DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

ANTONIO AUFFINGER AND THE NEW NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THEORY AND MATHEMATICS IN BIOLOGY

Sept 14, 2023

The NSF and the Simons Foundation is awarding $50 million to Northwestern to establish the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology(NITMB). This new institute will be based in downtown Chicago. The University of Chicago is a partner in the institute. NU Mathematics faculty member, Prof. Antonio Auffinger, was one of the original principal investigators of the award and will be an Associate Director of NITMB. 

AARON NABER NAMED 2023 SIMONS INVESTIGATOR IN MATHEMATICS

Aug 31st, 2023

Professor Aaron Naber, of the Department of Mathematics, was named a 2023 Simons Investigator in Mathematics. Naber, the second Northwestern professor ever to receive this honor, is a geometric analyst working on the regularity, singularity and topology of geometrically motivated equations. Naber has proved, together with collaborators, the rectifiable structure for singularities of geometric equations, including nonlinear harmonic maps, minimal hypersurfaces and spaces with lower Ricci bounds. This direction of analysis has led to the resolution of several open problems and conjectures, including the energy identity for Yang Mills and the L2 curvature conjecture. In another direction, Naber has settled, together with coworkers, a variety of open problem on spaces with lower Ricci bounds, including the codimension four conjecture and the Milnor conjecture.

MATH MAJOR WINS TRJITZINSKY MEMORIAL AWARD

Aug 9th, 2023

NU Math Major, Colin Brennan, has won the 2023 Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Award of the AMS. This $3000 award was a bequest from the estate of Waldemar J., Barbara G., and Juliet Trjitzinsky, the income from which is used to assist students who have declared a major in mathematics at a college or university that is an institutional member of the American Mathematical Society. A private donor supplemented the fund in 2018. These funds help support students who lack adequate financial resources and who may be in danger of not completing the degree program in mathematics for financial reasons.

Colin Brennan’s response on winning the award:

“Growing up, math was always my favorite subject and greatest passion. There was something about the structure and the beauty of each concept that always made learning feel like I was unlocking a new part of my brain. Being from just south of Chicago and knowing I wanted to pursue math in college, Northwestern has always been ‘the school’ for me. Both the stunning campus here and flexibility in each degree made it the obvious choice. Once getting here, I decided to sign up for the MENU 291 sequence in my first quarter hoping for a challenging experience that would help me adapt to college-level math quickly. It definitely lived up to my expectations, especially considering that the first quarter was conducted remotely during the pandemic. Despite the difficulties I faced in the course and the moments of doubt when I questioned if math was truly the right path for me, the connections and friendships I formed with my classmates reminded me that I belonged. There's something truly remarkable about the sense of community that can be found at Northwestern, among professors and students alike.

As I got more experienced with upper-level classes under my belt and with some encouragement from my friends, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Abrams in the applied math department on his pain dynamics research. Having the chance to work on interesting projects with such a knowledgeable mentor genuinely solidified my interest in focusing on mathematical modeling in the future. Overall, if there's one main takeaway I have from the math department, it's that there is an abundance of support waiting for you coming from any direction. Whenever there's a moment of doubt, there is always a fellow student or a professor ready to believe in you and remind you of your purpose here.”

YUCHEN LIU AWARDED NSF CAREER GRANT

Aug 9th, 2023

Yuchen Liu has been awarded a prestigious CAREER grant from the NSF.  The 5-year award titled “K-stability and moduli spaces of higher dimensional varieties” will bring exciting research and training activities in algebraic geometry to our departments. 

NU FACULTY MEMBERS WIN FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE AWARDS

July 17, 2023

Our department was well-represented at the Frontiers of Science Awards by China’s International Congress for Basic Science. Papers by Aaron Brown, Xiumin Du, Yuchen Liu and Steve Zelditch won awards.