News Archive

In the United States, the set of professional football players has about 1,700 members, and set the PhD candidates in math also has thousands of members. In 2017, the intersection of these sets is a singleton. On an overcast day in late winter, that unique element is in the Norbert Wiener Common Room in MIT’s Department of Mathematics, where John Urschel is sitting at a table, chatting. Urschel is an offensive lineman with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, a three-year pro with 40 regular-season games played and a couple of playoff starts on his football résumé. He is also a doctoral candidate in math at MIT who has passed his qualifying exams and has nine published or accepted research papers on his academic résumé.

Read more at Technology Review

Urschel recently announced his retirement from his football career, and will concentrate full-time on earning his PhD. His announcement came days after the release of a Boston University study showing the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease.

We are welcoming 19 new students into our graduate program.

Coming from around the world, 4 are from China, 3 from Russia, 2 from Hong Kong; and others are from Thailand, Singapore, Romania, Great Britain and Colombia. Thirteen are pure math, and six are applied math. Four are women.

Four from MIT are Robert Burklund, algebraic topology; Tudor Cristea-Platon, physical applied math; and two combinatorics students, Yibo Gao and Jonathan Tidor. Three are from Harvard: Sahana Vasudevan, general pure math; Gregory Parker, geometry; and Pakawut Jiradilok, combinatorics. Three are from the Higher School of Economics in Russia: Daniil Kalinov, general math; Andrei Ionov, algebra; and Aleksandra Utilarova, lie algebra. And two are from University of Cambridge: Dominic Skinner, physical applied math, and Chun Hong Lo, algebra.

Other new students are:

• Jie Jun Ang, probability, Stanford
• Araminta Gwynne, general pure math, Northwestern
• Kai Huang, geometry, Peking University
• Chenyang Shao, analysis, Tsinghua University
• Felipe Suarez, science, University de los Andes
• Jingwei Xiao, number theory, Columbia
• Ruoxuan Yang, analysis, University of Hong Kong

Please help us welcome them to the Department of Mathematics!

Our Spring 2017 newsletter Integral is now available , and you can also check out our Simons Building Dedication insert.

Hung Cheng received the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award in Technology and Humanity/Humanities, by the Chinese Institute of Engineers, San Francisco Bay Chapter. Cheng and his wife, Jill, also pledged $1 million last fall to the Hung and Jill Cheng Scholarship Fund, to support MIT undergraduates. Cheng was inspired to establish the scholarship through writing his novel, "Nanjing Never Cries."

Congratulations Hung!

Xin Sun , as a 5th year Ph.D. student in mathematics, was part of a team of researchers at MIT and elsewhere that has developed a new approach to such computations, using light instead of electricity, which they say could vastly improve the speed and efficiency of certain deep learning computations. Their results appeared recently in the journal Nature Photonics . “Deep Learning” computer systems are based on artificial neural networks that mimic the way the brain learns from an accumulation of examples. These systems enable technologies such as face- and voice-recognition software, and could search through medical data to find patterns for diagnostic use, or scan chemical formulas for possible new pharmaceuticals.

Sun, whose advisor was Scott Sheffield, studies probability theory and mathematical physics; he has done research on random planar geometry, including SLE, Gaussian free field, random planar maps and Liouville quantum gravity. He was recruited to this photonics project by his friend, physics post-doc Yichen Shen, one of the first two authors of the article, and part of a team scattered around the world.

“The team in the physics department was trying to use optical device to realize mathematical operations involved in the deep learning algorithm, which are matrix multiplication and nonlinear function,” he explained. “One problem they encountered is to represent every matrix by 2 by 2 unitary matrices with other simple operations that can be easily realized by an optical device.” Together with Yichen Shen , he found what he explained "an economic way with respect to the optical device."

A recent graduate, Xin will go in July to Columbia University as a Simons Junior Fellow He received his B.S. in mathematics from Peking University.

Read more in the MIT News .

Congratulations Xin Sun!

Sylvain was the featured soloist with the Pops at Symphony Hall during Tech Night at the Pops, a 120-year Commencement tradition hosted by MIT for alumni and guests. He was the first MIT PhD in Tech Night history to be a soloist.

With the Pops, he performed Frédéric Chopin’s solo piano work, Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante, Opus 22, and received a standing ovation.

Full Story on Slice of MIT

Bravo, Sylvain!

