Dear friends of the department,
Greetings from West Lafayette!
Our campus is growing, with yet another increase in the number of undergraduates, especially in STEM fields. This fall, we are teaching a record number of more than 15,000 students just in mathematics courses. For context, our fall enrollments for the previous three years were above 14,000, before that for three years above 13,000. In addition to our teaching in the location you remember well, with the split of the IUPUI this summer, we now have a foothold at Purdue University at Indianapolis: two of our professors and two of our graduate students are teaching calculus in Indianapolis this semester, and we will teach more in the spring semester and even more next fall. We are hiring for both locations, help us spread the word to student and job applicants.
Our research remains strong. Over the summer, five of our assistant professors were promoted to associate professors with tenure and one of our associate professors was promoted to full professor.
Eight senior professors have retired since the last Purview or will retire at the end of this semester: Rodrigo Banuelos, Min Chen, Harold Donnelly, Alex Eremenko, Andrei Gabrielov, Bill Heinzer, Jim McClure and Freydoon Shahidi. Please send us your memories of their classes for the next issue, where we will write more about these professors.
We would love to hear from you, our amazing alumni. Please let us know if you have exciting news to share about your careers, your adventures, anything! It is our great pleasure to have taught you here at Purdue and we take great pride in learning how your next chapters are unfolding. You can email me to keep up or you can reach out to us on our social media channels. We've recently added a LinkedIn account so we invite you to follow us there.
Many thanks!
Irena
Irena Swanson, Professor and Department Head
UPCOMING LECTURE
Jean E. Rubin Memorial Lecture
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 at 3:00 pm in MATH 175
Refreshments at 1:45-2:15 in the Math Common Room (MATH 304)
Speaker: Sujatha Ramdorai
NEWS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Three Purdue Mathematics students honored with AWM Student Chapter Awards
The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) has recognized Purdue University’s AWM Student Chapter for its efforts towards professional development. The students responsible for these efforts are 2023-2024 cabinet members: Sarah Anderson (president), Sofía Martínez Alberga (treasurer), and Meenakshi Mcnamara(vice president).
Purdue students use mathematics to forecast U.S. elections in real time
Students studying mathematics and computer science at Purdue University are using mathematical modeling to forecast the 2024 United States elections. They are using publicly available polling data to determine model parameters. This undergraduate research project is led by Alexandria Volkening, assistant professor of mathematics in Purdue University’s College of Science. The team has developed a website named cRUD (compartmental Republican–Undecided–Democratic model for forecasting U.S. elections).
The Gautschi supercomputer unveiled in dedication ceremony
The Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) held a dedication ceremony for its newest community cluster, Gautschi. The Gautschi supercomputer is eponymously named in honor of Walter Gautschi, professor emeritus of computer science and professor emeritus of mathematics at Purdue University. The ribbon cutting took place at Purdue’s Data Center and was attended by Gautschi, his family and campus leaders.
Purdue mathematicians named in world’s top 2% of scientists
Xiangxiong Zhang, associate professor in the College of Science’s Department of Mathematics, has been named among the world’s top 2% of scientists according to the Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List 2024. Zhang ranked 98th out of 16,443 researchers in the subfield of numerical and computational mathematics based on single-year citations for 2023.
Prestigious Astronaut Scholarships Awarded to Three Purdue Students
The outstanding work of three Boilermakers in computer science, math, and engineering exceeds the classroom and begins a lifelong pursuit of excellence. The Astronaut Scholarship recognizes these students for their remarkable efforts and achievements through hours of research and coursework while in undergraduate studies.
Purdue researchers unveil miniature computational spectrometer
Researchers at Purdue University, led by Guang Lin, professor of mathematics and associate dean for research and innovation, teamed up with researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University to unveil a miniature computational spectrometer that could revolutionize the way scientists analyze light-matter interactions.
Cornerstone Review: Medea (Reimagined as a Murder Mystery)
The 5th edition of the Cornerstone Review published this week! The Cornerstone Review is a journal dedicated to student writing, video, and artwork. Raja Darshini Rajamani, Mathematics student, and her peers collaborated to create "Medea (Reimagined as a Murder Mystery)."
NEW FACULTY
The Department of Mathematics at Purdue University welcomes Alisa Sedunova, a new faculty member for the spring of 2024.
NEW FACULTY
The Department of Mathematics at Purdue University welcomes a new faculty member, Ilya Shkredov, who began in the spring of 2024.
Nour Khoudari awarded 2025 Ivo and Renata BabuSka Thesis Prize from AMS
Nour Khoudari, visiting assistant professor at the Purdue University Mathematics Department, has been awarded the American Mathematical Society’s 2025 Ivo and Renata Babuška Thesis Prize. This prize was given in recognition of the outstanding contributions in her Temple University PhD thesis titled “From Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales: Traffic Waves and Sparse Control.”
2023-2024 Joel S. Spira Faculty Teaching Awards
The Joel S. Spira Faculty Teaching Awards recognize excellence in mathematics teaching. These awards are made possible by a generous donation by Purdue alumni, Ruth and Joel Spira, founders of the Lutron Electronics Company. The 2023-24 Spira Teaching Awards were presented at the April 25th meeting of the mathematics faculty.
