2015 Newsletter

2015

NEWSLETTER

This newsletter is published annually for alumni & friends of Mathematics at the University of Washington 1 as an associate professor. In addition to his outstanding research and teaching, Jayadev founded and ran the Illinois Geometry Lab, which brought faculty and graduate students together with undergraduates to As I approach the halfway point of my term as chair, I continue foster undergraduate research. In addition, it engaged to delight in the successes of our students and faculty. You community members across the state with activities will learn about these stories in the pages that follow. Let me from Urbana-Champaign to Chicago. Jayadev has preview some of them here. begun to establish a similar program—the Washington Experimental Mathematics Lab—here. I can’t wait to For the sixth year in a row and the twelfth year in the past see the results. fourteen, one of our math majors received the Dean’s Medal in the Natural Sciences. I imagined that our streak couldn’t Inevitably, in parallel with the arrival of the new continue, but that was before I received letters of support comes the departure of others. This year, we lost Albert for David Jekel from faculty in both Math and Classics, his Nijenhuis, a member of our faculty from 1956 to 1964 other major. I knew then that we had a winner, given that the before moving to the University of Pennsylvania, and Classics faculty were as in awe of David’s talents as our own. then an affiliate faculty member upon retirement, when He is now off to UCLA to continue his mathematical studies. he and his wife returned to Seattle. His name is well 2 Message from the Chair known from his early work in differential geometry, but Our department has been fortunate to see four of our faculty in mid-career he switched his focus to combinatorics, receive the university’s distinguished teaching award, but and he was an active member of our combinatorics 4 Cutting a Wide Swath with Math and Classics until last spring none of our graduate students had received seminar on his return. the parallel excellence in teaching award. As with David, I was thrilled to learn about Matt Junge in preparing his nomination An early highlight this year was the arrival of Laure 5 UW Excellence in Teaching Award file. I knew he was a strong graduate student, but had no idea Saint-Raymond from Paris to give our Milliman how exceptional a teacher he was until reviewing support Lecture series. She is an an exceptional mathematician. letters from a wide range of people who work with him. As Moreover, she is only the second woman to speak in 6 Guggenheim Foundation honors UW Mathematician Tatiana Toro a TA, a mentor to other TAs, a classroom instructor, and an the series since its start in 1984, the first since Ingrid inspiring teacher at the Washington Corrections Center for Daubechies spoke eighteen years ago. We will not have Women, he has had huge impact on a diverse mix of students to wait long for our third woman. Fan Chung from UC Sloan Research Fellow: Thomas Rothvoss and colleagues. Another of our graduate students, Cris San Diego has agreed to be a Milliman Lecturer next Negron, completed his PhD with James Zhang last year and year, with Curt McMullen of Harvard coming this May. received an NSF postdoctoral fellowship, which he is using to 7 Associate Professor: Jayadev Athreya continue his research this year at Louisiana State University I will close with some comments on the university’s before taking a position next year at MIT. budget. A few years ago, just as the state was cutting its direct funding to UW and the university Acting Assistant Professors Three of our faculty had successful promotion cases last was compensating with large tuition increases, the year, their promotions taking effect this past September. university moved to a new budget model that sent the Andy Loveless and Jenni Taggart moved from senior lecturer increased tuition funds to colleges based on student New Staff to principal lecturer. Max Lieblich moved from associate enrollments. This favored our college, Arts and Sciences, professor to professor. They are all immensely talented and and indirectly our department as well. At the end of last valued members of the department, with other talents to spare. June, with the biennial legislative session going down to 8 2015 Milliman Speaker: Laure Saint-Raymond Andy is a top-notch tennis player, Jenni a breathtakingly good the wire as it did two years earlier, the Legislature agreed actor, singer, and director, Max a jack-of-all-trades whose to a two-stage cut of 15% in resident undergraduate research is expanding from algebraic geometry to machine tuition, with lost funding to be replaced (in large part, 9 Albert Nijenhuis learning and computer vision, and who is taking the lead in but not completely) by an increased state allocation to using technology to teach calculus. I learn so much from all the university. As welcome as a tuition reduction is, three of them. this is likely to have a negative impact on the college’s 10 Student Honors operations, and ultimately on our own. As the state- Two of our newest faculty received major early career awards funded portion of our budget waxes and wanes, the last year. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research granted private gifts and endowments that Dima Drusvyatskiy one of its Young Investigator awards, we receive provide valuable 11 Graduating Class: 2014 - 2015 while Thomas Rothvoss received a Sloan Research Fellowship stability, with scholarships for from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Both do work that undergraduates, fellowship cuts across disciplines. In Thomas’s case, his research in support for graduate 12 Faculty Promotions theoretical computer science is such a natural fit with the students, professorships work done by faculty in UW’s Department of Computer for our faculty, and flexible Science and Engineering that earlier this year he received a funds that can be used 13-15 Our Donors: Individual Contributors regular faculty appointment in their department too. One of to support their efforts. our senior faculty, Tatiana Toro, received a prestigious mid- To all of you who have career award, a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon contributed to the department, Back Cover Corporate Donors Guggenheim Foundation. In addition to her strong research on behalf of all of us in the program, she organized the first Latinos in the Mathematical department, thank you. Sciences conference, held last April at the Institute for Pure Your generosity makes and Applied Mathematics at UCLA. such a difference in the work we do. Our newest faculty member is Jayadev Athreya, whom we successfully recruited to join us from the University of Illinois -Ron Irving

