Message from the Chair
Welcome to the UW math department's first email newsletter! We have been distributing an annual printed newsletter since the early 1990s, but this year we are moving from printing presses to electrons. As part of the change to an electronic version, we hope to produce two newsletters per year instead of just one.
This fall, you can read about faculty honors: Dima Drusvyatskiy was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, and he also won the INFORMS Optimization Society Prize for Young Researchers. Tatiana Toro was awarded the university's Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award. She was also named a 2019 Simons Fellow, as was UW alum Matthew Kahle (now a professor at Ohio State). Zhen-Qing Chen won the 2019 Itô prize.
We hired three new faculty: new assistant professor Farbod Shokrieh, and new lecturers Elena Pezzoli and Natalie Naehrig. Elena and Natalie had worked as part-time lecturers in our department for many years, but starting this year they are full time, with correspondingly full rights and responsibilities. We also hired a new group of postdocs: Arunima Bhattacharya, Joshua Rosenberg, Melanie Graf, and Minseon Shin. Jake Levinson returns as a postdoc after a year's hiatus as a Google AI Resident.
Four faculty members retired last year: Judith Arms, Robin Graham, Ralph Greenberg, and Ron Irving. Faculty members may choose to continue teaching after retirement, and Judith has made that choice. The other three are focusing on other activities, mathematical and otherwise.
Finally, I am saddened to report that Professor Emeritus Isaac Namioka died in September, at the age of 91. He had retired in 1996 but maintained an office and a presence in the department until his passing. He is missed.
- John Palmieri
