Past news announcements from the department homepage.
April 24, 2015
Graduate Woman of Excellence
Graduate Woman of Excellence
Isabel Vogt , a first-year graduate student, was honored at a celebration on April 23 as one of this year's Graduate Women of Excellence . Isabel, along with 50 other MIT women, was selected for this honor by the Office of the Dean of Graduate Education (ODGE). The award not only recognizes Isabel's mathematical achievements and research potential, but also her contributions to mentoring others, including her work with Girls' Angle, a math club for girls, and her years of work as a mentor and this year as the program coordinator of MIT's PRIMES Circle , promoting mathematics for students of disadvantaged backgrounds in Boston-area high schools. Thanks to Professor Pavel Etingof for nominating Isabel.
Congratulations, Isabel!
April 22, 2015
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Professor William Minicozzi has been elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The American Academy has served the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge since 1780 and its members include many of the most accomplished scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Human Resources Coordinator Daniel Delgado and Administrative Assistant Jonathan Harmon have been awarded School of Science Infinite Mile Awards. 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.
Congratulations Dan and Jonathan!
April 1, 2015
Putnam Competition
Putnam Competition
Our 1st Place Team:
Mitchell M. Lee, Zipei Nie, and David H. Yang
Our Putnam Fellows:
Zipei Nie, Mark A. Sellke, Bobby C. Shen, David H. Yang and Lingfu Zhang
In addition to having the 1st place team and 5 of the 6 highest ranking individuals, MIT has 5 of the next 10 top scorers, 6 of the next 11, and 16 students who received honorable mention.
Professor Bjorn Poonen has been awarded a 2015 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.
PRIMES and RSI student Noah Golowich won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research ($150,000), PRIMES-USA student Brice Huang won the Second Place ($75,000), and PRIMES/RSI student Shashwat Kishore the Third Place ($35,000), taking the three top prizes in all fields of science and technology. Noah’s mentors were Laszlo Lovasz and David Rolnick; Brice’s mentor was Wuttisak Trongsiriwat; Shashwat was mentored by Gus Lonergan and Prof. Pavel Etingof .
Assistant Professor Emmy Murphy has been selected as a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Murphy's work has transformed symplectic topology in particular the understanding of high dimensional contact geometry.
Assistant Professor Jörn Dunkel has been selected as a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Dunkel works on continuum theories with application to biology and soft matter physics, most recently making breakthroughs in the study of cell locomotion and formation of wrinkles on curved surfaces.
MIT math senior Daniel Kang has won a prestigious Churchill Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. This scholarship is awarded to individuals with exceptional academic talent and outstanding achievement.
The Corporation Executive Committee has approved faculty promotions for faculty members Clark Barwick and Steven Johnson . Clark has been promoted to Associate Professor and Steven has been promoted to Full Professor.
Congratulations Clark and Steven!
January 5, 2015
Richard D. Schafer 1918-2014
Richard D. Schafer 1918-2014
Emeritus Professor Richard Schafer passed away at Brookhaven in Lexington on Dec 28. A specialist in non-associative algebras, he joined our faculty as Professor in 1959, serving as Deputy Head under Ted Martin from 1959-68. Previously, he was Department Head of Mathematics at the University of Connecticut, 1953-59. He retired from MIT in 1988.
PRIMES-USA and RSI student Peter Tian has won the 1st Prize ($100,000) and MIT PRIMES student Joseph Zurier has won the 2nd Prize ($50,000) in the Siemens Competition, taking the two top prizes among all fields of science and technology. Peter's project was suggested and mentored by Jesse Geneson ; Joe's project was suggested by Professor Larry Guth and mentored by Ben Yang .
Congratulations, Peter and Joe!
December 4, 2014
George Lusztig PRIMES Mentorships
George Lusztig PRIMES Mentorships
The first George Lusztig PRIMES mentors are Jesse Geneson , Darij Grinberg , and Yufei Zhao. These positions will be awarded annually to continuing PRIMES mathematics mentors for exceptional mentor service in past years.
Congratulations Jesse, Darij and Yufei!
November 20, 2014
AMS Steele Prize
AMS Steele Prize
Professor Victor Kac will be honored with the AMS Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in January, "for his groundbreaking contributions to Lie Theory and its applications to Mathematics and Mathematical Physics." He is the 5th faculty member to be so honored in the 23 years that the prize has been awarded.
Congratulations Victor!
November 14, 2014
Alice T. Schafer Prize
Alice T. Schafer Prize
Undergraduate student, Sheela Devadas has won the 2015 Alice T. Schafer Prize for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics . Sheela began work on a PRIMES Project with graduate mentor Steven Sam in the 10th grade. The project continued for 1.5 years, resulting in a joint publication. She entered MIT early after the 11th grade.
Sheela is our 5th winner in the 9th consecutive year, in which one of our students won at least Honorable Mention in the Schafer Prize. Thanks to Pavel Etingof for nominating Sheela, and to Mike Artin , David Jerison , Ronitt Rubinfeld (EECS), and Steven Sam (Miller Fellow, Berkeley) who wrote supporting letters.
Congratulations Sheela!
October 27, 2014
Moscow Math Society Prize
Moscow Math Society Prize
Instructor Vadim Gorin has been awarded the Moscow Mathematical Society Prize . This prize is awarded to young scientists for work or series of works on mathematics with substantial scientific interest. Gorin was awarded this prize for a cycle of works entitled "Asymptotic problems in combinatorics and representation theory."
