Autumn 2011 Volume 6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1ntegral n e w s f r o m t h e mathematics d e p a r t m e n t a t m i t Gigliola Staffilani as Graduate Committee Inside Chairs; and Ju-Lee Kim and John Bush, co- Chairs of the Undergraduate Advisors, with • New faculty 2 Stephen Johnson, who replaces Bush this • Faculty news and awards 3 year. Ruben Rosales is Chair of the depart- ment’s newly-formed Diversity Committee, • Renovation update 4 tasked with finding and implementing ways • Fundraising 5 to reach a broader pool of potential math- • Student activities 6–7 ematical talent. • Associate Head’s report 7 Renovation plans • Outreach programs 8 This past spring began the first formal steps Dear Friends, toward a long-awaited renovation of the As the summer winds down and we get department’s home in Building 2. ready for the fall term, writing We inaugurated PRIMES, an aca- this letter gives me a chance to demic-year program to give selected reflect on the past year and to an- local high school students an op- ticipate the year ahead. portunity to do supervised research. First, and most importantly, our Professor Pavel Etingof and Lec- recent recruiting efforts paid off turer Slava Gerovitch created and splendidly with the addition of ran this new program, which was four outstanding new members to heavily over-subscribed, building our faculty: Professor Igor Rod- on the success of the summer pro- nianski (analysis and PDEs), and grams RSI (for high school students, Assistant Professors Sug Woo selected internationally) and SPUR Shin (Langlands program), Jared (for MIT undergraduates). For our Speck (analysis and PDEs) and majors planning to enter the work Gonçalo Tabuada (non-commuta- force after graduation, we presented tive algebraic geometry). a Career Panel last fall, hosting past majors to give talks about their Haynes Miller has been appoint- professions. These covered quite ed Associate Head of Mathemat- a diversity of fields and careers in ics, a position which may have actuarial science, algorithmic trad- existed in the department long ing, animation, energy markets, and ago, but which had been unfilled consulting and venture capital. Our since the 1970s at least. The Simons Lecture series continues this Associate Head will oversee the spring, featuring László Lovász and department’s educational activi- Alexander Lubotzky. ties. Haynes has served as Chair of the Undergraduate/Education Maintaining the momentum of our Committee for seven years, and fundraising success, our friends this new position raises the visi- have given generously once again. bility of that role, both internally Notable gifts from MathWorks, the and externally, recognizing the Robert Collins Trust, and others increasing complexity of man- have put us well over the $6 million aging our teaching effort. mark, making this a banner year. We are most grateful to everyone who While on the topic of departmental has supported us. governance, I take this opportunity to thank MIT planners commissioned a study of our our colleagues for their committee service existing space to explore possibilities. With With that, I’ll sign off for now. last year, and those on board for the coming our enviable location on Memorial Drive Have a good year! year: David Jerison, who chaired our Pure and views of the Charles River, the result Math Committee over the last two years, could be glorious. Images from the study, and Tom Mrowka, our new PMC Chair some shown here and inside, offer tantalizing for 2011–12; Michel Goemans as Applied ideas for community and office spaces. Michael Sipser Math Chair; Bjorn Poonen, Peter Shor, and Department Head 2 New faculty Igor Rodnianski, Professor of Mathematics, comes to MIT from Princeton University, where he was on the faculty since 2000. Rodnianski is a world-renowned analyst, specializing in nonlinear hyperbolic PDEs, particularly Einstein’s equations for space-time in general relativity. He has been developing a more precise understanding of singularities, their formation, and their connection with the geometry of space-time. Among various ac- complishments, he has made great strides toward one of the main goals of the subject—to understand the conditions under which rotating black holes arise. Rodnianski was a Long-Term Prize Fellow of the Clay Mathematics Institute, and recently received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Kansas State University. He received his PhD from Kansas State in 1999 as a student of Lev Kapitanski, following a master’s degree from St. Petersburg University. Gonçalo Tabuada, Assistant Professor of Mathemat- ics, comes to MIT from the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. Tabuada’s research program covers a broad and deep area of algebraic geometry, linking modern homo- topical algebra to non-commutative derived algebraic ge- ometry and K-theory. In 2008, he received the Estímulo à Investigação Award of Portugal’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He completed his PhD at the University of Paris 7 in 2007 under Bernhard