UC Berkeley Mathematics

This event moderated by Helene Barcelo of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute will be held today (Wednesday December 9th) at 12 PM Pacific Time/3 PM Eastern Time!

Professor Michael Christ has been named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society for his "contributions to harmonic and complex analysis, and linear partial differential equations." Other 2021 AMS fellows include former Berkeley students Lionel Levine (PhD 2007), Anthony Várilly-Alvarado (PhD 2009) and Bianca Viray (PhD 2010). Congratulations! tinyurl.com/AMSFellows

**Registration ends 4 PM PST tomorrow (Wednesday 10/14)!** Dear Math Community, We are excited to share with you opportunity to participate in a virtual screening of the film "Picture A Scientist" starting this Friday, October 16th. "Picture A Scientist" is a documentary on the experience of women in science and a discussion on ways to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all. ... To register, please go to: http://tiny.cc/PictureAScientist. Once registered, you will receive a unique login code prior to the opening of the screening on October 16, 2020, and you will have until 11:30pm on Sunday, October 18th to view the film. Note, registrations must be received by 4pm on Wednesday, October 14th, so don't wait!

We were very sad to hear of the sudden passing of Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones on September 6, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. Vaughan was born in New Zealand on December 31, 1952. He earned his PhD at the University of Geneva in 1979, and he was a Professor of Mathematics at UC Berkeley from 1985 to 2011, before moving to Vanderbilt University. He worked in a wide range of areas of mathematics including von Neumann algebras and low dimensional topology, and he discovered what is no...w known as the Jones polynomial, which led to a revolution in knot theory and the beginnings of quantum topology. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1990 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Kyoto, and he famously wore a New Zealand All Blacks rugby jersey during his acceptance speech. For more information please see this tribute written by his family https://www.dignitymemorial.com//brentwood-tn/sir-vaughan-

Congratulations to Song Sun who has been awarded a 2021 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation! This award was given for Professor Sun's "many groundbreaking contributions to complex differential geometry, including existence results for Kahler-Einstein metrics and connections with moduli questions and singularities." https://breakthroughprize.org/News/60

Anna Seigal (PhD, UC Berkeley, 2019) has been awarded the 2020 Richard C. DiPrima Prize! This prize is awarded every two years by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) to one early career researcher who has done outstanding research in applied mathematics. Congratulations!

UC Berkeley Mathematics is also on LinkedIn! The LinkedIn group is open to Math Department alumni, students (declared Math or Applied Math majors and graduate students), faculty, and staff of the Mathematics Department at the University of California at Berkeley. To submit a membership request: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2670805/

More exciting alumni news! Congratulations to Tatyana Deryugina (Class of 2006) for receiving tenure at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. After graduation from Berkeley with a simultaneous degree in Applied Mathematics and Environmental Economics & Policy she received her PhD in Economics from MIT and then joined the Illinois faculty. Her research focuses on the effect of the environment on economic outcomes and on health. She recently co-authored a paper which was named winner of the Arrow Award, given by the International Health Economics Association for the best health economics paper of 2019.

As Cal Band Director Matthew Sadowski says, "As tough as times may get, Bears are always going to be tougher." A fun fact to accompany this video: A number of years ago the McKinney Family (James McKinney, BA 1964 and Gayle Cortez-McKinney) sponsored a scholarship to recognize Mathematics majors who are also members of University of California Marching Band. This year's awardees were senior trumpet player Ivan Ortega and senior trombonist Shamin Chowdhury. Cal Band Great! Math Majors Great!

Alexander Paulin has been awarded 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley's top honor for exceptional teaching! Congratulations! https://teaching.berkeley.edu/node/240

A tremendous thank you to our alumni and friends for your donations totaling $19,600 for the Math Department in this year's Big Give! There were no Pi Day celebrations in Evans Hall due to online classes and other recommended social distancing, however one of the Campanile's peregrine falcons seems to have had a good celebration! #CalBigGive #givingback #biggive

Thank you to our amazing alumni and friends for qualifying us for our Big Give Match! Your donations for this year's Big Give have exceeded last year's, and there are still 2 hours left! The Big Give ends at 9 PM PST! #CalBigGive #givingback #biggive https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?fund=FN7221000

Today's the day! Big Give is our annual online giving day where the entire UC Berkeley community comes together to support their favorite departments and programs. Seize the moment and participate in Big Give by supporting Berkeley Mathematics! #CalBigGive #givingback #biggive https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?fund=FN7221000

The Big Give, UC Berkeley's annual fund-raising blitz, is just 1 week away! If UC Berkeley Mathematics raises $1,250 between 9pm on March 11 and 9pm on March 12, donors Karen and Flynn Carson will match that amount! Follow this link during Big Give to support Berkeley Math! https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?fund=FN7221000 #CalBigGive #givingback #biggive

Congratulations to Sung-Jin Oh who has been awarded a 2020 Sloan Research Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowship Program recognizes and rewards "outstanding early-career faculty who have the potential to revolutionize their fields of study". https://news.berkeley.edu//nine-young-faculty-named-2020/

Congratulations to UC Berkeley Mathematics alumna Sydnee Caldwell (BA 2012, Applied Math and Economics) for her appointment as an Assistant Professor of Business and Economics at UC Berkeley. A labor and personnel economist, Dr. Caldwell received her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently served as a Post-doctoral Researcher for Microsoft Research New England, and will join the Berkeley faculty this July!

