outdoors

We mourn the passing of our colleague Craig Tracy. 

Craig Tracy was an American mathematician known for his contributions to mathematical physics and probability theory. Born in 1945 in England to a British mother and an American father, Craig was raised on a farm in Missouri. After obtaining a B.Sc. in Physics from University of Missouri (1967), he studied at Stony Brook University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Physics with the thesis Spin-Spin Scale-Functions in the Ising and XY-Models (1973), advised by Barry M. McCoy. 

My name is Jialin Wang. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Mathematics at UC Riverside under the supervision of Stefano Vidussi, and I will be joining the Department as a Lecturer next quarter. My research focuses on higher incoherence groups. Outside of work, I enjoy going to the gym, spending time outdoors, and staying active through different kinds of exercise. I am also a fan of video games and share my home with three adorable cats.

Chris studies theoretical computer science, with a focus on convex optimization, on random matrices, and on connections between theoretical computer science, pure mathematics, and statistical physics (e.g. sphere packing, spin glasses). Prior to coming to Davis, he was a postdoc at Bocconi University in Milan, and he received his Ph.D. in 2022 from the University of Chicago. Chris also likes designing crossword puzzles and puzzle hunts. On his days off, he likes to enjoy nature and swim in alpine lakes.

Melissa Zhang is a low-dimensional topologist who likes to use algebraic, combinatorial, and categorical methods to solve problems. Her favorite topological objects are knots and surfaces smoothly embedded in 3- and 4-dimensional spaces.

She received her Ph.D. from Boston College under the supervision of Eli Grigsby and David Treumann. She was previously a postdoc at the University of Georgia, SLMath/MSRI, and UC Davis (and is now a super-postdoc, as she never left).