University of Wisconsin - Madison
Dr. Raymond Damadian, who built the first magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which revolutionized doctors’ ability to diagnose cancer and other illnesses — but who, to his dismay, saw the Nobel Prize for the science behind it go to two others — died on Aug. 3 at his home in Woodbury, N.Y. He was 86. Since …
Backyard wars have been launched over the question of the optimal number of times to flip hamburgers, steaks or zucchini on the grill—is once sufficient? Does ten flips result in a better, more quickly cooked burger? It’s a question that also fascinated Professor of Mathematics Jean-Luc Thiffeault, who was inspired to develop a simple mathematical …
Professor Christopher Rycroft worked with the Extavour Laboratory to study the early stages of development in cricket embryos. In humans, an embryo starts from a single cell that undergoes repeated divisions. But in crickets and many other insect species, the cell nuclei initially move and divide within a shared cytoplasm, with cell boundaries only forming later. Using …
In this Washington Post op-ed, Jordan Ellenberg discusses the alleged methods which Columbia used to game the U.S.News and World Report’s #2 College Ranking. He notes “To the extent that universities chase rankings — whether through policy changes or sketchy numbers — they are declaring their real priorities. They are making clear that the imaginary …
UW-Madison did very well during the annual MAA Putnam Competition. Our university ranked #25 nationwide, including Canada, out of 427 other institutions. Our student Ivan Hu received honorable mention. Joseph Cai and Nitit Jongsawatsataporn ranked among the top 500. Link to results: https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Putnam/2021/AnnouncementOfWinnersFall2021.docx%20%283%29.pdf
Alejandro Adem, a professor of mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, and former professor at the UW-Madison Math Department, has been named the next Chief Editor of Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. Link: https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=6912
Jordan Ellenberg wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post which was published on 8/31/2021; “Coronavirus vaccines work. But this statistical illusion makes people think they don’t.” In Israel for a time, more vaccinated people were hospitalized for COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. There’s no reason to worry,” writes Jordan Ellenberg, a math professor at the University …
Jordan Ellenberg continued on his tour to promote his new book “Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy” as a guest on BYUradio’s podcast “Top of Mind”. Link: https://www.byuradio.org/TOP-2021-06-17-Geometry
Math may seem as though it only exists in an abstract part of our lives, but a new book shines a light on the geometry of everything around us. University of Wisconsin-Madison math professor Jordan Ellenberg talks about his latest book Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else. Link: https://www.wpr.org/geometry-world-around-us
Mihaela Ifrim is one of the organizers of Spring 2021 semester’s program on Mathematical Problems in Fluid Dynamics at MSRI. Her outstanding research contributions span a broad range of topics in nonlinear partial differential equations, including nonlinear dispersive equations and fluid mechanics, with connections to harmonic analysis and general relativity. Right now, with the ongoing …