!
December 2025
Junxian Li chosen as Hellman Fellow
The 2025-2026 class of Hellman fellows has just been announced. The new class includes 11 members chosen from among promising early career faculty at UC Davis and includes our own Professor Junxian Li. In 1995 a gift from Chris and Warren Hellman established the fellowships at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego to recognize and fund the achievements of early career faculty. The program was expanded to all UC campuses in 2008, with fellowships ranging from $15,000 to $40,000. Congratulations Junxian!
November 2025
The Math Newsletter is now online!
The pace of news about Department members and their accomplishments, changes in the ways of doing math (both research and teaching), have accelerated, and we are switching to a quarterly digital newsletter to make room for more frequent news updates. The new format is a combination of email and links to longer articles.
October 2025
Sameer Iyer's Grant to Study Complexity of Fluid Flows
Sameer Iyer delves into the intricacies of fluid dynamics and shares his vision for broadening public engagement with the field.
Photo by Sergio Cerrato-Italia/Pixabay.
October 2025
Shkoller to lead COMPASS team at UC Davis
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced a new round of Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Centers (PSAAPCs). One of them, led by the University of New Mexico's Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) involves a collaborative team of universities including UC Davis. The universities will establish a Center for Optimized Modern Parallel Adaptive System Software (COMPASS). The goal of these more focused aspects of the program is to oversee specific research topics in either a science or engineering discipline or an Exascale enabling technology, prioritizing strengthening national security and working towards vital breakthroughs in large-scale simulation science. At UC Davis, operations will be overseen by Professor Steve Shkoller. Way to go, Steve!
October 2025
Vazquez on Predicting DNA Shapes with Language Theory
Mariel Vazquez describes recent work on predicting DNA shapes, for use in research in disease caused by mutations like cancer.
Image by digitale.de on Unsplash
September 2025
Schilling and Equations in the Sand
In a recent article entitled "Equations in the Sand," Greg Watry explains the work of Anne Schilling for UC Davis' Letters and Science Magazine. Inspired by equations her father wrote in the sand on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean while vacationing from his job at Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN), Schilling embarked on a lifelong pursuit of mathematical understanding that has led her into an exploration of stationary distributions, Markov Chains, and Open Access programming.
September 2025
Petrack awarded Best Poster at DNA31
GGAM graduate student Josh Petrack has won a Best Student/Postdoc Poster Award at the 31st International Conference on DNA, Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA31). The poster explained joint work with David Doty (from the Computer Science Department) that has been posted on the arXiv under the title "Exactly simulating stochastic chemical reaction networks in sub-constant time per reaction" (PDF).
August 2025
Mossman named Simons Dissertation Fellow
Lauren Mossman, graduate student with the Graduate Group of Applied Mathematics, has been named among the first class of Simons Dissertation Fellows in Mathematics. The award was inaugurated last year to commemorate James Simons and supports graduate students during their final years of study. Mossman's award recognizes and supports her work on ecosystem dynamics and species interactions where her innovative modeling techniques offer insight into habitat change and resilience. The award provides $30,000 in support to the student over two years along with a small amount for the university. Congratulations Lauren!
August 2025
Krener recognized with Quazza Medal
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Art Krener has been selected as the 2026 winner of the Quazza Medal, which is awarded every three years by the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). It is one of the most prestigious awards in control theory, and awarded for lifetime contributions. Krener was recognized "for fundamental contributions to the analysis, estimation, control, and optimization of nonlinear systems." The medal will be officially presented at the 23rd IFAC World Congress in Busan, Korea, August 2026.
August 2025
Iyer awarded NSF CAREER grant
Sameer Iyer received an NSF CAREER grant (8/1/2025-7/31/2030). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program provides the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
July 2025
Casals awarded MCA Prize
At the Mathematical Congress of the Americas in Miami (MCA2025) in July, Roger Casals was awarded one of the MCA Prizes. Every four years, the MCA prizes are awarded to only 5 mathematicians, who are no more than 12 years post Ph.D., who are either working or completed their graduate studies at an institution within the Americas.
June 2025
Casals on Seeing Mathematics
Mathematics is all around us. In a recent article for UC Davis' Letters and Science Magazine, Greg Watry features the work of Roger Casals, illustrating observations on "The Mathematics of Daily Life." Inspired by a caustic created by light falling through a window, Casals contemplated singularities and the mathematical tools to describe and understand them. In Casals words, “Everything seems very smooth, but at some point, a transition happens ... The theory of singularities helps us understand these transitions.”
May 2025
Rohit Thomas wins L&S Teaching Award
Winners of the 2025 College of Letters and Science Teaching Award have just been announced and Rohit Thomas is among them! The award recognizes outstanding teaching, both inside and outside the classroom. Rohit is one of the drivers behind our weekly pedagogy hangouts, which have been a treasure trove of insight about teaching for many of us. Thank you for teaching us how to teach, as well as teaching your students how to do mathematics. Keep up the good work!
April 2025
In Memoriam: Roger J-B Wets
Roger J-B Wets passed away in April of 2025. He created a rich history of research and collaborators, and inspiring his students.
In honor of his memory, the Wets family has created an endowment to the Stochastic Programming Society (SPS) for the Roger J-B Wets Junior Researcher Best Paper Prize. This award recognizes outstanding contributions by junior researchers in the field of stochastic programming.
April 2025
Starkston named 2025 Dean's Faculty Fellow
In an effort to encourage professional development for our faculty, the Dean's Office has created the Dean’s Faculty Fellows Program. The program honors outstanding achievements in early career faculty from across the college. The award was launched in 2020 and comes with a stipend to support research activities. One of this year's awardee's is our own Laura Starkston! Dean's Faculty Fellows give a public lecture during the second year of their fellowship, and this will surely an event worth attending. Congratulations Laura!
January 2025
Theater performance on Emmy Noether
On April 9, at 6pm, UC Davis will host a play on the life of Emmy Noether at our Wyatt Theater. The play, entitled "Diving into Math with Emmy Noether," is a joint production by portraittheater, Vienna and Freie Universität Berlin. The performance is part of portraittheater's USA Tour 2025, so don't miss this opportunity to see a play about a famous mathematician. Go as a group, a ring, or a noetherian ring!
October 2024
Surf's up! The intersection of water and math
As many of us know, Steve Shkoller's life revolves around surfing and mathematics. To see how these two passions build on each other, take a look at Greg Watry's discerningly written feature in UC Davis' Letters and Science Magazine. “The best wave you can get as a surfer is what’s called getting barreled, where the wave pitches over you and the crest falls in this cylindrical shape. You’re inside that cylindrical tube and then the wave crashes and when that wave crashes, that’s a singularity.” — Shkoller
September 2024
Luze Xu wins INFORMS award
Together with an international group of collaborators, postdoctoral scholar Luze Xu has won the INFORMS Optimization Society 2024 Young Researchers Paper Prize for the paper "On the column number and forbidden submatrices for $\Delta$-modular matrices." SIAM J. Discrete Mathematics, Vol 38, No 1, pp. 1-18, 2024. The group of authors comprises Joseph Paat (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada), Ingo Stallknecht (Isha Foundation, India), Zach Walsh (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Auburn University, USA), and, of course, Luze Xu (Department of Mathematics, University of California, Davis, USA). Congratulations to Luze and collaborators!
September 2024
Professor Schilling receives Graduate Mentoring Award
The 2024 UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards have been formally announced and Anne Schilling is among the recipients! She follows in the footsteps of Rishi Chaudhuri, Jesús de Loera, Zhaojun Bai, and Eugene Gorskiy, who received this award in the past two years. 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 Anne!