Adway Wadekar is a graduating senior with majors in Mathematics and Statistical Science and a minor in Economics. She has served as a Trinity Ambassador for Statistical Science. Trinity Ambassadors are student volunteers, nominated by their departments, to serve in this unique and important role.We asked a few of the ambassadors from the Class of 2025 to share their favorite memories from Duke. The below interview has been slightly edited for clarity. What was one of the most impactful classes you took during… read more about Notes From the Class of 2025: Making Statistics Stick »
Samantha Bernier Bermudez is a Trinity senior graduating in 2025 with a major in Mathematics and minors in Education and Cinematic Arts. What is a favorite tradition or experience that makes Duke special to you? One thing about Duke is their traditions. Whether it’s burning a bench after beating UNC at home or attending seniors-only midnight breakfast on east campus, Duke really tries its best to be one-of-a-kind (and I think it succeeds.)Who is someone from your undergraduate… read more about The Student Becomes the Teacher: How the Program in Education Prepared a Trinity Major for the Classroom »
DURHAM, N.C. – Two Duke faculty are among nearly 250 leaders from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in the United States.William Darity, Jr. is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke. His research focuses on inequality by race, class and ethnicity, stratification… read more about Two Duke Faculty Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences »
Each year, Duke University awards Benenson Awards in the Arts, which provide funding for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduates, including graduating seniors. This year, the Student Arts Award Committee awarded prizes to fifteen students for creative projects spanning film, theater, creative writing, music, dance, and visual art. read more about Announcing the 2025 Benenson Award Winners »
Jonathan C. Mattingly, Duke University was honored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) as a member of the 2025 Class of SIAM Fellows. He is being recognized for fundamental contributions to stochastic analysis and for applying stochastic tools to scientific and societal problems.These distinguished members were nominated for their exemplary research as well as outstanding service to the community. Through their various contributions, SIAM Fellows help advance the fields of applied mathematics… read more about Jonathan C. Mattingly, Duke University, Honored as a 2025 SIAM Fellow »
Sayan Mukherjee, a Professor of Statistical Science, Mathematics, and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, passed away unexpectedly on Monday, March 31. He was 54 years old.Since 2022, Mukherjee was in Germany as the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Artificial Intelligence, a prestigious position shared between Leipzig University and the Max Plank Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences. He retained his affiliation with Duke, where he had been a professor since 2004. Prior to Duke, Mukherjee… read more about Duke Mourns the Death of Statistician and Mathematician Sayan Mukherjee »
Jonathan C. Mattingly, Kimberly J. Jenkins Distinguished University Professor of New Technologies in the department of Mathematics, has been selected as a 2025 SIAM Fellow, one of the highest honors of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). His nomination and selection recognize his fundamental contributions to stochastic analysis and for applying stochastic tools to scientific and societal problems.The SIAM Fellows are nominated in recognition of their outstanding research and service to the community.… read more about Jonathan C. Mattingly Selected as a 2025 SIAM Fellow »
Six Duke faculty have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).Fellowship in AAAS is considered one of the most distinct honors in the scientific community.The 2024 fellows class consists of 471 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 AAAS disciplinary sections who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. “This year’s class of fellows are the embodiment of scientific excellence and service to our communities,” said Sudip… read more about Five Trinity Faculty Named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science »
Duke University has awarded distinguished professorships to 31 faculty members and will recognize them in a ceremony at the Washington Duke Inn on May 14.“I am very proud to recognize these outstanding faculty colleagues with distinguished professorships,” said President Vincent E. Price. “Through their extraordinary scholarship and teaching, they are advancing solutions, inventions and cures that will uplift humankind and make a lasting difference in the world.”Distinguished professorships honor faculty who are well-… read more about Six Trinity Faculty Members Among Duke's New Distinguished Professors »
For Khiyali Pillalamarri, pursuing a double major in Theater Studies and Mathematics is completely rational. Inspired by her grandmother’s mantra that “All knowledge is one,” the senior finds harmony in blending the creativity of the arts with the precision of mathematics, proving that logic and imagination can be two sides of the same equation. Homeschooled until high school, Pillalamarri thrived in a world where exceptional math resources were always within reach, and she had the freedom to decide her path of study.… read more about Equations and Encores »
Di Fang, Assistant Professor of Math at Duke, won the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Professor Fang, whose research focuses on the theory of quantum computing, numerical analysis for quantum algorithms and classical algorithms for quantum simulation, joined the Duke Department of… read more about Di Fang Awarded National Science Foundation Award »
Ingrid Daubechies, a mathematician at Duke University, is an expert on many matters, not least the baking of cookies in the shape of pi, the mathematical constant that equals the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, or roughly 3.14159. Dr. Daubechies plans to bake pi cookies to celebrate Pi Day, which is this Friday, March 14 — 3/14. That day is also the International Day of Mathematics; the theme in 2025 is mathematics, art and creativity.For the occasion, this year Dr. Daubechies is visiting the University… read more about A Mathematical ‘Fever Dream’ Hits the Road with Duke Mathematician »
Lillian B. Pierce, Professor of Math at Duke, was named as a 2025 fellow by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), for her many contributions in the support of women, both locally and nationally. Her organization of such events as “Re:boot Number Theory”, “A Room of One’s Own”, and GROW were instrumental in this award. Only seven women from across the country were also named in her 2025 AWM Fellow Class.The Executive Committee of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) has established the AWM Fellows… read more about Lillian B. Pierce Named A 2025 Fellow By The Association For Women In Mathematics (AWM) »