2 3 Matthew Junge, a Ph.D. candidate, received the 2015 University of Washington Excellence in Teaching Award. This is a campus-wide award Cutting a Wide Swath with Math and Classics given each year to just two of the more than 13,000 graduate students at UW. Of the 68 past recipients, he is the first from the Mathematics This article appeared originally in the June 2015 issue of Perspectives, a publication of the College of Arts and Sciences. Department. Matt has also received the department’s Excellence in Teaching Story by Nancy Joseph, photo by Isaiah Brookshire Award and the R. Tyrrel Rockafeller Fellowship for Research Excellence. His research is in discrete probability, with Chris Hoffman serving as his advisor. HEN David Jekel was looking at colleges, he had in mind Jekel has taught his professors a thing or two as well. “He is doing so a small Christian school, similar to his high school. Then well I cannot keep up with him,” admits James Morrow, Barbara Sando Matt is involved with many aspects of teaching at UW. As the department’s W he visited the University of Washington. “I realized that and Vaho Rebassoo Term Professor of Mathematics, who invited Jekel Lead TA, he was responsible for training and overseeing all of the incoming it would be a good idea to have a bigger, more diverse group of to work with him on inverse problems for electrical networks. “Each graduate students in their teaching. His website, mathjunge.com, is widely people to interact with,” he recalls. “I thought it would be a good week he comes in with a new set of results. I have never supplied any used by grads and undergrads for calculus materials. It includes a blog, MathVan, mind-broadening experience.” of his ideas. They are all his own and they are brilliant.” about living in his van while traveling the country speaking about his research. Matt was also involved in the development of the department’s online calculus course. Evidently so. Jekel thrived at the UW and was recently selected Classics professors have been equally wowed by Jekel’s intellect. Currently, as the department’s Graduate Student Representative, he speaks to faculty as the College of Arts & Sciences 2015 Dean’s Medalist in the Professor James Clauss can tick off half a dozen areas in which Jekel Natural Sciences. He graduated this month with bachelor’s has done graduate level work, describing him as “scary-smart.” on behalf of the graduate students and promotes community in the department. degrees in mathematics and classics—an unusual Jekel has twice received the Classic Department’s Jim Greenfield combination that makes perfect sense to him. Undergraduate Scholarship in addition to awards in Undergraduate research is another priority. Matt has devised and led six projects for the mathematics. department’s summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates. This year he is leading “I am majoring in both math and classics a probability research group of four talented undergraduates. He cites Jim Morrow as very because I want a multidisciplinary Jekel began studying Latin and ancient Greek influential in his approach to creating meaningful research opportunities for students. Matt also understanding of the world,” he in high school, the latter to read the New looks for opportunities to engage the community. He has performed mathematical card tricks explained in an honors essay about Testament as originally written. At the UW, at the annual UW Mathday for high school students, at the Seattle University Colloquium, his educational goals. “I cannot he discovered that classics is much more at various math clubs, and at Washington Correctional Center for Women (WCCW). study everything, but these two than religious texts. “I realized that there disciplines cut a wide swath were aspects of the classical sources At WCCW, Matt helped design and teach a curriculum that starts with arithmetic across the field of human that I hadn’t been exposed to in my knowledge. Mathematics Christian high school,” he says. “There and culminates in a “Math in Society” course on discrete mathematics. This was reveals nature, classics is quite a diversity of ideas in Greek the first college-accredited math course offered at WCCW. Junge got involved [reveals] human nature.” and Roman literature.” A favorite of out of a desire to reach a more diverse population. “I want to change their his is Plato, despite recognizing that perception of math, both for their future success and for the potential impact Jekel excelled at math from an Plato doesn’t prove his philosophical it will have when they reenter their communities.” The experience altered early age. His small high school theories rigorously. “You can’t read Matt’s priorities. “Prison education is part of my life. Everyone deserves the had few options in advanced Plato’s writing and not be inspired by empowerment of education.” He will again teach Math in Society this winter. mathematics, so he studied it, even if you think he’s wrong,” says independently from books. Jekel. “It stimulates your thinking in a lot Besides mathematics, Matt enjoys playing guitar, writing lyrics and poetry, That changed dramatically at the of ways—something it has in common with photography, triathlons, and fostering rescue dogs. He won Seattle’s first UW, where he had opportunities math. They are both about powerful ideas barefoot race (5:11 mile), and also a Valentine’s Day haiku contest: to take graduate courses, pursue that changed the world.” research, compete in international ducks are romantic // with a loaf of bread nearby // and a hand to hold. math challenges, and serve as a teaching This year Jekel made his own small contribution to This year he is applying for postdoctoral positions and tenure-track assistant. changing the world. After taking a UW Honors class jobs. His ultimate goal is to be a professor at a liberal arts college. about the role of post-secondary education in prison, with “I didn’t really understand what math was until I was a prisoners as classmates, he joined HOPE (Huskies for Opportunities sophomore or junior here,” he says. “It’s one thing to be able to in Prison Education), a UW registered student organization that works compute things and do some algebra and trigonometry, but when to provide sustainable and inexpensive educational opportunities to you begin to rigorously prove things and get to some deeper and prisoners and educates citizens about the need for prison reform. One higher-level results, that is something totally different and much recent project was an exhibition held on the UW Quad in May 2015, more interesting.” which featured art by inmates and information about the criminal justice system. Jekel built a model prison cell for the exhibit using After his sophomore year, Jekel participated in the Mathematics PVC pipe, to provide a visceral sense of prisoners’ cramped quarters. Department’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer program, which attracts top students from across the This fall, Jekel will enter a PhD program in mathematics at UCLA, country. The students tackle math problems individually or in with plans for an academic career as a mathematician. At the UW small teams. “These are open problems, things people haven’t he tempered his academics with other interests, including church done before,” explains Jekel. “It wasn’t like a math class. It was and weekly swing dance sessions; he expects a similar balance in more like a warm-up for doing research.” L.A. He also plans to study German and attend a Latin conference in Southern California, and he would like to master three or four more He took his first graduate course the following year and two languages. “I can sometimes have overambitious desires,” he says. more his senior year, proving to be “better than our very best graduate students,” according to his professors. Fortunately Overambitious? Maybe not. As his professors have learned, for David for the department, Jekel has shared his talents, serving as a Jekel almost anything’s possible. teaching assistant for the honors calculus sequences and for the REU summer program. To read more about David Jekel, visit his website at davidjekel.com.

4 5

Guggenheim Foundation honors Associate Professor Acting Assistant UW Mathematician Tatiana Toro Jayadev Athreya Professors