David Jerison , Gigliola Staffiliani , Jennifer French , and Karene Chu are one of three winning groups of co-instructors honored by MIT’s Office of Digital Learning for its inaugural MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs (massive open online courses). They were honored for their significant contributions to MITx MOOC coursework offered on edX.org during the 2016 calendar year. The MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning recognizes educators who have devoted themselves to better engaging learners around the world through digital classrooms.

As part of their 18.01x Calculus Series, the team introduced a new sketch input tool and live-action videos while demonstrating what the review panel described as an “incredible level of commitment to course development and creating the best possible product.” The team drew content from Jerison’s 18.01 (Single Variable Calculus) course to serve as the base curriculum for 18.01x, then designed and built a highly interactive learning experience involving video, problems, text, and images.

At the May 19 MITx Significant Interest Group event, the team received a plaque, shared a $1,000 prize for an account of the faculty’s or department’s choosing, and will be MITx’s nominees for the edX Prize.

Read More

Congratulations David, Gigliola, Jennifer and Karene!

Yibo Gao has received the 2017 Jon A. Bucsela Prize in Mathematics for distinguished scholastic achievement, professional promise, and enthusiasm for mathematics.

Congratulations Yibo!

Graduate students Gus Lonergan , Jonasz Slomka and Lucas Tambasco have each been awarded the Charles and Holly Housman Award for excellence in teaching. This award is presented to graduate students in Mathematics for skill and dedication in undergraduate teaching.

Congratulations Gus, Jonasz, and Lucas!

Graduate student Sylvain Carpentier has been awarded the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Prize. This award is presented to a current MIT graduate student in the Department of Mathematics for a research paper accepted for publication in a major journal. Sylvain received the prize for his paper "A sufficient condition for a rational differential operator to generate an integrable system" in the Japanese Journal of Mathemtics , March 2017 issue (Vol. 12, no. 1).

Congratulations Sylvain!

The BBVA Foundation and the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society have awarded the Vincent Caselles Mathematical Research Award to CLE Moore Instructor Roger Casals . Among six recipients, Casals received the award for his contributions to contact topology. The Caselles Award goes to young mathematicians under 30 to boost the research of young Spanish mathematicians or those trained in Spain.

Casals also received RSME's José Luis Rubio de Francia Award and the BBVA Research Fellowship, which funds a three-year research project. His research on contact and symplectic topology, flexible-rigid dichotomy and h-principles is also supported by an NSF award.

Congratulations Roger!

First course on Differentiation starts June 7.

Brought to you by David Jerison , Gigliola Staffilani , Jen French , and Stephen Wang

The School of Science has selected Special Projects Assistant Cesar Duarte and Webmaster Becky Ecung to receive the Infinite Mile Award. The Infinite Mile Award recognizes those individuals who have gone above and beyond their required duties. This includes going beyond expectation in mentoring, learning and skill building, innovation, and community building.

Cesar was nominated for the “Beyond Expectation Award,” for consistently going above and beyond the requirements of his job to make the Math Department a better place. Becky was nominated for the “Innovator Award,” for creating solutions to problems large and small, and finding simple solutions to the daily struggles for the department.

Congratulations Cesar and Becky!

Professor Scott Sheffield and former Schramm and NSF fellow Jason P. Miller have won the 2017 Clay Research Award for their work on the geometry of the Gaussian free field and its application to the solution of open problems in the theory of two-dimensional random structures. Jason is now at the University of Cambridge.

Congratulations Scott and Jason!

The MIT team of Robert C. Shen, David H. Yang, and Yunkun Zhou placed 4th this year in the 2016 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, after a three-year run of first places.

Yunkun Zhou was named a Putnam Fellow, placing in the top 5.

MIT has 3 students in the next 9 spots: Jiyang Gao, Allen X. Liu, and Sammy Y. Luo; 7 in the next 11 spots: Evan Chen, Andrew He, Hyun Sub Hwang, Eshaan Nichani, Mark A. Sellke, Robert C. Shen, and Lingfu Zhang; and 21 honorable mentions in the next 68: Ryan N. Alweiss, Yibo Gao, Brian H. Gu, Meghal Gupta, Brice Huang, Kritkorn Karntikoon, Samuel Korsky, Michael J. Kural, Calvin J. Lee, Justin K. Lim, Ting-Chun Lin, Yang Liu, Weerachai Neeranartvong, Sung Gi Park, Tahsin Saffat, Sean Shi, Kevin Sun, Suchan Vivatsethachai, Jianqiao Xia, David H. Yang, and Kevin Zhou.

MIT earned an outstanding 32 of the top 93 spots.
A Full List of the Winners

Congratulations to the winners, and to all who took the exam!