Keller and had visiting appointments at the Paul Sabatier University, UCLA, University of Bonn, University of Göttingen, and MIT. Jared Speck, Assistant Sug Woo Shin arrives Professor of Mathematics, at MIT as Assistant Pro- comes to MIT from Princ- fessor of Mathematics fol- eton University. Speck lowing a year at the Insti- is a leading analyst of the tute for Advanced Study. nonlinear PDEs of math- Shin has done exceptional ematical physics, linked work in the global Lang- to problems in relativistic lands program, which fluid mechanics, nonlinear bridges number theory electrodynamics and gen- and representation theory. eral relativity. He received He received his PhD at his PhD from Rutgers Harvard University under University in 2008 under Richard Taylor in 2007, Michael Kiessling and and he was a Dickson In- Shadi Tahvildar-Zadeh. structor at the University He served as lecturer at of Chicago. Shin was a Princeton for a year before going to the University of Cam- mentor of advanced high school students for the International bridge on a research appointment. He returned to Princeton last Mathematical Olympiad while an undergraduate in Korea. year as an NSF Fellow working with Igor Rodnianski and Ser- giu Klainerman. (Shown in photo with wife Jessica Watkins.) 3 .............New Faculty Professorships.............................. Gilbert Strang was appointed as the first holder of the department’s new MathWorks Profes- sorship, beginning July 1, 2011. The MathWorks Profes- sorship was recently endowed through the generosity of MathWorks. (See related article on page 5.) Gil is a leading nu- Mark Behrens has been appointed the Cecil and Ida B. Green Career merical analyst, au- Development Associate Professor of Mathematics. One of the top thor, and educator. algebraic topologists of his generation, Mark works in homotopy “Strang has been theory, a branch of topology that aims to elucidate global proper- a great inspiration ties of topological spaces through the study of continuous maps on and a good friend,” says Alan Edelman. “He has a knack for asking spaces. Specifically, Mark investigates maps between spheres of dif- those key critical questions that illuminate whole bodies of work. fering dimensions—the building blocks for more general spaces. He He has been an important figure in the analysis of finite elements, uses vast computational resources and algebraic methods to classify wavelets, and all aspects of linear algebra and matrix computations. these mappings, thereby revealing the structure of the associated ho- His clear, concrete, and practical books and videos have been read motopy groups. His program has yielded deep connections between and watched by millions of students worldwide. It is particularly homotopy theory, number theory, and algebraic geometry. He was appropriate that Strang be appointed the MathWorks Professor, recognized this past year with an NSF CAREER award. given that he has introduced generations of students to the wonder of matrices.” Mark is a natural teacher, highly successful at all levels: giving sum- mer talks to high school teachers, mentoring our SPUR students, Gil has received numerous prestigious awards during his long career running the department’s microteaching workshop, designing under- at MIT, including the Chauvenet Prize in 1977, the John von Neu- graduate class tutorials, and giving graduate seminars. As Haynes mann Medal and the Lester R. Ford Prize in 2005, and the Su Buchin Miller says, “he has an astute awareness of the particular feature of Prize in 2007. He came to MIT as a CLE Moore Instructor in 1959, his audience.’’ Passionate about increasing diversity in mathematics joining the faculty in 1962, and was recognized with MIT’s Gradu- and science, Mark serves as the department’s representative on the ate Student Council Teaching Award in 1986 and 2003. He served School of Science Underrepresented Minority Strategic group and as President of SIAM during 1999 and 2000. Gil is a Fellow of the serves as a mentor in MIT’s summer MSRP program. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a SIAM Fellow, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. ............................................Faculty Recognitions........................... Scott Sheffield received the Line and Michel the AMS Joseph Doob Prize (with Peter be a SIAM Fellow “for his contributions Loeve International Prize in Probability, Kronheimer) for their book Monopoles and in bringing together mathematics and awarded by U.C. Berkeley every two years Three Manifolds (Cambridge University industry in the areas of numerical linear “to recognize outstanding contributions by Press, 2007). Bjorn Poonen received algebra, random matrix theory, and parallel researchers in probability who are under the MAA Chauvenet Prize for his article computing.” Laurent Demanet received a 45 years old.” James McKernan was “Undecidability in number theory,” Notices Sloan Research Fellowship. elected Fellow of the Royal Society, “for his of the AMS, 55 (2008). Bjorn also received Steven Johnson received tenure.