Originally written by Hannah Hickey for UW Today by Douglas Lind Jeremy Leach “Math isn’t just about solving for x,” said our newest faculty member, Jayadev Athreya. PhD, Stanford University Tatiana Toro, a University of Washington professor and the department’s associate “We need to inspire students at all levels about the excitement and adventure of Research area: chair, is among 175 new fellows from the U.S. and Canada recognized this year by the mathematical ideas and their discovery.” Guggenheim Foundation. Winners, chosen from more than 3,100 applicants, receive Differential Geometry and Mathematical General grants of varying amounts that allow them to pursue creative projects of six to 12 months In his five years at the University of Illinois before arriving in Seattle, Athreya initiated Relativity in the fields of science, academic scholarship, and the arts. the Illinois Geometry Lab (IGL) to involve undergraduates in small teams coupled with graduate students and faculty to work on research projects. This Toro, who holds the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps endowed professorship, earned her approach complements the highly successful NSF-funded Research doctorate at Stanford University in 1992. She held postdoctoral positions at Princeton Experiences for Undergraduates that Jim Morrow has been Francisco Munoz University and the University of California, Berkeley, and was assistant professor at the running at the UW. Instead of an eight-week summer PhD, Yale University program with students from all over the country, the University of Chicago before joining the UW faculty in 1996. Her research focuses on IGL focuses on students at Illinois with semester- Research area: mathematical analysis and geometric measure theory. Toro’s previous awards include an Alfred long projects. A typical project includes three or Representation theory of P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 1996 and a Simons Foundation Fellowship in 2012. She is an editor four undergraduates, a graduate student, and a Lie groups for geometrical analysis publications in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, faculty member who has overall responsibility. Each and has held leadership positions with the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences and semester the IGL involves about 40 undergraduates the Los Angeles-based Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics. Her project for the fellowship together with a dozen graduate students and an equal is titled “Regularity for Almost Minimizers with Free Boundary.” number of faculty. Illinois thought so highly of this Vasu Tewari idea that they are continuing it with added resources. PhD, University of British Other local honorees were Rick Araluce, a Seattle multimedia artist who works in miniatures; Karin Columbia Davie, a Kirkland multimedia artist; and Zoe Scofield, a Seattle choreographer. Athreya will be initiating a similar idea at the UW, called the Washington Experimental Math Research area: Algebraic Lab (WXML). Teams of undergraduates, graduate combinatorics and students, and faculty will explore problems and ideas Representation theory both experimentally and computationally. They will be using the freely available SAGE mathematical software package developed at the UW by William Zhenan Wang Sloan Research Fellow: Thomas Rothvoss Stein. An exciting new twist will be the availability of a 3D laser printer, made by the local Seattle company Glowforge, PhD, Northwestern to create physical objects corresponding to computational results, University allowing theory to come alive. Research area: Probability, Last February, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced that Thomas Rothvoss was one of the recipients of a prestigious Sloan stochastic analysis, Research Fellowship, along with 125 other early-career faculty members in science and mathematics. This idea is flexible, extensible, and proven! It will provide our undergraduates with valuable experience and insights into the nature of mathematical discovery, as well as stochastic partial give our graduate students training in mentoring students. The Mathematics Department differential equations Rothvoss’s field, optimization, pervades all aspects of mathematical, social, and life sciences, from and the College of Arts and Sciences will provide start-up support and space for WXML, designing optimal financial portfolios to medical imaging to how one’s phone gives driving directions. and there are exciting possibilities for corporate support to nurture the kind of talent they Rothvoss works at the interface of discrete optimization and theoretical computer science. Much want. Jonah Ostroff, a lecturer in the department, will add his own enthusiasm to WXML work in discrete optimization has an interdisciplinary character, because one must understand the as Associate Director. One alumnus of the Illinois program, now a graduate student in New Staff underlying mathematics of a problem, then develop algorithms that solve or approximate the the UW Physics Department, was so influenced by IGL that he has offered to help set up problem. For example, Rothvoss has designed provably efficient approximation algorithms for WXML. Building on the strong connections we already have with local schools, WXML classical problems such as the bin packing and Steiner tree problems. He also gave a proof that will enrich our outreach activities in the region. Pamela Kelley the solution space for the perfect matching problem cannot be represented as a small linear Elend program, a question in combinatorial optimization that had been open for three decades. His strong sense of public engagement led Athreya to teach a course in non-Euclidean Pamela joined the geometry to a group of inmates at the Danville Correctional Center, about a 45-minute administrative office in Rothvoss joined the department in January 2014 as an assistant professor. That month, he drive from the Illinois campus. “These were the most respectful, self-motivated students I’ve ever taught,” he said. He plans similar outreach here through a program called November 2015 as a received the best paper award at the annual Symposium on Theory of Computing for his “University Beyond Bars” at the Monroe Correctional Facility. Fiscal Specialist. paper “The Matching Polytope has Exponential Extension Complexity,” work described by Lance Fortnow of Georgia Tech as the “complexity result of the year.” Just months later, Equally important is the exceptionally strong research record Athreya brings to the UW. he and Michel Goemans received the best paper award at the Symposium on Discrete He has done groundbreaking work in homogeneous dynamics, billiard dynamics, and Ryan Kozu Algorithms for “Polynomiality for Bin Packing with a Constant Number of Item Types.” Teichmüller theory, and is described by one expert as the best of his generation. Ryan joined the student In recognition of Thomas’s outstanding contributions to computer science, UW’s services office in May Department of Computer Science & Engineering added him to their faculty earlier Having Athreya join our faculty is a particular pleasure for me, since we shared the 2015 as an Academic this year. This joint appointment establishes an invaluable bridge between our two academic year 2009-10 at Yale, and I got to know him well through the graduate courses Counselor. departments, with Thomas teaching courses and advising students in both. we taught and many other interactions. One remarkable feature of his work is the large number of collaborations he is involved in, partly a consequence of a charm and warmth that is nearly irresistible. 6 7 Albert Nijenhuis Milliman NOVEMBER 21, 1926 - FEBRUARY 13, 2015 Speaker: was Chair, and was pushing to build up the department’s strength in differential geometry. He was a Professor when I arrived as a naïve Assistant Professor here in 1962. I was becoming interested in analysis on symmetric spaces at that time. When I started in this direction, I began to feel keenly that I knew very little differential geometry and algebra, both of which were essential to where I wanted to go. Albert was on a Guggenheim Fellowship then, and was spending the second year of the fellowship in Seattle. He was Professor of Mathematics running a seminar on Differential Geometry that I attended and he attended a seminar on Lie algebras that I started in order to study Harish-Chandra’s work, and we became friends. and university of paris Very soon afterwards, in 1963, Albert received an offer from the University of Pennsylania which he accepted. Richard Kadison école normale supérieure had moved there from Chicago and was charged with refreshing the luster of the Math department’s ivy. He conducted several raids (some friends began to call him the Viking), and we suffered by losing both Albert Nijenhuis and Michael Fell, who were recruited by him. Fortunately, although Albert accepted the Penn appointment as of Fall 1963, he stayed on in Seattle, on leave from Penn, until 1964, which enabled me to continue our seminar for Photo: Raphael Dautigny c/o journal Libération another year. Michael Fell left two years later in 1966. I felt their Earlier this year, in February, we lost another colleague, Albert Nijenhuis, at loss keenly, but of course, one survives. the age of 88. His early history is very interesting. He was born in Arnhem, Holland, and was schooled there. During his middle school and high school After his departure for Penn, Albert continued his work on deformations years Holland was engulfed by World War II, and these were years of great for some years, but his interests slowly shifted towards combinatorics, a distress and privation for his family. During his last year of high school, the field in which he worked closely with Herbert Wilf. For several years after In 1983, Grace Milliman Pollock and her mechanics has had a large impact. Her Nazis occupied Arnhem, and Albert spent that year at his grandparents’ farm, his departure for Penn, Albert and his wife Marianne visited Seattle off and husband S. Wilson Pollock established lecture series was titled "From Particle studying for the State examinations completely on his own. He passed those on during the summer and kept in touch with friends. Although those visits the Wendell Alfred Milliman Endowed Systems to Kinetic Equations.” in 1945, and entered the University of Amsterdam the same year. Clearly, the suffered a lull after some time, their love for Seattle never diminished, and Fund to honor her brother Wendell, who stresses of the war had no effect on his intellectual acumen, as his career at the they promptly moved back here after Albert retired in 1987. Of course, Professor Saint-Raymond has received University shows: Candidat (= a Bachelor’s degree) in 1947, Doctorandus (= they resumed their old friendships and made new ones. Albert became an received his mathematics degree from a candidature for a doctorate) in 1950, and Ph. D. in 1952. Albert then came Affiliate Professor in our department and participated in several ways in its us in 1926. Wendell would go on to a many honors, including the European to Princeton University as a Fulbright Fellow. D. C. Spencer had just joined life. During these years, I became aware of the non-mathematical side of his successful actuarial career, founding Mathematical Society Prize and the Princeton in 1950, and (naturally) Albert became interested in deformation personality. He had a breadth of education that is typical of the European in 1947 what is now one of the largest American Mathematical Society’s theory at that time. Albert was a student of Jan Schouten in Amsterdam, and system of the nineteen thirties and forties, and also had an impressive actuarial consulting firms in the world. Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize. In 2013, she although his training there must have been largely in the fashion of local adeptness at mechanical tasks - (impressive to me anyway, brought up as I was elected the youngest member of differential geometry, which was the ruling genre there, he was among the was as a mechanical incompetent). He was very good at woodworking and The Milliman fund allows us to bring a first to see the need to use much more Algebra in the study of Differential putting together all sorts of gadgets. He was a self-taught electrician, a very distinguished mathematician to campus the French Academy of Sciences, and Geometry in order to understand global properties. No doubt the milieu in competent plumber, and a general Johnny-come-handy. He was greatly fond each year to give a series of lectures. in 2014 she was an invited speaker Princeton played a role in this. Early in his studies, in 1951, he had discovered of maps, and knew a lot about them. He read widely, and retained a lot of it. He Our latest Milliman speaker, this past at the International Congress of the Nijenhuis Tensor, which was later to play a role in the integrability of enjoyed food and wine, and above all conversation and laughter. Marianne October, was Laure Saint-Raymond of Mathematicians in Seoul. She is also almost complex structures on a manifold (in the Newlander-Nirenberg had established a sort of tradition of hosting their many friends at an annual an accomplished cellist, who shares her Theorem). But, as he told me once, his point of view till he came to Princeton Rijsttafel of Indonesian food, and we spent many wonderful evenings at these the University of Paris and the École was “local index pulling” and “coordinate transformations”. It was there that gatherings, and of course on other occasions also. Normale Supériure, whose work in partial passion for music and mountains with he began to develop his interest in algebraic methods (via cohomology) in differential equations and statistical her husband and six children. the study of deformation, a field to which he made significant contributions. In the last couple of years, Albert’s health was failing, but he managed to keep his cheerfulness. Most people in the department may not have known him. Albert’s association with our department goes back to 1956, when he joined This is but natural, given the context. But those of us who did were privileged the department as an Assistant Professor. This was when Carl Allendoerfer to have known a most enjoyable personality. -Ramesh Gangolli

