In Memoriam: Donald Crowe

Donald Warren Crowe, 94, passed away on July 4, 2022 in Madison, Wisconsin. He was born October 28, 1927 in Lincoln, Nebraska to Lawrence and Vera (Pereau) Crowe. Donald was a distinguished professor of mathematics at UW–Madison from 1962 through 1998. As a geometer specializing in the study of symmetry and patterns in primitive art he …

Andrei Caldararu receives FRG from NSF

Andrei Caldararu has received an FRG (Focused Research Group) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), joint with Benjamin Antieau (Northwestern), Max Lieblich (University of Washington), Akhil Mathew (University of Chicago) and Martin Olsson (Berkeley).  The grant, worth 1.5 Million, will be used jointly to fund research, conferences, postdocs and graduate students in the area …

UW-Madison mourns an important mathematician and beloved mentor

Georgia Benkart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at UW–Madison, died unexpectedly on April 29 in Madison, Wisconsin, leaving behind a worldwide network of colleagues and former students who considered her not only a gifted mathematician, but also a dear friend and mentor.  Benkart, who joined the UW–Madison math department in 1974 after earning her PhD from …

Tonghai Yang part of team to win Alexanderson Award

Tonghai Yang together with a team of four other mathematicians have won the fourth Alexanderson Award for their paper “Modularity of generating series of divisors on unitary Shimura varieties” (Asterisque 421 (2020), pages 7-125). You can glimpse the beginning of the paper here:  https://smf.emath.fr/sites/default/files/2020-11/smf_ast_7-125__sample.pdf The Alexanderson Award recognizes the best paper from an AIM workshop …

Hung Tran awarded Vilas Faculty Early-Career Investigator Award

Congratulations to Hung Tran for winning a Vilas Faculty Early-Career Investigator Award! Through the generosity of the Vilas Trust, the Vilas Faculty Early & Mid-Career Investigator Awards recognize research and teaching excellence in early and mid-career faculty. These awards come from the Provost, based on nominations first by the department and then by the Dean. …

Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award awarded to Daniel Erman

Daniel Erman has won the Alliant Energy James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award, which is a UW system level award given to only 4 instructors system wide.  Congratulations Daniel!

Sebastien Roch named Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Sebastien Roch has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS).  IMS is the main scientific society for probability and the mathematical end of statistics.  Among its various activities, IMS publishes the Annals series of flagship journals of probability. Link:  https://imstat.org/2022/04/22/2022-ims-fellows-announced/

Jordan Ellenberg discusses Columbia’s college ranking controversy:

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 does well in Putnam Competition

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

3 mathematicians awarded Simons Fellowships

We are pleased to congratulate David Anderson, Chanwoo Kim and Jin-Yi Cai (CS/Math Affiliate) for being awarded Simons Fellowships.  They are 3 of 38 announced 2022 Fellows.   The Simons Fellows program extends academic leaves from one term to a full year, enabling recipients to focus solely on research for the long periods often necessary for …