We are so excited to have revitalized a graduate chapter of the Association of Women in Mathematics in our Department this year! At my undergraduate institution, both undergraduate and graduate AWM chapters existed and frequently collaborated, but it was also valuable for each group to have its own space and events tailored to their experiences and needs. After talking with other graduate students at Davis, it quickly became clear that there was a strong interest in creating a similar community here.
This is my first year as GGAM Chair and the first time I have the honor of writing this column. I took over from Javier Arsuaga last summer. Javier did an incredible job moving GGAM forward—many thanks to him—and I am grateful to be able to build on and continue that work.
This year our Department once again took part in Picnic Day at UC Davis, bringing a mix of math, creativity, and hands-on fun to visitors of all ages. Our booth drew a steady crowd throughout the day, with families, students, and curious guests stopping by to explore.
It has been another busy year for our undergraduate mathematics programs, with many exciting changes on the horizon. This year, our Undergraduate Program Committee is leading teams of faculty members in a review of all four of our majors – Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Analytics and Operations Research, and Scientific Computation – with a view towards modernizing and improving what our current programs offer. The intent is to both add breadth to our current course offering, and to add support to mathematics students in the form of discussions across all of our classes.
On April 9, 2025, the Department of Mathematics in collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance and the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis hosted the play "Diving into Math with Emmy Noether." Wyatt Pavilion Theater was packed with faculty, students and staff from all over campus. The play complemented classroom learning by showing the struggles Emmy Noether faced during her life and the context in which her mathematics was created.
Imagine a boulder in a stream. As the water hits the boulder, it splits around the object. Once it’s passed around, the two flowing streams crash together, creating turbulent conditions that, if visible, would manifest as chaotic whorls and vortexes. This isn’t just true of water. It’s true of all fluids, including air.
The mathematical equations underlying fluid motion — known as the Navier-Stokes equations — are among the most notoriously challenging partial differential equations because in principle they encode complex behaviors similar to the one you just imagined.
Our undergraduate math programs are thriving! Last Winter, undergraduate programs underwent its seven-year Program Review. The external reviewers described our Department “to be dynamic, welcoming and a great place to study Mathematics” and said that our program’s strength was centered around “committed faculty, lecturers, staff and TA’s that come together to deliver a strong program to incoming students through to graduate education.”
This past academic year, the Department awarded 184 degrees!
I retired in 2015 and bear a title of Professor Emeritus for more than 7 years. It is a common belief that after many years of hard work, emeriti enjoy their well deserved rest, not burdened by any formal duties. It may be true in general, but not in my case. I have an impression that never in my life I worked as hard as now. During my retirement I have never stopped teaching.
