Math Times 2025

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We are in an era of change here at the Department of Math-ematics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It may be a challenging road ahead but as we prepare to undergo phases three and four of the Altgeld & Illini Hall project, I am confident that we will continue to persevere as we head into a brighter, freshly-renovated future due to the strong community here at the department.

Community is the thread that ties this issue together. Our cover story, “Proud and Grateful,” is dedicated to the hard-working staff, faculty, and students that have been keeping our department alive and vibrant during this liminal phase. We may be dispersed across campus and Altgeld, our home, may be closed for a while, but the mathematics community remains strong. Our feature articles with Alumna and Convocation Speaker Peggy Ruff and Professor Emeritus George Francis further highlight the importance of community, a community that does not end upon graduation but will be carried with all alumni as they venture off into industry or pursue graduate study.

As a testament to our commitment to community, the Department of Mathematics has awarded the first George Francis Student Engagement award to Professor Alexander Yong which will support his Illinois Combinatorics Lab for Undergraduate Experiences. Other funding highlights include the $1 million GAANN grant supporting graduate research, Felix Ledistky’s five-year NSF CAREER grant towards quantum studies, and a generous alum donation towards restoring Altgeld’s iconic glass dome.

In this issue, we are also excited to share projects that have been under work for quite some time. The MATH Talks video series, an initiative led by the Mathematics Development Advisory Board, premiered its first episode this Spring, and our mathematical models collection gets some time in the spotlight as Karen Mortensen and Sarah Park lead the model restoration project with help from a team of graduate students.

I hope that the importance of our mathematics community resonates throughout this issue as we celebrate the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who are the beating heart of this department. I would like to call upon our alumni to get involved with the Mathematics at Illinois community, to share your wisdom and experience with the new generation of mathematicians, and even to foster communities of your own. We hope you enjoy this issue of Math Times!

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