8 9 Graduating Class:

Honors Richard Robinson (Rehka Thomas, advisor) Doctorate: “The Positive Semidefinite Rank of Matrices and Polytopes” Yajun An (Ken Bube, advisor) Richard is currently a software engineer at Microsoft. “Finite-Difference Methods for Second-Order Wave Equations with Reduced Dispersion Errors” Andrey Sarantsev (Soumik Pal, advisor) Graduate Awards Undergraduate Awards Yajun is currently a visiting assistant professor at Pacific “Competing Brownian Particles” Lutheran University. Andrey is currently an acting assistant professor at the Academic Excellence Awards Gullicksen Award for Outstanding Junior University of California, Santa Barbara. Yifan Chang, Alex Voet, Liang Ze Wong Collin Litterell Camil Aponte Román (John Palmieri, advisor) “Graded Group Schemes” Simon Spicer (William Stein, advisor) Excellence in Teaching Awards “The Zeros of Elliptic Curve L-functions: Analytic First Year Honors Calculus Award Joel Barnes (Steffen Rohde, advisor) Algorithms with Explicit Time Complexity” and Christian Rudnick Amy Wiebe Jasper Hugunin “Conformal Welding of Uniform Random Trees” Simon is currently a data scientist at Facebook. Joel is currently an Associate at Goldman Sachs. Gerald B. Folland Fellowship Tvrtko Tadić (Krzysztof Burdzy, advisor) Second Year Honors Calculus Award Jair Taylor Peter Caday (Gunther Uhlmann, advisor) “Time-like Graphical Models” William Dana “On Numerics and Inverse Problems” Tvrtko is currently a software engineer at Microsoft. McKibben and Merner Fellows Peter is currently a postdoc at Rice University. Outstanding Graduating ACMS Major Xingting Wang (James Zhang, advisor) Daiwei He and Yue Zhao Alberto Chiecchio (Sándor Kovács, advisor) “Classification of Connected Hopf Algebras up to Prime- Natalie Chow “Towards a non-Q-Gorenstein Minimal Model Program” Cube Dimension” R. Tyrrel Rockafellar Fellowship Alberto is currently a visiting assistant professor at the Xingting is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Matthew Junge Outstanding Graduating Senior University of Arkansas. California, San Diego. (B.S. Comprehensive Major) Tanzi-Egerton Fellow Lindsay Erickson (Sándor Kovács, advisor) Yang Yang (Gunther Uhlmann, advisor) David Jekel and Nikolay Malkin “Deformation Invariance of Rational Pairs” “Three Elliptic Inverse Problems” Jessica Merhej Lindsay is currently a software engineer at Google. Yang is currently a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University. Thomas and Grace Tseng Fellowship Outstanding Graduating Senior Christopher Jordan-Squire (James Burke, advisor) José Alejandro Samper (B.S. Standard Major) “Convex Optimization Over Probability Measures” Pal Zsamboki (Max Lieblich, advisor) Sunjay Cauligi Christopher is currently a Research Scientist at Amazon. “Toward the Compactification of the Stack of Lie(G)-forms Using Perfect Complexes” Ru-Yu Lai (Gunther Uhlmann, advisor) Pal is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of NSF Postdoctoral Fellow Outstanding Graduating Senior “Inverse Problems for Scalar Elliptic Equations and Western Ontario. (B.A. Standard Major) Systems” Cris Negron received the 2015 Mathematical Ru-Yu is currently an assistant professor at the University Chris Alfino Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the of Minnesota. Master’s: National Science Foundation. Already the recipient Outstanding Graduating Senior Stephen Lewis (Tatiana Toro, advisor) Tim Carrell (Thomas Duchamp) Local Set Approximation: Infinitesimal to Local Theorems of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research (B.A. Teacher Preparation) “ Kyle Curlett (James Morrow) Fellowship, Cris worked on noncommutative algebra and Applications” Adam Wagener Stephen is currently a software engineer at Panopto. Joanna Gaski (William Stein) and noncommutative algebraic geometry under the Sean McCurdy (Tatiana Toro) supervision of James Zhang. He is continuing his research Putnam Exam Outstanding UW Score Kaloyan Marinov (Gunther Uhlmann, advisor) “Inverse Boundary-Value Problems on an Infinite Slab” Joshua Swanson (Sara Billey) this year at Louisiana State University, and and will move Jasper Hugunin and William Dana Kaloyan is currently a postdoc at the Technical University Hanchao Wang (Zhenqing Chen) to Massachusetts Institute of Technology next year. of Denmark.