FINALS! ARE! OVER! #enjoywinterbreakbears #BerkeleyPOV by frvnkyvng on Instagram

Season's greetings from the UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics! Another exciting year is coming to a close, and with that, we're happy to share our 2019 departmental newsletter with you. Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year ahead. https://math.berkeley.edu///files/pages/Newsletter2019.pdf

The UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) invite you to join Dr. Lenore Blum (Carnegie Mellon University) to celebrate the legacy of UC Berkeley mathematics professor Dr. Julia Robinson (1919-1985), on the 100th anniversary of her birth. See the following event link for more information! https://www.facebook.com/events/438041406853131/

The AXE is back! #GoBears UC Berkeley photo by Steve McConnell

Congratulations to Senior Mathematics and Computer Science major Yuhan "Michelle" Jiang! She has been been named Runner-up for the 2020 Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics competition. The Schafer Prize is awarded annually by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) to the most outstanding woman mathematics undergraduate in the United States, so being named runner-up is a very significant honor.

Congratulations to Sunica ani who was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to partial differential equations, and for mathematical modeling of fluid-structure interactions that has influenced the design of medical devices".

Congratulations to Vera Serganova who has been awarded a G.A. Gamow Award for outstanding work on the representation theory of Lie superalgebras

Congratulations to David Eisenbud who will receive the 2020 AMS Award for Distinguished Public Service for his "exceptional leadership and outreach efforts while director of MSRI, president of the AMS, and director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the Simons Foundation" https://www.ams.org/tools/news?news_id=5578

Cal Math Alumni on the Move! Congratulations to Arjun Raj (Class of 2000) who was recognized with a a 2019 NIH Director's Transformative Research Award by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Raj is now a professor of Bioengineering and of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra/recipients

Cal Math Alumni making a difference! Gerald Morgan (Class of 2012) is featured within this article and Yejin Angela Kwon (Class of 2019) is pictured below. Both worked for the Berkeley chapter of the SMASH Academy non-profit. Do you recognize the Evans Hall classrooms?

Congratulations to Associate Professor Lin Lin, who was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This honor is for individuals who show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century. UC Berkeley News Release: https://news.berkeley.edu//nine-young-professors-receive-/

Interesting article about Felix Gotti and his path to the PhD in Mathematics from UC Berkeley. Dr. Gotti's next stop, after a Summer postdoc in Austria, will be an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Florida.

Congratulations and best wishes to the UC Berkeley Mathematics Class of 2019!

Tune in this Thursday May 23rd at 2:00 PM Pacific for a live stream of the 2019 UC Berkeley Mathematics Commencement ceremony!

Congratulations to Chris Shannon (the Richard and Lisa Steiny Professor of Economics and Professor of Mathematics) for her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences!

Congratulations to Applied Math and Molecular & Cell Biology major Samantha Hao and Math major Harry Main-Luu, both runners-up for the 2019 University Medal!

Congratulations to the Math Department's 2018-19 Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement Prize Winners!

Space is still available in a number of Summer math courses! See the Summer Sessions website for more information! http://summer.berkeley.edu/

Rest in peace to pioneering mathematician and computer scientist Elwyn Berlekamp (1940-2019). More on his considerable contributions can be found in the attached article.

Congratulations new undergraduate Admits! The Math Undergraduate Student Association (MUSA) is organizing a "Shadow a Math Major" Day on Friday April 12th (the day before Cal Day). To sign up please out the attached form. Contact Chris Randall at [email protected] if you have any questions!

East Coast Alums! Lehman College Math professor and jazz pianist Rob Schneiderman (PhD UC Berkeley 2001) will be performing (and discussing math and music) with Marcus Miller at the National Museum of Mathematics in NYC next Friday April 12th.