Professor Gigliola Staffilani has been awarded the 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation . She is among 173 who were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in April, chosen among 3,000 applicants in the Foundation’s 93rd competition. Gigliola is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Mathematics.

Congratulations Gigliola!

The following undergraduate mathematics students have been awarded 2017 NSF Fellowships for Graduate Study:

• Colin Aitken
• Brian Axelrod
• Shi-Fan Chen
• Robert Jones
• Saarik Kalia
• Jing Li
• Alexander Moss
• Mark Sellke
• Jonathan Tidor
• Kevin Zhou

The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees.

Congratulations to our winners!

Doctoral student Gweneth McKinley has been chosen as an honoree in the 2017 biennial celebration of Graduate Women of Excellence. The Office of the Dean for Graduate Education’s celebration recognizes graduate women who exemplify leadership and service contributions at the Institute, and outstanding accomplishment. Gweneth and others will be recognized on April 24, where honorees will present posters on their accomplishments and future plans.

Congratulations Gweneth!

Linus Hamilton , a first-year graduate student, and fourth-year undergraduate Ofer Grossman were among 12 to receive the Hertz Fellowship .

Hamilton, from College Park, Md., is pursuing his PhD in applied mathematics. His advisor is Ankur Moitra , who also had received a Hertz Fellowship.

Grossman, who will pursue his PhD in theoretical computer science, also co-won the 2015 SPUR (Summer Program in Undergraduate Research) Hartley Rogers Jr. Prize.

Congratulations Linus and Ofer!

PRIMES math student Aaron Yeiser , mentored by Alex Townsend, has won the 2nd place award in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2017 (formerly Intel) for his development of a new numerical method for solving partial differential equations on complicated geometries.

Laura Pierson , another PRIMES student mentored by Siddharth Venkatesh , has won the 6th place prize for her work on interpolation of the representation theory of symmetric groups.

Two other PRIMES students, Alec Sun and Felix Wang were also finalists.

Congratulations PRIMES students!

Professors Tobias Colding , Gigliola Staffilani , Tomasz Mrowka and Fall 2017 incoming professor Wei Zhang have each been awarded a 2017 Simons Fellowship in Mathematics . This award is granted to scientists with great potential for research accomplishment based on their accomplishments within the past five years.

Congratulations Toby, Gigliola, Tom and Wei!

Assistant Professors Semyon Dyatlov and Aaron Pixton have each been awarded the 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships . This two-year fellowship recognizes early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise who have a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

Congratulations Semyon and Aaron!

...Full List of Fellows

Professor Tom Leighton has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the Content Delivery Network methods that he invented with his graduate student Danny Lewin . Using Applied Mathematics and Algorithms, Leighton's methods allow the replication and delivery of content over a large network of distributed servers, making the Internet faster.

Congratulations Tom!

Three of our senior faculty were elected by members of the AMS to these respective appointments and terms:

• David Jerison, Vice President (Feb. 2017 - Jan. 2020)
• Bjorn Poonen, Nominating Committee (Jan. 2017 - Dec. 2019)
• Scott Sheffield, Editorial Boards Committee (Feb. 2017 - Jan. 2020).

Congratulations to them and appreciation for their service to the Mathematics Community!

2015 PhD Graduate Dana Mendelson , under the direction of Gigliola Staffilani , has received the Inaugural Association for Women in Mathematics Dissertation Prize . This prize is awarded annually to outstanding PhD dissertations presented by female mathematical scientists.

Congratulations Dana!

Start it today

Brought to you by Arthur Mattuck , David Jerison , Haynes Miller , Laurent Demanet , Bjorn Poonen , Jorn Dunkel , Karene Chu , Jen French

PRIMES students Louis Golowich and Richard Zhou , mentored by Chiheon Kim , have won the 4th Prize in the Siemens Competition ($30,000 award) for their project on the maximum number of pairwise G-different permutations.

Congratulations, Louis, Richard, and Chiheon!

MIT Senior Math Major David H. Yang has won the 2017 AMS-MAA-SIAM Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student . As an undergraduate student, Yang has already authored five research papers, three of which have been accepted in the Memoirs of the AMS.

Congratulations David!

The 2017 George Lusztig PRIMES mentors are Lucas Mason-Brown , Andrew Rzeznik , and Guangyi Yue. These positions are awarded annually to continuing PRIMES mathematics mentors for exceptional mentor service in past years.

Congratulations Lucas, Andrew, and Guangyi!

