By the Numb3rs Fall 2023

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Letter from the Chair

Welcome to the Fall Newsletter! 

First, on behalf of the Department of Mathematics, I want to thank our former Chair, Professor Jon Rubin, for his six-year service as the Department Chair. During his time as chair, Jon exhibited outstanding leadership, working tirelessly with all members of the Department, and making a significant impact. His leadership and support were particularly crucial during the pandemic, and we all appreciate his unwavering commitment. Under Jon's leadership, the Department underwent an External Review and developed a Strategic Planning and Implementation Plan during 2021-2022. Jon was always open to new ideas and made leading contributions to updating and improving our undergraduate and graduate programs, among other things. We are deeply grateful for all that Jon has done. Thank you, Jon! 

Since September 1, 2023, I have had the great honor of taking over as the Department Chair. Over the past three months, I have been working hard to learn how to best serve the department. I am extremely grateful to all members (faculty, staff, and students) of the department for their help, patience, and understanding during this time. 

We are happy to announce the arrival of new members to our department this year. Dr. Stephan Wojtowytsch has joined us as the new tenure-track assistant professor. His research focuses on applied analysis and the mathematical foundations of machine learning. Dr. Rahnuma Islam is the new MRC (Math Research Center) postdoc in math-bio. 

Our faculty continues to do excellent research and we invite you to read about the featured projects in this newsletter. Our students have been regularly active in research projects and giving outside talks, with remarkable success. For instance, our graduate student Edison Hauptman gave an interesting seminar talk at Westminster College titled "How to Solve a Minecraft Puzzle like a Mathematician". Additionally, our undergraduate students Lark Song and Sasha Sluis-Cremer won an Honorable Mention at the Student Poster Session of the MAA MathFest for their poster titled "The Smoothed Decagon Conjecture". The Association for Women in Mathematics has recognized the University of Pittsburgh's Student Chapter as the winner of the 2023 AWM Student Chapter Award for Scientific Excellence. Congratulations to all chapter members and officers, and to Professor Marta Lewicka, the chapter's faculty advisor, on this well-deserved recognition of your efforts. Several math majors were awarded Painter Fellowships to work with faculty members on various projects in the summer. Our undergraduate students also launched a peer-reviewed journal entitled “The Pittsburgh Interdisciplinary Mathematics Review (PIMR).” PIMR is published by the University Library System, supported by the Mathematics Department, and managed and edited by undergraduate students. 

In November, Professor Mason Porter from UCLA gave the annual Michalik Distinguished Lecture. The Mathematics Research Center (MRC) has several activities planned for this academic year. In October, a conference on Analysis and PDE on Fractals was held, featuring a mini-course and a workshop. Additionally, in Spring 2024, there will be three workshops on Analysis and Number Theory, Hyperbolic PDEs and Applications, as well as Mathematical Models and Numerical Methods for Multiphysics Systems. 

We are excited to advertise that we are hiring two new faculty positions this year, one for an assistant professor in Analysis, and one for an open-rank professor in Mathematics of Deep Learning. 

Please check the departmental website www.mathematics.pitt.edu for more news and updates and use the "Stay in Touch" under "ALUMNI" tab to share any news you want to share with us. We hope you enjoy the newsletter, and we wish you all the best for this academic year and beyond! 

-- Professor Dehua Wang, Department Chair