Thanks to many Math friends and alumni, we're 88% to meeting our challenge match! Special thanks to alumna, Nancy Lubich McKinney ’82, for giving us this Big Give challenge. Want to help us make the match? https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?fund=FN7221000

Happy Pi Day from UC Berkeley Mathematics to our students, alumni, and friends! (Illustration by Frida Hernandez '20)

Memorial tributes to our esteemed colleague Professor Marina Ratner (1938-2017) in the latest issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201903/rnoti-p367.pdf

Congratulations to the UC Berkeley team of Junhao Fan, Ray Li, and Jonathan Xia for finishing Honorable Mention (7th Place) out of 403 teams in the 2018 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition! And Congratulations to Ray Li (who placed in the Top 27) as well as Junhao Fan (who placed Honorable Mention) and Jiannan Jiang (who placed in the top 200) out of 4,623 participants. An additional 10 UC Berkeley students finished in the next 300. UC Berkeley had more students finish in the top 500 than any other public university in the United States. Go Bears!

UC Berkeley Mathematics is offering a wide range of courses this Summer! See the Summer Sessions website for more information! http://summer.berkeley.edu/

Season’s Greetings from the UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics! Another exciting year is coming to a close, and with that, I’m happy to share our 2018 departmental newsletter with you. Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year ahead! --Martin Olsson, Professor and Chair https://math.berkeley.edu/newsletter

The new campus residence hall named for Professor David Blackwell now contains a portrait of him which was commissioned by former student Richard Davis and painted by artist Miguel Diaz Guerrero. In 2014 Professor Blackwell was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for a scientist.

Congratulations to Math Department graduate advisor and program coordinator Vicky Lee, winner of a 2018 Excellence in Advising Award! https://advisingmatters.berkeley.edu//excellence-advising-

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni!

Congratulations to Song Sun, who with Xiuxiong Chen and Simon Donaldson of Stony Brook University will be awarded the 2019 Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry for their three-part series, "Kähler-Einstein metrics on Fano manifolds, I, II and III," in which they proved a long-standing conjecture in differential geometry. https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=4705

Professor Semyon Dyatlov has won the International Association of Mathematical Physics Early Career Award. Congratulations! The prize is awarded at the International Congress of Mathematical Physics (ICMP) in recognition of a single achievement in Mathematical Physics and reserved for scientists whose age in years since birth on July 31 of the year of the Congress is less than 35.

Congratulations and Best Wishes to the Class of 2018! (Left to right: Graduate Vice-Chair Jon Wilkening, Department Chair Martin Olsson, Oski the Bear, Undergraduate Vice-Chair Olga Holtz)

Congratulations to the Math Department's 2017-18 Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement Prize Winners! Graduate Prizes... Herb Alexander Prize (for an outstanding dissertation in pure mathematics): Chris Gerig and Nicholas Ramsey Bernard Friedman Memorial Prize in Applied Mathematics: Michael Lindsey Kenneth Ribet & Lisa Goldberg Award in Algebra: Brandon Williams and Alex Zorn... Nikki Kose Memorial Teaching Prize: Qiaochu Yuan ~~~~~~~~~ Undergraduate Prizes... Departmental Citation (valedictorian) and Chernoff Award: Eric Chen Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize (to seniors who have demonstrated truly exceptional scholarship in mathematics): Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, Hy Pham Gia Lam, Cailan Li, Clark Lyons, Maryann Rui, Sameera Vemulapalli, Lingxian Zhang, Long Zhao, Zirui Zhou Percy Lionel Davis Award (to seniors who have demonstrated excellent scholarship in mathematics): Katherine Anderson, Minjun Chang, Abhishek Dhawan, Nicholas Ward, Tianhe Yu, Ziyang Zhou See more

Cal Day is this Saturday! Check out our flyer for the list of Mathematics Department events!

There are a few more hours left for the annual "Big Give"! The direct link to donate to the Department of Mathematics is https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm

Congratulations to freshman Junhao Fan (who finished in the Top 25) as well as Brian Burks and Jonathan Xia (who finished Honorable Mention) in the 2017 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition which had 4,638 competitors! Other UC Berkeley students finishing in the top 200 were Jiannan Jiang, Brian Liu, and Yuanning Zhang. The UC Berkeley team of Brian Burks, Jiannan Jiang, and Jonathan Xia was named an Honorable Mention Team, placing 7th out of 464 teams. And UC Berkeley had more students place in the top 500 than any other public school in the United States! Go Bears!

Favorite math tweet of the day. #BerkeleyMinds

Professor Olga Holtz is interviewed by "Look What SHE Did!" about the fascinating story of film icon Hedy Lamarr and her technological breakthrough!

Congratulations to Bernd Sturmfels, who will receive the 2018 George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics for his instrumental role in creating the field of applied algebraic geometry.

Congratulations to Senior Mathematics and Computer Science major Sameera Vemulapalli! She has been been named Runner-up for the 2018 Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics competition. The Schafer Prize is awarded annually by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) to the most outstanding woman mathematics undergraduate in the United States, so being named runner-up is a very significant honor.