The Bateman Prize in Number Theory is awarded to a graduate student in recognition of outstanding research in number theory. The prize was initiated in 1999 by the Department of Mathematics number theory group. Illinois mathematics graduate students Di Liu and Qihang Sun have been named joint recipients of the 2024 Bateman Prize in Number Theory.

Di Liu

Di is a fifth-year PhD student in mathematics working under the supervision of Alexandru Zaharescu. Di's work in analytic number theory examines various questions on the distribution of zeros of L-functions, with special emphasis on fractional parts of imaginary parts of zeros, zero density estimates, and Laguerre-Polya type inequalities for Dirichlet L-functions.

Qihang Sun

Qihang is a fifth-year PhD student at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) under the supervision of Professor Scott Ahlgren. Qihang's research primarily focuses on analytic number theory and modular forms, such as the applications of estimating sums of various types of Kloosterman sums. He holds a baccalaureate degree in mathematics from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China.