Congratulations to the recipients:
- Isaac Harris: Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring
- Sally Ray: Excellence in Teaching Actuarial Science Courses
- Margaret Thomas: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
- Alexandria Volkening: Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching
Tim Delworth Receives 2024 Gerald Krockover Outstanding Favorite Faculty Award
Tim Delworth, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, received the 2024 Dr. Gerald Krockover Outstanding Favorite Faculty Award presented by the Purdue University Residences and the office of Residential Academic Initiatives.
Workshop on Theory and Applications for Optimal Control and Generative Models
Purdue University CCAM hosted a workshop on Theory and Applications for Optimal Control and Generative Model, August 7-9, 2024. Learn more about the speakers and event here.
RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
- February 2024: Harold Donnelly
- January 2025: Rodrigo Banuelos
- January 2025: Min Chen
- January 2025: Alex Eremenko
- January 2025: Andrey Gabrielov
- January 2025: Bill Heinzer
- January 2025: Jim McClure
- January 2025: Freydoon Shahidi
Purdue Actuarial Science ranked #1
Did you know the #1 ranked actuarial science program is at Purdue? Purdue’s Actuarial Science Program is jointly coordinated by the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistics, offering a comprehensive quantitative foundation in mathematics, probability, economics, data analytics, and statistics. This combination of quantitative and analytical skills is a big reason why the actuarial science program is one of the top-ranked programs in the United States.
ALUMNI UPDATES
Angie Hodge-Zickerman
Dr. Angie Hodge-Zickerman received her MS in Mathematics and her PhD in Mathematics Education from Purdue University in 2004 and 2007 respectively. While at Purdue, she taught mathematics courses (including calculus and mathematics for elementary education majors) and supervised student teachers in secondary mathematics education. Since graduating Purdue University, Angie has held tenure track positions in mathematics departments at North Dakota State University, the University of Nebraska Omaha (where she had a tenured endowed chair position), and Northern Arizona University (where she is now a full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics as well as the Chair of the Department of Educational Specialties). She’s taught a wide range of mathematics and mathematics education courses with the calculus series being her favorite courses to teach. Angie’s research interests include active learning in mathematics, equity in the STEM disciplines, and the role of AI in learning mathematics. She currently teaches content connections courses in both real analysis and abstract algebra for practicing mathematics teachers as part of the online MS Mathematics Education program at NAU. In her free time, she enjoys ultrarunning, traveling (especially if it involves sharing her love of mathematics teaching with others), and spending time with her friends and family. She’s still a huge Purdue fan and hopes that one day her five year old son will attend Purdue in a mathematics related field.
Mariana Smit Vega Garcia
Dr. Smit Vega Garcia obtained her PhD in Mathematics from Purdue in 2014, during which time she also co-founded its AWM Chapter. Following her graduation, Dr. Smit Vega Garcia did post-docs in Germany and at the University of Washington. In 2018, she joined Western Washington University as an Assistant Professor. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021, and to Professor in 2024. Her research has been funded by the NSF (DMS-2348739 and DMS-2054282), and in 2023 she received the Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award, which is the highest teaching award available to faculty members at Western Washington University.
“I am immensely grateful for the research and teaching training I obtained at Purdue, which were instrumental to my development as a professor.”
Meenakshi McNamara
After graduating from Purdue, I spent last summer finishing research projects and attending math conferences and summer schools such as the IAS WAM+ conference and the Groundwork for Operator Algebras Lecture Series. While I am still working on completing a couple of papers, I had the chance to visit Prof. de Santiago at CSULB and we put out a preprint on our work on quantum graphs shortly after. Currently, I am doing a year-long master’s program in theoretical physics at the Perimeter Institute. After finishing my master’s, I will begin a math PhD at Princeton next year. While I definitely miss all the amazing friends and mentors I met at Purdue, the community and people at PI have been amazing, and I’m building off the foundation I developed during undergrad to learn exciting topics in theoretical physics. Although it’s a physics program, I am making full use of my math background. I will likely do my master’s thesis on connections between field theories and the geometric Langlands correspondence. Working on this topic for my master’s is only possible due to all the math coursework I had the opportunity to take at Purdue (especially the class field theory and algebraic geometry classes I took with Prof. Shahidi and Prof. Arapura) as well as everything I learned while working with Prof. Caviglia.
Sterling Haven Saint Rain
In the summer immediately following my graduation from Purdue, I was a counselor for the PROMYS summer program in mathematics for advanced highschoolers at Boston University. In the fall of 2023, I enrolled in UC Berkeley as a PhD Student in mathematics. Since then, I have given two talks in David Eisenbud's Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry seminar, I've attended the Semester in Commutative Algebra at SLMath (formerly MSRI), and recently I attended a workshop on Rank Conjectures Across Algebra and Topology at the University of Copenhagen. I have also been involved as a mentor for three semesters of directed reading programs for undergraduates in mathematics at Berkeley, I am a graduate mentor for students in Math and Physical Sciences through the Berkeley MPS Scholars program, and a peer mentor in the math department. This year I am also excited to be an alumni mentor for Purdue Honors students through the JMHC World Readiness Mentoring Network. I am very thankful to have completed my undergraduate education at Purdue; the welcoming environment, supportive graduate students, faculty, and administrators, and excellent faculty research (I especially fell in love with all things commutative algebra) greatly influenced my trajectory as a mathematician.