Brendan Pawlowski (Sara Billey, advisor) “Permutation Diagrams in Symmetric Function Theory and Bachelor’s: Schubert Calculus” 181 in Mathematics Brendan is currently a postdoc at the University of Michigan. 71 in Applied & Computational Mathematical Sciences

11 10 Facult y Promotions Our Donors: Individual Contributors The following friends have contributed to the Department between September 2013 and October 2015. Should you notice an error or omission in this list, please draw it to the attention of Rose Choi at [email protected]. surfaces in positive characteristic lay mostly dormant until 2011, when works primarily in algebraic geometry, a field that studies Lieblich, his collaborators, and several others started Mrs. Amy & Mr. Roy Abe Mr. Andrew Boike Mrs. Mary & Dr. William Comfort II Mr. Daniel Fehrenbacher the delicate interface between algebra and geometry. In the working on them again. In the last five years, the major Mr. Matthew Ackroyd Mr. Slobodan Bojanic Mr. Philip & Mrs. Hallie Condit Mr. Wei Feng last several years, he has focused on phenomena questions have been settled. Lieblich, his collaborators, Mrs. Margaret & Mr. Daniel Adams Mr. Phillip Bombino Dr. Michael Coolidge Mr. Ramesh Fernando attached to certain objects called K3 surfaces. Named and his students have also worked on precisely how to Mr. Jerome & Mrs. Roberta Adey Ms. Rebecca Boone Ms. Dona Costello Ms. Gala Filippov after Kaehler, Kodaira, and Kummer (and a sly reference replace the lattices attached to classical K3 surfaces with Dr. Woosuk Ahn Dr. Andrew Borthwick Mr. Robert Crimmins Dr. Craig Finch to the mountain K2), these surfaces are perched on the analogous objects in positive characteristic; their approach Dr. Christopher Aholt Prof. John & Mrs. Margaret Bossert Mr. Karl-Dieter Crisman Dr. Daniel Finkel edge of our understanding. Like Abelian varieties, classical is focused on the derived category, an object that is central to Mr. Michael Allard & Mr. Joseph Bradford Mr. Ralph Cromwell Jr. & Mrs. Pimpun & Mr. Larry Fitzpatrick K3 surfaces are controlled by lattices, but the weight of both mathematics and physics. This recent explosion of activity Ms. Dawn Rysdon Ms. Sandra & Dr. Ellis Bradley Ms. Heather Comeau Mr. Robert Fogle the lattice is higher, adding a rich layer of complexity. They has led to a new round of interesting questions about K3 surfaces Mr. Joshua Anderson & Mr. Robert Bradshaw Ms. Jelena & Prof. Brian Curless Prof. Gerald Folland appear in number theory, cryptography, mathematical and related structures in positive characteristic geometry. Ms. Katherine Anderson Mr. Walt & Mrs. Rita Braithwaite Mr. Adam & Mrs. Jennifer Czeisler Mr. Donald & Mrs. Jeannette Fowler physics, and dynamics. Mr. Robert Anderson Ms. Roberta Brandt & Mr. Antonio da Silva Raimundo Mr. Jason Frautschi In addition to his work in pure algebraic geometry, Mr. Stuart Anderson & Mr. Don Januchowski Mr. Gino D’Ambrosio Ms. Barbara Joan Freeman Several of the central open questions about K3 Lieblich has been expanding his interests toward Ms. Nancy Lee Mr. Larry Brandt Mr. Anthony David Mrs. Sandy & Mr. Gary Freeman surfaces revolve around their properties in a domain known as computer vision and data analysis. He has been working with Dr. Corey Anderson & Mr. Kevin & Mrs. Bridget Brewer Mr. Douglas Davis Mr. Norman & Mrs. Tamara Friehauf “positive characteristic”, a strange non-classical world where a collaborators at UW and Google to bring new techniques from Dr. Melinda Owens Ms. Marilyn Brewer Mr. Dmitri Davydok Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Joyce Frost positive prime (such as 5) is set equal to 0. This is precisely the algebraic geometry into computer vision. He has also been Mrs. June Anderson Ms. Kristin Brewer Mr. Michael De Groot Ms. Sarajean Fujioka & domain that is of central importance to number theory and working with collaborators at the UW School of Public Mr. Scott Anderson Mr. Wyatt Brooks Ms. Heather Dean Mr. Timothy Maguire cryptography, and it happens to house a zoo of wonderful Health and in UW Computer Science on a project related Prof. Shelby Anderson Mr. John & Mrs. Kathryn Brown Dr. Alyson Deines Mr. Froy Fultun and exotic phenomena. After a burst of activity in the to automated human pose detection for the purpose of Mr. Roger & Mrs. Kathleen Andrus Mr. Michael & Dr. Kathryn Brown Ms. Sarah Derks Ms. Megan Galloway 1970s and 1980s, the central questions about K3 workplace safety analysis. Mr. Andrew & Mrs. Galina Anschell Mr. Richard Brown Mr. Carl Deuker Mr. Scott & Mrs. Katherine Garland Mr. Mark Applewhite Dr. Sharon & Mr. Brian Browning Mr. Frederick & Mrs. Jean Dewitt Dr. John & Mrs. Dolores Garnett Mrs. Elsie & Dr. Loren Argabright Prof. Kenneth & Mrs. June Bube Ms. Elizabeth Dickie Mrs. Katherine Garrison & Mr. Hazen Babcock Mr. Thomas Bucaioni Ms. Ann Doherty & Mr. Michael Garrison Mr. Douglas Bacon Ms. Elaine & Mr. Carl Buettgenbach Mr. Jeffery Pintler Mr. Olafur Geirsson Mr. Janos Barbero Dr. Richard Bulpin Mrs. Betty & Mr. James Dolan Mr. Daniel & Ms. Daphne Gelbart cares deeply about all students at the University of joined the UW Math Department in 2001 and has since Mrs. Annette Barca Mr. Juan Bustamante Mr. Damian Dominik Ms. Kelsey Getz Washington: the exceptional, the struggling, and those taught more than 16,000 students in courses from Mr. Jamey & Mrs. Amee Barlet Ms. Wanda Butler Mr. Francis Dooley Mr. Gordan Gibson in-between. Many of the entry-level classes he teaches involve the Business Calculus sequence (Math 111/112) to Ms. Zoya Bashirova Mr. Pavel Buzek Mr. William Doran IV Mr. Kurt & Mrs. Krystine Giesa students who have weak math backgrounds or strong negative Introductory Real Analysis (Math 327/328). She was Dr. Jessica Baumgaertel Dr. Petra Buzkova Mr. Paulius Drungilas Mr. Aleksandr Gil feelings about math. The challenge in these classes is to motivate promoted to the rank of Principal Lecturer this September Mr. Alan & Ms. Maureen Bayless Mr. Benjamin Campbell Ms. Glenna Du Mond Ms. Sara Gilbert students, change their attitudes, and get them to learn the material all at in recognition of her contributions to UW in the classroom Mr. Peter Beaty Ms. Ashley Carlson Mr. Rajeev DuBey Ms. Barbara Gilbert the same time. Despite their initial attitude, Andy continues to receive some and in shared governance. In the Math Department, Jenni Dr. Alfred Beebe & Mr. Philip Carpentier & Prof. Thomas Duchamp & Mr. Everett Gilbert of the highest student teaching evaluations across UW. has recently served on the Undergraduate Program, Math Services, and Diversity Committees and has coordinated Ms. Shauneen Giudice Mrs. Cassandra Carpentier Mrs. Linda Duchamp Ms. Janet & Mr. Dennis Gillingham Andy’s success relies on aggressively and repeatedly putting the material in front of Mr. Robert Beezer Dr. Joseph & Mrs. Mary Cassinelli Dr. Catherine Dunn Ms. Anna Girardi the students’ faces, from the two or three additional review and Math 111/112 and Math 126. She served for six years on the Faculty Ebru Bekyel Mr. Kevin Caswick Ms. Doris Durfee Mr. John Glick practice problem sheets he provides each week to the newsletters Prof. Emily Bender & Dr. Michael Caudy Mrs. Shelley & Mr. Allen Dykes Ms. Barbara Glicksberg and emails he sends out with general advice about studying and Council on Academic Standards practice exam problems. His office hours are typically overflowing and acted as the chair of that Mr. Vijay Menon Mr. Craig & Mrs. Joanne Cauvel Dr. Timothy Eaton Mr. David Glicksberg with students. Andy wishes to make UW a better place for all students. council’s subcommittee Mr. Jeffrey Bentley Mr. Gaurav Chanda & Mrs. Ira Tiwari Ms. Dericka Ebanks Mr. Alan Godoy He has collected information on the best ways for students to gain entry for academic programs, Dr. Joel Berman Ms. Tiffany Chang Mr. Carl Eberhart Dr. Alexandra Goldstein into various competitive majors in order to better advise his students, which oversees changes Mr. Robert Bertoldi Drs. Wei Chang & Dongxiao Zhang Dr. Dorothea Eberz-Wagner & Mr. Justin Goodenkauf helping them find pathways to success. His materials, passion, and to degree programs Mr. Beau Betts Mr. Jordan Chang Mr. Mark Wagner Mr. George & Mrs. Terri Graf energy often provide the spark our students need. throughout the Seattle Praveen Bhamidipati Ms. Pamela Charles The Eitel & McShea Families Mrs. Cindy & Mr. Mark Grantham campus. She continues to serve Mr. Henry Bienen & Ms. Lixin Chen Ms. Tracy Emory Ms. Alison Grauman Andy’s efforts have been recognized through several awards from the university on its Faculty the UW Greek community, the Honors Program’s Excellence in Council for Teaching and Learning and chairs its Ms. Leigh Bienen Mr. Aaron Cherney Prof. Gary & Mrs. Jane Erickson Mr. Gary & Mrs. Gail Grimes Teaching award, and UW’s 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition, Andy has subcommittee on on-line courses. Ms. Laura Bienen Dr. Laura Chihara Mrs. Dana & Mr. Stephen Erickson Mr. Gerald & Mrs. Kathe Griswold mentored faculty, TAs, and tutors across campus. He oversees the Math 125 calculus Ms. Bonnie Birch Ms. Linda Chihara Dr. David Esser Mr. Chris Grygiel TAs during the academic year and graduate students teaching their own courses for Outside of her work at UW, Jenni is an active theatre Dr. Ann Birnbaum Mr. Eddie Chin Ms. Kimberly Esser Ms. Mai Ha artist. She recently appeared as Molly Sweeney in the first time in summer. For the past two years, he has served as a facilitator in the Mr. Gregory & Ms. Jennifer Blair Dr. Li-Ping Chou Mr. Robert Evans Mr. Richard & Mrs. Mary Hallberg Faculty Fellows orientation program for new UW faculty. KTO Productions’ Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel at Seattle Center Theatre 4 and directed As a Beaver Mrs Donna & Mr. Tom Blankinship Mr. Ryan & Mrs. Julie Church Mr. Brian Faber Dr. Valerie Halpin Andy was an all-conference collegiate tennis player at the University of Puget and an Artist, an original bizarre performance Ms. Jean Blumenschein Mr. Kent Clark Mr. Robert & Mrs. Diane Falkenstein Mr. Kjartan Halvorsen Sound and still competes locally in tournaments and leagues. He spends art play that explored the absurdity of human Mrs. Carol & Mr. Bob Blunk CDR DeFord Cochran & Mr. Constantine Fantanas Mr. William Hamilton & most of his free time helping coach his children’s many sports teams. He suffering. She will next direct Love Song by John Mrs. Debbie & Mr. Trond Bodal Mrs. Charlene Cochran Ms. Enda Farrell Mrs. Marilee Hamilton says he is a long suffering Mariners fan, desperately yearning for a World Kolvenbach for KTO Productions, opening in Mr. Hans-Juergen Boehm & Ms. Fiona & Aubrey Cohen Mr. Dean & Mrs. Gloria Fearn Mr. Earl Hansen Series to come to town. January. Ms. Soroor Ebnesajjad Ms. Wendy Colwell Ms. Marianne Fehrenbacher & Mrs. Jo & Mr. Henry Hanson