PRIMES student Ravi Jagadeesan became a Davidson Fellow Laureate ($50,000 scholarship), and PRIMES-USA student Ritesh Ragavender became a Davidson Fellow ($25,000). Among the 20 national fellowships only two were awarded for mathematical projects, and both went to PRIMES students.
Congratulations, Ravi and Ritesh!
August 7, 2014
Rogers Family Prize
Rogers Family Prize
Undergraduate student Saarik Kalia and his mentor, graduate student Ben Yang , have been awarded the Hartley Rogers Jr. Family Prize for the best SPUR paper. The project, "Generalizations of the Szemeredi-Trotter Theorem," was suggested by Larry Guth .
Instructor Vladislav Voroninski has been awarded a SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize for his paper "Phase Retrieval via Matrix Completion", co-authored with Emmanuel Candes, Thomas Strohmer and Yonina Eldar. This prize is awarded to authors of papers that exhibit orginiality by offering a fresh look at an existing field or opening up new areas of applied mathematics.
Congratulations Vlad!
June 12, 2014
Simons Investigator
Simons Investigator
The Simons Foundation has named Professor Larry Guth to be a Simons Investigator. This award is given to outstanding theoretical scientists to support long-term investigations of fundamental questions.
Congratulations Larry!
May 29, 2014
Shaw Prize
Shaw Prize
Abdun-Nur Professor George Lusztig has has won the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences "for his fundamental contributions to algebra, algebraic geometry, and representation theory, and for weaving these subjects together to solve old problems and reveal beautiful new connections."
Ritesh Ragavender has won the First Prize for his PRIMES-USA project, Odd Dunkl Operators and nilHecke Algebras , suggested and mentored by Alex Ellis.
Rumen Dangovski has won the Second Prize for his RSI project, On the Lower Central Series of PI-algebras , suggested by Pavel Etingof and mentored by Nathan Harman .
Congratulations to all contestants, mentors, staff, and faculty!
May 20, 2014
Endowed Chairs
Endowed Chairs
Professors Paul Seidel and David Vogan will be appointed to endowed chairs effective July 2014. Paul Seidel will be the Norman Levinson Professor of Mathematics David Vogan will be the Norbert Wiener Professor of Mathematics
The Norman Levinson chair is supported by a generous gift from James and Marilyn Simons.
Dennis Tseng has received the Jon A. Bucsela Prize in Mathematics for distinguished scholastic achievement, professional promise, and enthusiam for mathematics.
Congratulations Dennis!
May 5, 2014
Jacob Fox and Jonathan Kelner Awarded Tenure
Jacob Fox and Jonathan Kelner Awarded Tenure
Math faculty members Jacob Fox and Jonathan Kelner have been promoted to tenure as approved by the MIT Corporation Executive Committee.
Congratulations Jacob and Jon!
April 30, 2014
NAS - Jim Simons
NAS - Jim Simons
Math Department alumnus and friend Jim Simons has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Academy membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive.
Gigliola Staffilani and Paul Seidel have been elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The American Academy has served the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge since 1780 and its members include many of the most accomplished scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Academic Administrator Barbara Peskin has been awarded the School of Science Infinite Mile Award. This award honors exceptional employees whose accomplishments so often go far beyond their assigned roles and duties.
In addition to having the 1st place team and 4 of the 5 highest ranking individuals, MIT has 11 of the next top 20 scorers and 20 of the 56 students with Honorable Mentions.
Math majors Carl Lian and Daniel Kang have won Goldwater Scholarships. This prestigious award is merit-based and highly competive, with only 300 scholarships awarded nationally. Thanks to Professor Pavel Etingof for nominating Carl and EECS for nominating Daniel.
PRIMES students Jin-Woo Oh , Ritesh Ragavender , Uma Roy , and Junho Won and RSI student Jessica Shi have won Outstanding Presentation Awards at the 2014 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session .
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced that Assistant Professors Charles Smart and Jared Speck are among the nine MIT faculty members receiving 2014 Sloan Research Fellowships. These two-year fellowships are awarded to researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.
Mathematics Professor Larry Guth has been awarded the Salem Prize for outstanding contributions in the field of analysis.
Congratulations Larry!
February 13, 2014
Rollo Davidson Prize
Rollo Davidson Prize
MIT/Microsoft Schramm Fellow Ivan Corwin has won the Rollo Davidson Prize for outstanding achievements in the area of stochastic growth processes and their relation to integrable systems.
This continues the amazing 8 year streak of Math Department students winning at least Honorable Mention in the Schafer prize. Thanks to Mike Artin for nominating Jessie and to Pavel Etingof , Mark Behrens and Jenny Hoffman (Harvard Physics).
One of the thirty-four Marshall Scholarships awarded nationwide has been granted to senior Kirin Sinha . This scholarship will support two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.
The Rhodes Trust has selected recent MIT graduate John Mikhael as one of thirty-two Rhodes Scholarship winners nation wide. This scholarship will support his study next year at Oxford University.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded Jacob Fox the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, recognizing him as one in sixteen of the nation's most innovative young scientists and engineers. Congratulations Jacob!
