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MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT Northwestern University • The Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences • Department of Mathematics SUMMER 2015 From the Chair Newsletter Jared Wunsch, Chair, Department of Mathematics The 2015 Mark and Joanna Pinsky Distinguished Lecture Series | Northwestern University Department of Mathematics t’s May as I write, and as always in geometric Richard Thomas the combined effects of calendar analysis. Imperial College, London Iand climate have brought an Among the almost painful wealth of mathematical first activities Tuesday | April 21, 2015 Nodal curves, old and new excitement to Lunt Hall. We’ve had funded by the Wednesday | April 22, 2015 The KKV conjecture both the Pinsky and Bellow lectures RTG will be Thursday | April 23, 2015 Homological projective duality Calibi Yau image created by Andrew J. Hanson, Indiana University this year in fairly short succession, our upcoming All lectures begin at 4:00pm | Lunt Hall 105 2033 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois with the former being delivered in Summer School This lecture series is made possible through the generosity late April by Richard Thomas, of in Geometric of Mark and Joanna Pinsky Imperial College London, and the Analysis The 2015 Bellow Lecture Series Department of Mathematics | Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences | Northwestern University latter, just this month, by Ben Green, (again part Ben Green of Oxford. Meanwhile we have what of this enormous emphasis year) and Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics, University of Oxford Approximate must surely be the most ambitious the upcoming Graduate Research algebraic emphasis year ever at Northwestern, Opportunities for Women (“GROW”) structure with our geometric analysts running conference, organized by Laura an incredible array of activities which DeMarco, Ezra Getzler, and Bryna reach their peak with this month’s Kra. GROW will bring undergraduate Workshop on Ricci Curvature. At the women interested in pursuing graduate p 1⇤ same time, we’re really excited to have degrees in math to our campus this p0⇤ p⇤ 1 − Mike Hopkins visiting in conjunction October, for a program of research q⇤ 1 Lunt Hall 105 | 4 pm − 2033 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois q0⇤ r ⇤ 1 r⇤ with his Nemmers prize; he’s giving a lectures and panel discussions. − 0 r⇤ 1 q1⇤ May 18, 2015 Approximate groups May 19, 2015 mini-course on algebraic and motivic In the fall, the department will be Approximate polynomials May 20, 2015 Problems about points and lines vector bundles. This is in addition joined by a new assistant professor The Bellow Lecture Series is made possible through the generosity of Alexandra Bellow, Professor of Mathematics Emeritus to the May Midwest Microlocal in number theory, Yifeng Liu. Liu, Meeting, a minicourse by visitor who joins us from MIT (where he is Gábor Székelyhidi on moment maps currently a Moore Instructor), is already May Midwestern Microlocal Meeting1 May 16 –17, 2015 and stability in algebraic geometry, a mathematician of impressive breadth. an undergraduate prize day lecture by He has not only done profound work Annalisa Crannell,... well, you get the in a wide swath of number theory and idea: it’s been wild but exhilarating. arithmetic geometry, but he also has a Northwestern University Speakers 105 Lunt Hall I am incredibly pleased to announce rather impressive sideline working on 2033 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois Dean Baskin, Texas A&M Organizers Yaiza Canzani, Harvard University and IAS Kiril Datchev, Purdue that the department has been awarded infinity-categories. We are excited for Antônio Sá Barreto, Purdue Peter Hintz, Stanford University Jared Wunsch, Northwestern Long Jin, UC Berkeley Information for Participants an NSF Research Training Groups his arrival. News of other of our recent Talks will take place in 105 Lunt Hall and are open to the mathematical public. Richard Melrose, MIT They will be scheduled on Saturday morning and afternoon, and on Sunday morning. Please email any questions to [email protected]. Wilhelm Schlag, University of Chicago More information at: http://www.math.purdue.edu/~kdatchev/MMMM/index.html UC Berkeley (“RTG”) Grant in the area of Analysis hires has been very impressive, with This event is supported by the Mathematics Department at Northwestern University Maciej Zworski, and by a grant from the National Science Foundation. on Manifolds. This $2.18 million both Laura DeMarco and Mihnea Popa grant, with Ezra Getzler as its Principal awarded Simons Fellowships for next Investigator, will fund the training of year, and Popa being elected a Fellow postdocs and students at every level of the AMS. We were very proud that continued on page 3 2033 Sheridan Rd • Evanston, Illinois 60208 • (847) 