Logic

The graduate program in mathematical logic at the University of Illinois is one of the most active such programs in the world, with a large community of faculty and students. Most aspects of the subject are represented here, especially model theory and its applications and descriptive set theory. A particular emphasis of our program is on the connections of logic to other important areas of mathematics.

Weekly Logic Seminars

• Logic Seminar
  Tuesdays at 1:00pm in 345 AH
  This seminar is preceded by "logic lunch" which starts at 11:30am; meet in the mailroom (250 Altgeld). For announcements of talks click here.
• Model Theory and Descriptive Set Theory Seminar
  Fridays at 4:00pm in 345 AH
  Often this seminar is devoted to carefully reading an important new paper or covering a currently active research topic. For announcements of talks click here. This seminar is followed by a social gathering at around 5:10pm -- the location is announced by email to the logic list (see below).
• Email announcements
  The Illinois logic group maintains a distribution list of people interested in news about activities of our logic program. Anyone interested can subscribe to this list under lists.illinois.edu/lists/subscribe/logic.

Graduate Students

Neer Bhardwaj - arrived: Fall 2015; from IIT Kanpu, Advisor: van den Dries

Mary Angelica Gramcko-Tursi - arrived: Fall 2013; from Franciscan University, Advisor: Oikhberg

Dakota Ihli - arrived: Fall 2016; from North Dakota State University, Advisor: Tserunyan

Christian Schulz - arrived: Fall 2017; from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Advisor: Hieronymi

Jenna Zomback - arrived: Fall 2017, from SUNY Geneseo, Advisor: Tserunyan

Former Faculty

• Slawomir Solecki (arrived in 2001, moved to Cornell 2017, E-mail: ssolecki(at)math.uiuc.edu)
• Margit Messmer (arrived in 1996, moved to the University of Leeds in 2006; E-mail: messmer(at)math.leeds.ac.uk)
• Christian Rosendal (arrived in 2005, moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2008; E-mail: rosendal(at)math.uic.edu)

Recent Postdocs

Alexander Berenstein, J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2002-05

Clifton Ealy, J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2004-07

Philipp Hieronymi, J. L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2010-12

Tobias Kaiser, Model Theory Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002-03

Piotr Kowalski, Model Theory Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002-04

Krzysztof Krupinski, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2005-08

Julien Melleray, J. L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2006-07

Wai Yan Pong, J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 1999-2002

Marcin Sabok, Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring and Fall, 2011

Anush Tserunyan, J. L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2013-15

Evgueni Vassiliev (Yevgeniy Vasilyev), J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2001-04

Erik Walsberg, J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor, 2016-19

Recent PhD Graduates

2021

Alexi Block Gorman

• Thesis title: Pairs and Predicates in Expansions of O-minimal Structures
• Thesis Advisor: Philipp Hieronymi
• First position: Postdoc Fields Institute

 

Elliot Kaplan

• Thesis title: Derivations on o-minimal fields
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: NSF Postdoc Fields Institute/McMaster

 

 

2020

Nigel Pynn-Coates

• Thesis title: On asymptotic valued differential fields with small derivation
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Postdoc Ohio State

2019

Travis Nell

• Thesis title: Distality in pairs
• Thesis Advisor: Philipp Hieronym
• First position: Data Scientist at Capital One

Chieu Minh Tran

• Thesis title: Model theory in partially random structures
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Postdoc Notre Dame

2018

Anton Bernshteyn

• Thesis title: Coloring problems in combinatorics and descriptive set theory
• Thesis Advisor: Alexandr Kostochka and Anush Tserunyan
• First position: Postdoc CMU

Santiago Camacho

• Thesis title: Truncation in Differential Hahn Fields
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Postdoc Illinois Wesleyan

Erin Caulfield

• Thesis title: Classifying expansions of the real field by complex subgroups
• Thesis Advisor: Philipp Hieronymi
• First position: Postdoc McMaster University

Mahmood Etedadi Aliabadi

• Thesis title: Generic behaviour of a measure preserving transformation
• Thesis Advisor: Slawomir Solecki
• First position: Postdoc North Texas

Tigran Hakobyan

• Thesis title: Algebraically closed fields with characters; differential-henselian monotone valued differential fields
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Software Engineer at Facebook

2017

Allen Gehret

• Thesis title: Towards a model theory of logarithmic transseries
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: NSF Postdoc at UCLA

Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos

• Thesis title: Structures and Dynamics
• Thesis Advisor: Slawomir Solecki
• First position: Postdoc at Caltech

2014

Min Zhao

• Thesis title: Ramsey theory and its application
• Thesis Advisor: Slawomir Solecki
• First position: Fedex

2012

Aleksandra Kwiatkowska

• Thesis title: Dynamics of Polish groups
• Thesis Advisor: Slawomir Solecki
• First position: Hedrick Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCLA

Kostyantyn Slutskyy

• Thesis title: Extending Partial Isomorphisms
• Thesis Advisor: Christian Rosendal (UIC)
• First position: Postdoc at University of Copenhagen

2011

Aaron Hill

• Thesis title: Centralizers in Automorphism Groups.
• Thesis advisor: Slawomir Solecki.
• First position: postdoc at Univ. of N. Texas.

