2022 Mathematics Newsletter | Department of Mathematics

Message from the Chair

$John Palmieri, Chair$

Welcome to the Winter/Spring 2023 Department of Mathematics Newsletter!

Let me start by talking about some transitions. Jim Burke and Ethan Devinatz both retired almost a year ago. Jim joined the department in 1985, Ethan in 1991. Congratulations to both of them on long and successful UW careers, and we wish them the best as they step away from their roles as regular faculty members. We hired two new permanent faculty this year: Danny Shi and Jonathan Zhu join us as new Assistant Professors. Danny comes here after holding a postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago, and Jonathan from a postdoc at Princeton. Shiping Cao, Amrei Oswald, and Xiaowen Zhu arrived in the fall as new postdocs. You can read more about all of them in the newsletter. Welcome to all of our newcomers!

In other exciting news, Bianca Viray received the 2022-23 Birman Fellowship from American Mathematical Society. In more local news, Fran Herr won the Dean's Medal in Natural Sciences in June '23; Fran was a double major in math and dance, and you can read about how she combined those two areas of expertise in her work here.

The Math/ACMS advisors — Alice Boytz, Dawn Kajimura, and Ryan Kozu — were named the UW advising team of the month in November '22. This is well-deserved recognition for our amazing group of advisors. The rest of our departmental staff is also wonderful: Sarah Garner, who runs the advising office; the main office staff of Mike Munz, Rose Choi, and Pam Kelley Elend; and the computing staff of Steve Sheetz and new arrival Lawrence Yeh. The math department could not function without them, and they all do amazing work!

- John Palmieri

Bianca Viray receives 2022-2023 Birman Fellowship

$Photo of Bianca Viray. Photo Credit: Iris Trapnell-Viray$

From the AMS Press release Bianca Viray, a professor at the University of Washington, has been awarded the AMS Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars for the 2022–2023 academic year. The fellowship gives exceptionally talented women extra research support during their mid-career years. The primary selection criterion is the excellence of the candidate's… Read more

Allen A. Goldstein (1925-2022)

$Allen (Al) Abbey Goldstein$

Obituary from The Seattle Times Allen (Al) Abbey Goldstein, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington's Department of Mathematics, died at his home on January 21, 2022. Al was a pioneer in the field of optimization and numerical analysis and made significant contributions in his area of expertise.On January 7, 1925, Al was born to Joseph and Sophia Goldstein in Baltimore, Maryland. In his youth… Read more

New Assistant Professors

$Danny Shi$

Danny Shi joined the department as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2023. Danny works in algebraic topology. He received his SB in Mathematics from MIT and PhD from Harvard under the supervision of Prof. Mike Hopkins. He was an L.E. Dickson instructor at the University of Chicago before coming to Seattle. Jonathan Zhu joined the department as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2023. Previously he was an NSF Postdoc at Princeton University, Research Fellow at ANU, and a Visiting Scholar… Read more

New Postdoctoral Scholars

$Shiping Cao$

Shiping Cao received his PhD from Cornell University in 2022 under the supervision of Robert S. Strichartz and Laurent Saloff-Coste. His research is about analysis and stochastic processes on fractal spaces. He will be working with Zhen-Qing Chen. Amrei Oswald received their PhD from the University of Iowa in 2022 under the supervision of Ryan Kinser. Their research is in noncommutative algebra, particularly quantum symmetry and the representation theory of finite dimensional algebras. They… Read more

APAC Advisers of the Month

$APAC Advisers of the Month$

The Math/ACMS student services team of Alice Boytz (Program Assistant), Dawn Kajimura (Academic Counselor), and Ryan Kozu (Senior Academic Counselor) have been named the UW's Association of Professional Advisers and Counselors (APAC) November Advisers-of-the-Month. Their nominator said, "The Math/ACMS student services team is an incredible group of people committed to student… Read more

Fran Herr awarded A&S Dean’s Medal in the Natural Sciences

$Fran Herr$

Excerpt from PERSPECTIVES | Article courtesy of Nancy Joseph Each year, the Dean’s Medal honors one graduating senior from each of the College’s four divisions — Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences — based on academic performance and nominations from faculty. FRAN… Read more

2022 Graduating Class

DOCTORATE: Abeer Al Ahmadieh (advisor: Cynthia Vinzant) | Postdoc, Georgia Institute of Technology Dissertation: Determinantal Representations and the Image of the Principal Minor Map David Clancy (advisor: Soumik Pal) | Postdoc, University of Wisconsin, Madison Dissertation: Epidemics on critical random graphs: limits and continuum descriptions Nicolas Courts (advisor: Julia Pevtsova) | Postdoc, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Dissertation: Schroedinger's… Read more

Student Honors and Awards

$Medal$

Graduate Student Awards Academic Excellence: Herman Chau | Tracy Chin | Kevin Tully Excellence in Teaching: Emily Casey | Jessie Loucks-Tavitas | Andrew Tawfeek Craig McKibben and Sarah Merner Endowed Fellowship in Mathematics: Vasiliy Ilin | Caelan Ritter Lisa Tanzi and Charles Egerton Endowed Graduate Fellowship: Jordan Weaver Kazanci, Mehmet Ve Fazilet Endowed Graduate Fellowship: David Clancy Steve Mitchell Graduate Fellowship for the Love of Mathematics: Rowan Rowlands R. Tyrrell… Read more