491-3298 • http://www.math.northwestern.edu/ Department News The math department was awarded a National Kate Juschenko received a Faculty Early Career Science Foundation Research Training Group Development (CAREER) Award from the National (RTG) grant in geometric analysis. The $2.18M Science Foundation. grant will fund research and training of students and postdocs in this field over the next five years.Ezra Laura DeMarco and Mihnea Popa were named Getzler is the project’s Principal Investigator, with 2015 Simons Fellows in Mathematics. Co-Principal Investigators Aaron Naber, Jared Mihnea Popa gave an invited address at the 2015 Wunsch, Laura DeMarco, and Ben Weinkove. Central Spring Sectional Meeting of the American Eric Zaslow won the Alumnae of Northwestern Mathematical Society. University Award for Curriculum Development for Mihnea Popa was named to AMS 2015 class of his course proposal, Quantitative Reasoning, which fellows. will be developed as part of the Bridge Program. Sandy Zabell was appointed to a DNA Analysis Donald Geman, Ph.D. ‘70, was elected to the Committee of the National Institute of Standards National Academy of Sciences. Geman, whose NU and Technology (NIST), tasked with promulgating thesis was entitled “Horizontal-window conditioning forensic science standards and guidelines. and the zeros of stationary processes,” was recognized for his work in machine learning. Deanna Haunsperger, Ph.D. ’91, was elected President of the Mathematical Association of America. 2 Incoming Faculty Yifeng Liu, Assistant Professor Yifeng Liu studied Mathematics at Peking University in China, before coming to the US for his doctoral studies. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2012. He was a C.L.E. Moore instructor from 2012-2015 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are Algebraic Number Theory, Automorphic Forms, and Algebraic Geometry. From the Chair, continued from front page Aaron Naber spoke at last year’s International Congress about break. The job is especially easy to leave because it’s clear his groundbreaking recent work on quantitative stratification that the department is going to be in excellent hands, with and Ricci curvature bounds. And Kate Juschenko received Paul Goerss (who has in fact done this before) taking over in a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for her proposal on September 2015. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to “Amenable and Recurrent Actions of Finitely Generated our superb departmental staff, who made my life as chair as Groups.” easy as they could, and mostly saved me from making a fool of I am pleased to report that this is my last newsletter as myself for the last three years. chair—while it’s been a fascinating job, I’m ready to take a Springtime around Lunt Hall 3 Undergraduate News 2014/2015 Undergraduate Prize Winners in Mathematics Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics by a Graduating Senior Andrew J. Ahn, Xuchen Han, Jasmine Powell Honorable Mention for Achievement in Mathematics by a Senior Paul J. Frigge Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics by a Junior Michel G. Alexis, Joseph Breen Honorable Mention for Achievement in Mathematics by a Junior Josiah Hyun Oh, Alberto Takase Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics by a Sophomore Araminta Gwynne Honorable Mention for Achievement in Mathematics by a Sophomore Gavriel Hirsch, Mohammed Harris Khan, Alexander Martin, Samuel Mossing Excellence in Mathematics by a First Year Student Tushar Chandra, Ethan Dlugie, Shreya Goel, Zachary Herron, Aditya Jain, Hankyul Lee, Mengtan Liu, Xiaoxiao Ouyang, Bo Peng, Paul Salamanca, Jiaqi Shang, Jordan Todes, Di Xiao, Zimin Zeng Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics by a High School Student Fiona Brady Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Mathematical Life Joseph Breen, Paul J. Frigge Outstanding Achievement on the William Lowell Putnam Examination Edward Kim, Zeyu Wang High Achievement on the William Lowell Putnam Examination Andrew J. Ahn, Jiaqi Shang Excellence as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Joseph Breen, Julian Caracotsios, Jasmine Powell Certificate of Recognition for Service as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Julian Caracotsios, Do Hyung Kim, Billy Morrison, Jasmine Powell, Abraham J. Schulte, Zeyu Wang 4 Undergraduate News The Undergraduate Program 2014-2015 By Mike Stein, Director of Undergraduate Studies As I write this, it’s been less than a week since we awarded Powell – wrote honors theses. All of them, along with Xuchen our annual undergraduate prizes. Among the highlights were Han, Abe Schulte, and Daniel Douglas (a 2013 graduate) will the undergraduate TA awards, and I was struck with how this continue into PhD programs at MIT, UCLA, Stony Brook, program has developed in the 7 years since its inception. Santa Barbara, Michigan, and USC. Other