Letter from the Chair, 2024
The academic year 2023-24 has been another year rich in accomplishments.
One ingredient to our success may be that the Department stays forever young. Distinguished Professor Blake Temple retired after a remarkable 38 years of service in our Department. You can read about his ongoing research projects in this article. Blake’s retirement on June 30, 2024, was followed by the hiring of three new Assistant Professors starting on July 1: Abinand Gopal, Melissa Sherman-Bennett, and Melissa Zhang. You can read their bios on our faculty articles section. Other new arrivals featured in this newsletter are six Krener Assistant Professors, a postdoc, as well as a new Undergraduate Advisor. You can also read updates on our graduate and undergraduate programs by their respective chairs, including a long list of awards won by our students.
In this article, I would like to impress you with the research, mentoring, and career awards received by faculty and researchers this past academic year. I apologize for the long list! The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) honored Distinguished Professor Jesús De Loera with its T. Christine Stevens Award in recognition of his sustained efforts to provide mentoring and networking opportunities for Latinx and Hispanic early career researchers. Professor Mariel Vazquez was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Distinguished Professor Steve Shkoller gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics. Professor Anne Schilling gave the AWM-AMS Noether Lecture at the Joint Mathematics Meetings and also received the 2024 UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards. Professor Adam Jacob won a 2024 Frontiers of Science Award with his co-authors Tristan Collins and Shing-Tung Yau. Assistant Professor Alex Wein won a prestigious NSF CAREER award. Assistant Professor Sameer Iyer received a Hellman Fellowship. Krener Assistant Professor Luze Xu won the INFORMS Optimization Society 2024 Young Researchers Paper Prize and Krener Assistant Professor Anna Parlak received the Craig A. Tracy Research Prize.
There is no doubt the Department is thriving. However, we are not resting on our laurels! We always look to support new talent and room for growth. Just this year, four faculty moved into the newly renovated space in the former Physical Sciences and Engineering Library, now renamed the Physical and Data Sciences Building. This is the same building where the Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics (QMAP) has its space on the second and third floors. If you happen to visit the campus, please drop by and have a look. You can get more details in our article about the move-in.
Enjoy this newsletter and let's keep in touch!