2024-03-14
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In 1991, physicists studying string theory made a strange discovery that shook up the field of mathematics as we knew it. Using some experimental techniques to predict curve counts in six-dimensional space, they achieved a result that indicated a strong relationship between two very different geometric worlds.
At first, the result was hard for many mathematicians to take seriously. Up...
2024-03-14 - Hanna Kim, a PhD candidate in mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded the 2024 Kuo-Tsai Chen Prize in Mathematics. The Kuo-Tsai Chen Prize, established in 1989, is given in recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement by a graduate student whose research examines relationships between analysis and either geometry or algebra. Kim’s research focuses on...
2024-03-13 - On the last Wednesday of this past February, faculty and staff throughout the college of LAS gathered at the I Hotel and Conference Center to celebrate recent awardees of the LAS staff and academic professional awards. Among the awardees was Emily Lange, who has been employed in the Department of Mathematics since 2019. Lange currently serves as the department’s assistant director of human...
2024-03-13 - Graduate students Shiliang Gao and Qihang Sun have been jointly awarded the 2024 Philippe Tondeur Dissertation Prize, which was established to recognize exceptional students in their final year of the mathematics PhD program at Illinois. Shiliang Gao Shiliang Gao works in...
2024-03-12 - When Meg Edwards, director of corporate and foundation relations for College of LAS Office of Advancement, reached out to alumna Susan Morisato (BS, ‘75; MS, ’77, mathematics) to share her idea of inviting alumni to volunteer in their hometowns, Morisato agreed to help without hesitation. After all,...
2024-03-07 - Jason Liu, a fourth-year graduate student in mathematics, has been awarded the 2024 Wolfgang Haken Prize in Geometry and Topology, in recognition of outstanding research in geometry and topology. Liu researches problems in symplectic geometry. He has been working with mathematics faculty members at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to advance a conjecture regarding Hamiltonian circle...
2024-02-19 - Daniel Berwick-Evans, assistant professor of mathematics, studies connections between quantum field theories, differential geometry, and algebraic topology. He is the lead investigator for the NSF CAREER project “Elliptic cohomology and quantum field theory.”
2023-12-12 - On November 17, 2023, the Mathematics Development Advisory Board (MDAB) convened for its 14th annual meeting at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center in Urbana, IL. The MDAB is comprised of UIUC mathematics alumni, advancement officers from the College of LAS, and special liaisons from the mathematics department....
2023-11-30 - The American Mathematical Society (AMS) recently announced the winners of the 2024 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research. Five people were awarded the prestigious prize; among them was University of Illinois professor József Balogh. Balogh, along with his co-authors Robert Morris (Instituto de Matemática...
2023-11-30 - The Illinois Geometry Lab (IGL), operated by the Department of Mathematics at UIUC, offers some of the most sought-after experiences to math majors at Illinois, providing opportunities for students to work directly with faculty members on mathematics research projects. But its name has been a source of confusion for the past several years, as it suggests a more limited scope of offerings than...
2023-11-28 - In late October, students gathered to compete in two local math contests at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: the Paul Erdős Mock Putnam Exam and the Paul Erdős Freshman Math Contest. The Department of Mathematics has sponsored local contests in mathematics for decades. In 2023, each of these contests were renamed in honor of Hungarian mathematician...- 2023-11-10 - 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...
2023-09-14 - Several department- and college-level leadership changes took place at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester. Illinois Geometry Lab welcomes new leadership team Karen Mortensen, associate director of graduate studies in the Department of Mathematics, took the helm as director of the Illinois Geometry Lab this...
2023-09-05 - In August, the Department of Mathematics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed eight new tenure-stream faculty members representing wide breadth of research topics:Amanda Young, assistant professor, uses analytical tools to investigate the spectral and dynamical properties of quantum lattice systems. Young was a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at the Munich Center...
2023-09-05 - The Department of Mathematics at Illinois will roll out three new courses this fall, to provide support to students who need additional preparation to transition to higher education mathematics coursework. The courses will provide “on-ramp” instruction to students, to address educational losses resulting from the pandemic and to increase access to learning opportunities for historically...