Jesse Miller

• Thesis title: Nonstandard Techniques in Lifting Theory.
• Thesis advisor: Peter Loeb.
• First position: Univ. of Texas at Austin.

Shichang Song

• Thesis title: Model Theory and Probability
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson
• First position: Academy of Sciences, Beijing

2010

Maya Saran

• Thesis title: Some Results on G-delta Ideals of Compact Sets.
• Thesis advisor: Slawomir Solecki.

2009

Sylvia E.B. Carlisle

• Thesis title: Model Theory of R-trees and their Isometries.
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson.
• First position: Asst. Prof. at Eastern Illinois University.

Isaac Goldbring

• Thesis title: Nonstandard Methods in Lie Theory.
• Thesis advisor: Lou van den Dries.
• First positions: postdoc at UCLA.

Vinicius Cifu Lopes

• Thesis title: Grothendieck Semirings and Definable Endofunctors.
• Thesis advisor: Lou van den Dries.
• First position: in Brazil.

Hernando Tellez

• Thesis title: Contributions to Model Theory of Metric Structures.
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson.
• First position: St. Ambrose University.

2008

Zhou (JoJo) Dong

• Thesis title: The Injective Envelope as the Space of Extremal Functions.
• Thesis advisor: Slawomir Solecki.

Ayhan Gunaydin

• Thesis title: Model Theory of Fields with Multiplicative Groups.
• Thesis advisor: Lou van den Dries.
• First positions: postdocs at University of Oxford, then Fields Institute, then Lisbon.

Jana Marikova

• Thesis title: O-minimal Fields with Standard Part Map.
• Thesis advisor: Lou van den Dries.
• First position: postdoc at McMaster University.

Javier Moreno

• Thesis title: Iterative Differential Galois Theory in Positive Characteristic: A Model Theoretic Approach.
• Thesis advisor: Anand Pillay.
• First position: postdoc at University of Lyon 1.

2007

Salih Azgin

• Thesis title: Model Theory of Valued Difference Fields.
• Thesis advisor: Lou van den Dries.
• First position: postdoc at McMaster University.

Maciej Malicki

• Thesis title: Topologies and Metrics on Polish Groups.
• Thesis advisor: Slawomir Solecki.
• First position: postdoc at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Konstantinos Schoretsanitis

• Thesis title: Fraisse Theory for Metric Structures.
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson.

Sonat Suer

• Thesis title: Model Theory of Differentially Closed Fields with Several Commuting Derivations.
• Thesis advisor: Anand Pillay.
• First positions: in Turkey, then postdoc at National University, Bogota.

2006

Pedro Poitevin

• Thesis title: Model Theory of Nakano Spaces.
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson
• First position: Assistant Professor, Salem State College, Massachusetts.

2005

Dominika Polkowska

• Thesis title: Bounded Pseudoalgebraically Closed Structures.
• Thesis advisor: Anand Pillay
• First position: entered the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation, Nashville

2004

Jerry Gagelman

• Thesis title: Stability in Geometric Theories
• Thesis advisor: Anand Pillay
• First position: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Technische Universitaet Berlin

Alfio Giarlotta

• Thesis title: Lexicographic products of linear orderings
• Thesis advisor: C. Ward Henson
• First position: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Catania, Italy (since 1994)

Joe Mileti

• Thesis title: Partition Theorems and Computability Theory
• Thesis advisor: Carl G. Jockusch
• First position: L.E. Dickson Instructor at the University of Chicago

2003

Amador Martin Pizarro

• Thesis title: Algebraic curves over supersimple fields
• Thesis advisor: Anand Pillay
• First position: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin

Thomas Rohwer

• Thesis title: Valued difference fields as modules over twisted polynomial rings
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Manager Software Solutions, TNG -The Net Generation

James Tyne

• Thesis title: T-levels and T-convexity
• Thesis Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: VIGRE postdoc at Ohio State

2002

Brian Dunphy

• Thesis title: Parametricity as a notion of uniformity in reflexive graphs
• Advisor: Uday Reddy (CS); C. Ward Henson
• First position: National Security Agency

2001

Matthias Aschenbrenner

• Thesis title: Ideal membership in polynomial rings over the integers
• Advisor: Lou van den Dries
• First position: Ch. B. Morrey Jr. Visiting Assistant Professor at University of California, Berkeley

Rahim Moosa

• Thesis title: Model-theoretic results in algebraic and complex analytic geometry
• Advisor: Anand Pillay
• First position: NSERC (Canada) postdoc at University of California, Berkeley, and Moore Instructorship at MIT

Linda Lawton

• Thesis title: Decision problems in the lattice of PI^0_1 classes
• Advisor: Carl G. Jockusch
• First position: Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University