12 13 Our Donors: continued

Mrs. Sarah & Mr. David Hardy Mrs. Melissa & Mr. Eric Jones Mr. Seung Lee Mrs. Lynne Merrill & Mr. Ian & Mrs. Sandra Paige Dr. Joshua Samani Mr. Vaughn Svendsen Dr. Tanya & Mr. Gordon Wahl Mr. Norman & Mrs. Karen Hardy Mrs. Tracy & Mr. Mark Jones Mr. Suk Lee Mr. Christopher Merrill Dr. James Painter Dr. Burnett Sams & Dr. Leonard Swanson Mr. Andrew Walker Mr. Aneesh Hariharan Thomas & Karen Jones Young Lee Mr. Norman Metcalfe & Ms. Chia-Ying Pan & Mr. Jack Tang Mrs. Dorothy Sams Mr. Tvrtko Tadic Mr. Justin Walker Ms. Henrietta Hartman Mrs. Maureen & Mr. Douglas Jones Mr. Eugene Lescroart Jr. & Mrs. Suzanne Metcalfe Mr. Roberto Panai Barbara Sando Dr. Jennifer Taggart & Ms. Laurie Walloch Ms. Mary Hashisaki Ms. Megan Jones Mrs. Joanna Lescroart Jr. Prof. Ralph Metcalfe & Mrs. Tiffinie & Dr. Brian Pang Mr. Donald & Mrs. Linda Sando Dr. Matthew Conroy Ruijie Wang Ms. Marylyn Hawkins Dr. Richard Joss & Ms. Cheryl Haak Dr. Bjorn Levidow & Mrs. Virginia Metcalfe Mr. Gabriel Pannwitz Ms. Lauren Sandven & Mrs. Barbara & Mr. Aaron Talney Mr. Steven Wang Dr. Merrilee Helmers Mrs. Cyndie & Mr. Peter Juarez Prof. Diana Knauf Mr. Michal Migacz Mr. Norman Pasche Mr. Matthew Eng Ms. Lisa Tanzi & Mr. Charles Egerton Mr. Wei & Mrs. A. Q. Wang Mr. Thomas Henderson & Mr. Brian & Ms. Deanna Kanekuni Mr. Randal Lewis Mr. Norman Miller Mr. William Paul Ms. Brooke Santos Mr. Keith Taylor Ms. Rebecca Weinhold & Mrs. Roberta Henderson Mr. Melvin Kanner & Ms. Deanna & Dr. Hon Li Mr. Skyler Milliken Mr. Erik & Mrs. Catherine Pearson Ms. Lisa Satterfield Mr. Robert Taylor Mr. Britt Piehler Ms. Joan Hendricks Ms. Linda Johnson Prof. Alex Liberzon Mr. Sanfrid & Mrs. Marilyn Milton Prof. David Perkinson Mr. William Schill Mr. Tom Teller Ms. Jennifer Weisbart-Moreno Mrs. Kerry Hendrickson & Dr. Joshua Kantor Mr. Mychal Limric Ms. Molly Mimier Ms. Barbara & Mr. Warren Peterson Christian Schilling Mr. Bruce & Mrs. Beverly Templin Mr. Henry Weiss Jr. & Mr. Thomas Hendrickson Mr. Ian Kaplan Mr. Malcolm Lindquist & Mrs. Anne Mitchell Ms. Juanita Peterson Mr. James & Mrs. Sally Schnatterly Ms. Nadine Thisselle Mrs. Stephanie Weiss Jr. Mr. David & Ms. Gail Hesch Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Jean Karpen Mrs. Sandra Lindquist Mr. William Monjay Jr. & Ms. Faith & Mr. Phillip Pettis Mr. Philip Schneider Mr. James Thomas & Mr. Stephen White Mr. Terence Hiatt Dr. Peter & Miss Carol Keck Mr. Ronald & Mrs. Sally Linebarger Mrs. Arlayne Monjay Jr. Mr. James Pfeiffer Dr. Bertram & Mrs. Rita Schreiber Prof. Theresa Barker-Thomas Ms. Francis White Mr. John Hobby Drs. Stephen & Mary Keeler Ilya Lintsbakh Mr. Gary Moon Dr. Keith Phillips & Ms. Margaret Schroeder Dr. Robert Thompson Dr. Brian & Mrs. M. Hilary Wick Dr. Elizabeth Holmes Ms. Biji Keigley Ms. Diana Lipszyc Ms. Mary Moon Ms. Sharon Hagan Ms. Daniele Scochet Mr. Joshua Thompson Dr. Charles Widger Mr. Gary Holt Mr. Pratik Keni Ms. Evalyn Little Mr. Aaron Moore Mr. David Phinney & Mr. Erik Scott Mrs. Barbara Thompson & Mrs. Robin & Mr. Joseph Wilcox Mr. James Honaker Ms. Geeta Keni Ms. Emily Livingston Rev. Polly Moore & Dr. Stuart Builder Ms. Karen Oliver Ms. Debra Seidell & Mr. Ronald Thompson Mr. Thomas Wilkenson Mr. Guillaume Horel Mrs. LaDonna & Mr. Robert Kenny Mr. Christopher Lizotte Ms. Laura & Mr. James Morgan Dr. William & Mrs. Virginia Pilchard Mr. Gregory Marton Mr. George Tibbits Mr. Willard Willard Mr. Matthew Hottle Mr. Daniel Kim Mr. Eric & Mrs. Sara Loken Mr. Antoine Morin-Paulhus Mrs. Suzanne & Mr. Richard Pinney Prof. David Sellen Ms. Timea Tihanyi & Mrs. Diane & Mr. Randel Williams Dr. Jack Houston, Jr. & Mr. Tay Kim Mr. Qi Lu Mr. Richard & Mrs. Patty Morrow Mrs. Elizabeth & Mr. Douglas Pizac Mr. Goran Serka Prof. Sandor Kovacs Mr. Richard & Mrs. Lynette Williams Mrs. Jacquelyn Houston Jr. Ms. Helen Kim & Mr. Arlan & Mrs. Donna Lund Prof. James Morrow Jr. & Mr. Lawrence Plummer & Ms. Katja Shaye & Mr. Kollin Min Dr. Ashley Timboe Mr. Drew & Mrs. Susan Williams Mr. John Hovey Mr. Douglas Pearson Dr. Hilary Lyons Mrs. Marilyn Morrow Jr. Ms. Gretchen Fennema Mrs. Mary & Mr. Richard Sheetz Ms. Lilian Tjahjadi Mrs. Lorna & Mr. Robert Williams Mr. Derek Howison Mr. Minsu Kim Mr. Gary Mack Mr. Jason & Mrs. Karen Morse Mr. Michael Podobnik Mr. Jeroen Sijsling Dr. Thomas & Mrs. Mary Tjarnberg Mr. John & Mrs. Lynn Wilson Mr. Shinjau Huang Ms. Bora Kim Prof. Massimo Maggiari & Mr. Matt Mullenweg Dr. Frank & Mrs. Judith Pollard Mr. Ajay Sikka Mr. Lannynd Tjong Mr. Christopher Wilson Ms. Cindy Huang Mr. Saevar Kjartansson Mrs. Anne Maggiari Ms. Nichole Murray Mr. Barry Powell Mr. Joseph Silverstein Mrs. Judy & Mr. L. Michael Todd Mr. Brendan Winter Mr. Steven Hubert & Mr. Robert Kletsch Mrs. Marnita & Mr. Gerald Magner Mr. Karl Nacalaban Mr. Jeffrey Powers Dr. Chee Sim Dr. Joseph & Mrs. Mary Tracy Mr. Edmund Wolak Ms. Deborah Rodgers Mr. Thomas & Mrs. Janet Kloster Mr. Dennis & Mrs. Mary Maher Prof. Isaac & Mrs. Lensey Namioka Mr. Jon & Mrs. Christy Price Mr. Marvin Sinderman Jr. Khoa Tran Mr. Denny & Mrs. Jennifer Wong Mr. Benjiman Hullinger & Dr. Vince Knight Ms. Stephanie Maher Mr. Damien Nanquette Mr. Paul Priest & Ms. Amy Harper Mrs. Patricia & Mr. Clair Skold Mrs. Jennifer & Mr. Toby Travis Mr. Darryl Wong Ms. Megan Hullinger Dr. Eric & Mrs. Karen Knudson Mr. Nikolay Malkin Mr. David Neault Mr. Anton Prokhorov Antoinette Slavich Dr. John Treat III & Ms. Trina Woo Ms. Elizabeth Hunter Mr. Edward Kohnstamm & Mr. Doug & Ms. Michelle Manis Mr. Gary & Ms. Sharon Nestegard Mr. Glenn & Mrs. Aileen Pruiksma Mr. Jeffrey & Mrs. Lisa Smith Prof. Douglas Lind Mr. Koon Woon Mrs. Angellica & Mr. Muoi Huynh Mrs. Linda Kohnstamm Ms. Eva & Mr. Heikki Mannisto Mr. Phillip Ng Mrs. Lauren Radcliff Mrs. Diane & Mr. William Smith Ms. Melissa Trimble Mr. Chris Worswick & Mr. Nathan Idczak Ms. Patricia Kolstad Mr. Stephen Mar Dr. Di Nguyen Mrs. Jacqueline Raftery & Mr. Brent & Ms. Jill Smith Mr. Timothy Trinh Ms. Laurel Wells Mr. Ruben Illa Sr. Ms. Aubrey Kreitzmann Mr. Douglas Mar & Mr. Bahram Niamir & Ms. Bibi Malek Prof. Adrian Raftery Mrs. Sondra & Mr. Mark Snyder Mrs. Jennifer & Mr. Mark Truluck Ms. Jian Wu-Larse Mrs. Mary Impett-Gallagher & Prof. Catherine Kriloff & Ms. Sheila Kannappan Mr. Dejan Nikic Mrs. Lalitha & Mr. Balan Raman Dr. Hal Snyder Ms. Summer Truswell Mr. Richard Wurdack & Mr. J. Padraic Sean Gallagher Mr. Ray Lappan Mr. Fred March IV Prof. Joel Nishimura Mrs. Maria & Mr. Nicholas Ramirez Dr. Robijanto Soetedjo Dr. Nora Tseng Mrs. Jennifer Wurdack Ron & Gail Irving Bjarni Kristinsson Mr. Matthew Marcoe Ms. Marilyn Niwao & Mr. Marnel Ramirez Ms. Tatsiana Sokal Mrs. Martha Tucker Mr. Richard Wurdack & Mr. Alexey Ivanchukov Gopi Kumar Mr. Adrian Mariano Mr. John Roberts Mr. Dwayne & Mrs. Janet Randall Ms. Jillian Sorensen Mr. Joel Tucker Ms. Gena Shurtleff Mr. Maxim Ivanov Mrs. Helen & Mr. Robert Kutz Ms. Tracey Marsh Mr. Thomas Noel Dr. Willis & Mrs. Roberta Rasmussen Mr. Paul & Mrs. Michelle Sorrick Mrs. Marsha & Mr. John Tuohy Dr. Glen & Mrs. Nancy Wurden Mr. Michael Jacejko Mr. Michal Kwasniak Ms. Jolene & Mr. Jerron Marshall Mrs. Anna & Mr. Dennie Norman Mr. Carson Rasmussen Ms. Lily Soundararajulu Dr. Emily Turner & Ms. Han Xia Dr. Ralph James & Hyun Kwon Ms. Alyssa Martin Mr. Lev Novik Dr. Vaho Rebassoo & Mr. Jaap Spies Shyamalan Pather Ms. Susan Yamamura Ms. Cynthia Morgan Ms. Eun Kwoun Mr. Justin Mauger Prof. Isabella Novik Ms. Maura O’Neill Ms. Mona Srikanth Mrs. Melinda & Mr. Jeffrey Ursino Drs. Qi Yan & Yi Li Ms. Sherri & Mr. David Jarvey Ms. Rachel La Corte Mr. Scott & Mrs. Trina McCarrell Mr. Timothy O’Donovan Ms. April Reid Mrs. Colleen & Mr. Charles Stark Mr. Matthew Van Cleave Ms. Irina Yatsenko Mr. Steven & Mrs. Laurie Jenks Mr. Victor La Forest Ms. Kathy McCarthy Mr. Kenneth Oien Mrs. Geraldine & Mr. Gerald Rein Mr. Seth Startup Mr. Michael Van Dyk Mr. Michael & Mrs. Theresa Young Dr. George Jennings Ms. Kristen Laine Ms. Clara McGee Mr. Peter Olive Mr. Victor Richardson Prof. William Stein Ms. Liesbeth Vanderwal & Mr. Jack Zektzer Prof. Kevin Jensen & Ms. Carol Lake Prof. William McGovern & Mr. Donald Olson II Mr. Keith Ridler Ms. Susan Steindorf & Mr. Hunter John Mr. Yu Zhang Ms. Su-Ying Hsueh Mr. Paul LaMar Dr. Kathleen Graunke Dr. Howard Onishi Mrs. Helen Riehl Dr. David Cowan Mr. Glen Vanlaningham & Jiguang Zhang Sung Jeon Ms. Mary Langridge Mr. M. Craig McKibben & Mr. Daniel Osborn Mr. Gary Ritner Mrs. Caroline & Mr. Mark Stewart Mrs. Janice Vanlaningham Dr. Diane Zhong Mrs. Marilyn Jimenez & Mr. Claude Langridge (D) Ms. Sarah Merner Dr. Mason Osborne (D) Ms. Linda Roberts Mr. Darren Stott Prof. Marco Varisco Mr. Eric Zick Mr. Alejandro Jimenez Ms. Linda LaPonte C.d. McLean Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski & Prof. John Roberts Mr. Robert Stretz Prof. Thomas Vaughan & Ms. Karel Zikan Mr. Eric Johnson Mr. Will Larson Ms. Jeanna McLellan Mrs. Patricia Ostaszewski Mrs. Susan & Mr. Michael Rogers Dr. Naomi & Mr. Connor Stroupe Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt Ms. Sally Zitzer Ms. Anna Johnson Mrs. Sherry & Mr. Floyd Lay Ms. Shana McNally Mrs. Katherine & Mr. Patrick Osteen Mr. James & Mrs. Mary Rohrback Uladzislau Sudzilouski Mr. Jose Voloch Mr. Donald Zongker Mr. Allen & Mrs. Jane Johnson Mr. Michael & Mrs. Sally Lebens Prof. Marina Meila & Ms. Lauren Ottenstein Comm. Roger & Mrs. Joni Rose Mr. Nathaniel Sugg Mr. Peter Von Rohr Mrs. Deborah & Mr. John Zygar Mr. Evan & Mrs. Shareen Johnson Mrs. Marilyn & Mr. Vernon Leck Mr. Carl De Marcken Ms. Laura Owen Mrs. Sabra & Mr. Mark Rossman Mr. William Sullivan Mrs. Sandra & Mr. John Wade Mr. William Johnston Ms. Heather Lee Mr. Sigurd Meldgaard Mr. Richard Oxford Dr. Ed & Mrs. Claire Runnion Prof. John & Mrs. Jean Sullivan Dr. Hem Wadhar