Seven Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members have been awarded funding from the Undergraduate Program Enhancement Fund. Backed by Duke’s Provost’s Office, the fund supports innovative proposals that enhance undergraduate experiential learning.Owen Astrachan, Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, will design a course called AI, Algorithms, and APIs: Great Ideas of Computer Science (Redux). He envisions the course as an alternative introduction to the major, with the goal of making it the one course… read more about Seven Trinity Faculty Awarded Funding to Enhance Undergraduate Programs »
You know geometry: circles, squares, maybe a polygon. You also know about dimensions: a line, a plane and a 3D volume. Now how about G2-geometry occurring in seven-dimensional space? If it’s not ringing a bell, don’t feel bad. G2-geometry is not only a specialized field, but also a relatively new advance in a discipline going back thousands of years. The contemporary study of geometry has moved far beyond the foundations of what most people think of as classic geometry, established by the Greek mathematician Euclid.… read more about Through Math+, Undergraduate Math Students Push the Frontier of Geometry »
President Joe Biden has announced that Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Mathematics, will receive the National Medal of Science in 2025. She is being honored for her pioneering work on signal processing.Established by the U.S. Congress in 1959, the National Medal of Science is the highest possible recognition bestowed on scientists and engineers in the nation. Each year, a committee of distinguished scientists and engineers is appointed by the president of the United States to evaluate… read more about Ingrid Daubechies Awarded National Medal of Science »
Marie-Hélène Tomé, a senior Mathematics major, will be awarded the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) 35th Annual Alice T. Schafer Prizes for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman. Tomé's research interests are in number theory and algebraic geometry. Through her participation in numerous research experiences, she has built an impressive body of work, including a solo paper published in the Journal of Number Theory. Her mentors praise her intuition, describing her as a fast learner and a deep… read more about Marie-Hélène Tomé Wins Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman Award »
Mathematics Professor Jonathan Mattingly has been selected as a Simons Fellow in Mathematics. The award provides a salary and funds for leave-related expenses that allow faculty to extend their sabbaticals — which typically last one semester — by up to six months.Mattingly has a broad and highly collaborative research program, often applying complex mathematical solutions to practical problems that span from cellular homeostasis and the spread of the common flu, to fluid mechanics and gerrymandering. The latter gained… read more about Artful Abstractions: Simons Fellowship Allows Jonathan Mattingly to Dive Into New Problems »
While physicists and engineers are working on building the computers of tomorrow — quantum computers, that is — Yu Tong is pushing the field forward from a different angle. As a mathematician and a theorist, he works not with subatomic particles and lasers, but with pencil and paper, designing algorithms for quantum computers. “You have to use your quantum computers to do something and for that, you need algorithms,” said the new assistant professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering. “We need a new… read more about How Will We Use Quantum Computers? Armed With Pen and Paper, Yu Tong Wants to Find Out. »
Congratulations to Tarek Elgindi and Hongkai Zhao for being selected by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) as recipients of the 2024 Frontiers of Science Award (FSA) in Mathematics. The FSA honors top research, with an emphasis on achievements from the past ten years which are both excellent and of outstanding scholarly value. For the 2024 selection, scientific works in both basic and applied research are chosen in 42 areas of the three basic science fields (mathematics,… read more about Tarek Elgindi and Hongkai Zhao Awarded 2024 Frontiers of Science Award »
Di Fang, assistant professor of Mathematics, was granted a 2024 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Awards by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAUS). Fang, whose research focuses on the theory of quantum computing, numerical analysis for quantum algorithms and classical algorithms for quantum simulation, joined the Duke Department of Mathematics in 2023. The Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards are one-year grants that provide seed money for junior faculty members and often result in additional funding from… read more about Di Fang Receives ORAU’s Junior Faculty Award »
Three undergraduate students whose research shows their deep expertise on number theory, 19th century American history and analysis of poetry were honored with Faculty Scholar Awards, the highest honor bestowed by university faculty on undergraduates. Presented through the Academic Council, the 2024 winners are Sarah Konrad, Arielle Stern and Marie-Hélène Tomé. The award was established to highlight students who are likely to pursue a scholarly career and already have established a record of research and independent study… read more about Three Juniors Named Faculty Scholars »
Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering has been elected to the Royal Society, an honor considered second only to the Nobel Prize according to the science community of the United Kingdom.The recognition, granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London, is awarded to individuals who have made a “substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science.”Belgian-American… read more about Ingrid Daubechies Elected to Royal Society »
Four Duke University undergraduates have received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a federally endowed award that supports students in pursuing careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Ayush Jain, Juliet Jiang, Michelle Si and Marie-Hélène Tomé are among the 508 students nationwide awarded Goldwater Scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Goldwater Scholars were chosen based on academic merit from a pool of 1,353 natural science… read more about Four Undergraduates Receive National Goldwater Scholarships »
Professor Harold E. Layton, a long-time faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, passed away last November. Below is a statement from Mike Reed that was read at his memorial service: Harold Layton was a first-rate mathematician and a deeply moral and kind man. I’ll start by reviewing his professional career. Harold received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Duke in 1986 and was a visiting member of the Courant Institute at New York University from 1986 until 1988, when he came back to Duke as… read more about In Memoriam: Math Professor Harold E. Layton »