Kevin Zhou , a double major in Mathematics and Physics, has been named a 2017 Marshall Scholar . With this scholarship, Kevin will study theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge.

Congratulations Kevin!

The National Academy of Sciences has released a biographical memoir of former MIT Mathematics Professor, Gian-Carlo Rota. Rota became a Professor of Mathematics in 1967 and Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy in 1975. He won the Killian Faculty Achievement Award in 1996.

Full Biographical Memoir

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded Ankur Moitra the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, recognizing him as one in eighteen of the nation's most innovative young scientists and engineers.

...full listing of 2016 Packard Fellowships

Congratulations Ankur!

Professor Tobias Colding received the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize for ground-breaking research in differential geometry and geometric analysis. Awarded annually for over 200 years, this prize is given to researchers who have contributed significantly to basic research at a high international level.

Congratulations Toby!

Instructor Roger Casals has been awarded the José Luis Rubio de Francia Prize from the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society. This award recognizes and encourages the work of young researchers in mathematics.

Congratulations Roger!

The 2016 Hartley Rogers Jr. Family Prize for the best SPUR paper was awarded to Lingfu Zhang and his mentor Hong Wang for the paper, "Refinements of the 2-Dimensional Strichartz Estimate using the Maximum Wave Packet" (project provided by Larry Guth ).

Congratulations Lingfu and Hong!

The Building 2 renovation project has received two prestigeous awards. First, the Cambridge Historical Commission celebrated the quality of historial preservation of the property by granting the project a 2015-2016 Preservation Award . Second, the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) has honored the project with a SCUP/AIA-CAE Award for "excellence in architecture for building additions or adaptive reuse."

Thank you Ann Beha Architects and other project contributors!

Building 2 Photos

Instructor and Postdoctoral Fellow Vincent Genest has been awarded two prizes for his Phd work, Algebraic structures, superintegrable systems and orthogonal polynomials . The Canadian Mathematical Society has presented Vincent with the 2016 Doctoral Prize , and the Canadian Association of Physicists-Division of Theoretical Physics has awarded him with the 2016 Thesis Prize .

Congratulations Vincent!

Quanta Magazine has featured the work of Professor Scott Sheffield for his three-paper series providing a comprehensive view of random two-dimensional surfaces.

Congratulations Scott!

Communications of the ACM , the leading print and online publication for the computing and information technology fields, has featured the work of Professor Bonnie Berger on the cover of the 2016 August issue. The article, titled Computational Biology in the 21st Century: Scaling with Compressive Algorithms , discusses how algorithmic advances take advantage of the structure of the massive biological data landscape.

Congratulations Bonnie!

Professor Alexei Borodin has been awarded a 2016 Simons Fellowship in Mathematics . This award is granted to scientists with great potential for research accomplishment based on their accomplishments within the past five years.

Congratulations Alexei!

Assistant Professor Jörn Dunkel has received a 2016 Complex Systems Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The JSMF Scholar Awards Program supports high quality research to further the science of complex systems. Awardees are selected by an expert advisory panel based on the importance and originality of the applicant's proposed research.

Congratulations Jörn!

Professor Bonnie Berger has been appointed the Simons Professor of Mathematics. Established by the James and Marilyn Simons Professorship Fund in 1996, this appointment recognizes outstanding achievements in mathematics, continued commitment to excellence in education and research, and service to the mathematics department.

Congratulations Bonnie!

The Simons Foundation has awarded Professor Bjorn Poonen a Simons Investigatorship . This award is given to outstanding theoretical scientists to support long-term investigations of fundamental questions.

Congratulations Bjorn!

The Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation has granted tenure to Philippe Rigollet, effective July 1, 2016.

Congratulations, Philippe!

Ankur Moitra has been selected as the next Rockwell International Career Assistant Professor of Mathematics. This professorship recognizes and encourages excellence of the research and teaching by our gifted young faculty.

Congratulations Ankur!

Felipe Hernandez was awarded the Hertz Foundation Fellowship, given to support an outstanding student with the freedom to innovate as part of their graduate studies.

Congratulations Felipe!

Yongyi Chen and Mitchell Lee each received the 2016 Jon A. Bucsela Prize in Mathematics for distinguished scholastic achievement, professional promise, and enthusiasm for mathematics.

Congratulations Yongyi and Mitchell!

Graduate students Zachary Abel and Carlos Sauer Ayala have each been awarded the Charles and Holly Housman Award for excellence in teaching. This award is presented to graduate students in Mathematics for skill and dedication in undergraduate teaching.

Congratulations Zachary and Carlos!