14 15 NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE MathematicsNEWS PAID NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SEATTLE, WA BOX 354350 PERMIT NO. 62 SEATTLE, WA 98195-4350

Each year the Department receives gifts from its alumni and friends. These gifts are of immense value to us and permit us to carry on important activities for our students and our scholarly work. They provide money for scholarships, fellowships, and prizes for our students; support events like Mathday and the REU program; fund visits to our department by distinguished mathematicians from around the country and the world; and give the Department a much-needed element of flexibility to meet special needs as they arise. For these contributions we are truly thankful to our donors. If you are thinking of making a gift to the Department, or remembering the Department in your will, we invite you to discuss the matter with the chair, Ron Irving, or Alexandra Eckstein of the Advancement Office in the College of Arts and GiftsSciences to the Department ([email protected]). You can also visit our web site at www.math.washington.edu and click on “Give to Math.”

Ron Irving, Chair John Sullivan, Editor Rose Choi, Layout chair sullivan rosechoi @math.washington.edu @math.washington.edu @math.washington.edu

Corporate and Foundation Donors

Goldman, Sachs & Co. APS Foundation Johns Hopkins University Press Royal Dutch/Shell Group JustGive.Org IBM Corp. PACCAR Inc. Symetra Financial The Boeing Co. Salesforce.com The Seattle Foundation Microsoft Corp. Select College Admissions Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Adobe Systems, Inc. Starbucks Coffee Co. Vanguard Charitable Lockheed Martin Corp. Gap, Inc. Endowment Prog. Wells Fargo & Co. Cisco Systems, Inc. Simons Foundation Google Inc. F5 Networks, Inc. American Mathematical Society