Department of Mathematics
Duke Math Faculty Ingrid Daubechies was interviewed by Forbes Magazine, resulting in the article "8 Tips For Generating Creative Ideas From The Mind Of A 'Genius' Woman Scientist." read more about Ingrid Daubechies in Forbes magazine »
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Mathematics Tori Akin has been named one of the most innovative professors of 2019 by the education and training services company Arist for her approach to math education. Akin was one of six faculty selected from among nearly 100 nominees from universities including Harvard, Stanford and Brown. “Math isn’t an innate ability, becoming good takes struggling through complications and working hard,” Akin said. Rather than teaching math in a traditional ‘lecture’ format, she… read more about Tori Akin: Innovative Professor and all around GEM »
The team of Duke University students Vinit Ranjan, Junmo Ryang and Albert Xue was designated Outstanding in the 2019 Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) for their submission Time to Leave the Louvre: A Computational Network Analysis. For the past four decades, thousands of teams of three undergraduates from around the world have been invited to choose one of a few open-ended problems to write up and submit their solution within 96 hours. This year 11,262 teams representing institutions… read more about Duke students earn Outstanding in the ICM »
Incoming faculty member Joseph Rabinoff, along with his colleagues Omid Amini, Matt Baker and Erwan Brugallé, were awarded "Best Article" by Research in the Mathematical Sciences (RiMS) for their paper, "Lifting harmonic morphisms I: metrized complexes and Berkovich skeletal." RIMS is celebrating their fifth anniversary and are presenting awards in recognition of the outstanding research published in the journal. read more about New Math faculty wins Best Article award »
Demonstrating the real-world impact of interdisciplinary research, a team of two machine learning experts and two neurologists used interpretable models to predict seizures in ICU patients. Duke University's Cynthia Rudin, Berk Ustun of Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Aaron Struck from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and Massachusetts General Hospital's Brandon Westover won first prize in the 2019 INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award… read more about Cynthia Rudin and colleagues from Wisconsin, Harvard and Mass General take first prize at IAAA »
Mathematics Department chair Jonathan Mattingly has been awarded the James B. Duke distinguished professorship. Distinguished professorships recognize both exceptional achievement and the potential for future accomplishments. They are awarded to our most distinguished faculty who are inspiring teachers, motivated mentors, and leading scholars and researchers. Professor Mattingly joins these other Math faculty members who have also received distinguished professorships from the Trinity College of… read more about Mattingly receives Distinguished Professorship »
The Math department congratulates its faculty members Tori Akin, Rann Bar-on, Sarah Schott, Hugh Bray and Tom Witelski. They have been recognized by Academic Affairs for their contribution to teaching excellence at Duke. These faculty are in the top 5% in the category of Overall Quality of Instructor. Percentiles are based on class size and division and require at least five students to submit evaluations, so faculty are compared to their peers based on the courses they are teaching each semester.… read more about Math Faculty in Top 5% of Undergraduate Instructors in Natural Sciences »
Duke Math Department's Matt Junge and graduate alumni Ma Luo are included in the AMS' Next Generation of Mathematics. These Early-Career AMS (American Mathematical Society) members share something about themselves: What do you miss most about graduate school? Matt Junge: The camaraderie and commiseration What is your favorite mathematics book? Ma Luo: A Scrapbook of Complex Curve Theory read more about AMS: The Next Generation of Mathematics »
DURHAM, N.C. -- On March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a North Carolina lawsuit that could end partisan gerrymandering for good -- and a mode of analysis developed at Duke University could impact their decision. The nation’s highest court may finally weigh in on the practice of manipulating political district boundaries to favor one party at the expense of another. A key issue in the case, Rucho v. Common Cause, is whether the 2016 North Carolina congressional plan violates the First Amendment by diluting… read more about Duke Mathematics has its Day in Court »
Ingrid Daubechies is one of five outstanding women scientists from different parts of the world recognized for their excellence in the fields of material science, mathematics and computer science. They will each receive € 100,000 and will be highlighted alongside fifteen young female international scientific talents, at a ceremony scheduled for March 14 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Opening of the Mathematics and Computer Science Awards While mathematics is a prestigious discipline and a source of… read more about Ingrid Daubechies recognized by UNESCO for excellence in Mathematics »
Vahid Tarokh, the Rhodes Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions for engineers. Tarokh was among the 86 new members and 18 foreign members announced by the NAE Thursday, and join seven other faculty at Duke University who also hold the distinction. Tarokh was cited for contributions to space-time coding and its applications to multi-antenna wireless… read more about Vahid Tarokh elected member of National Academy of Engineering »
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation congratulates the winners of the 2019 Sloan Research Fellowships. These 126 early-career scholars represent the most promising scientific researchers working today. Their achievements and potential place them among the next generation of scientific leaders in the U.S. and Canada. Winners receive $70,000, which may be spent over a two-year term on any expense supportive of their research. read more about Xiuyuan Cheng wins Sloan Research Fellowship »
A key goal of Together Duke is to invest in faculty as scholars and leaders of the university’s intellectual communities. To foster collaboration around new and emerging areas of interest, Intellectual Community Planning Grants (ICPG) are available to groups of faculty. These grants cover the cost of food, meeting venues, external speakers or other meeting costs, and exploratory research into potential collaborators at Duke and elsewhere. The offices of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary… read more about Faculty to Pursue Collaborations through 2019 Intellectual Community Planning Grants »
The Graduate School has announced the recipients of its 2019 Dean's Awards recognizing outstanding efforts in mentoring, teaching, and creating an inclusive environment for graduate education at Duke. Ashleigh Thomas, a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics, was chosen among a large pool of university-wide nominees as one of two students to win the award for Excellence in Mentoring. Each student winner receives a $2,000 prize, and the recipients will be honored at a ceremony on Wednesday, March 27. read more about Ashleigh Thomas wins the 2019 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring »
Vahid Tarokh and Amanda Randles were two of seven faculty members endowed Bass Connections Professorships. This honor recognizes faculty whose scholaraship and teaching align with the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the program, while also recognizing the wider engagement and contributions of Duke schools to this university-wide effort. Individuals receiving Bass Connections professorships hold them for an initial term of up to seven years, with the possibility of renewal. Vahid Tarokh, Rhodes… read more about Faculty Members Appointed to Endowed Bass Connections Professorships »
The Association for Women in Mathematics has awarded assistant research professor of mathematics Jiuya Wang the 2019 AWM Dissertation Prize, an annual award for the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertations presented by female mathematical scientists. Wang received her Ph.D. in 2018 under mathematician Melanie Matchett Wood at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Wang works in arithmetic statistics, a branch of number theory. In her Ph.D. thesis she proved Malle’s conjecture for infinitely many non-abelian Galois… read more about Jiuya Wang wins dissertation prize at JMM 2019 »
Professor Lenny Ng has been elected to the American Mathematical Society for his contributions to Floer homology and low-dimensional topology and service to the mathematical community. The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. This year's class of AMS Fellows has been selected from a large and deep pool of superb candidates. It is my pleasure and honor… read more about Lenny Ng elected Fellow of the American Mathematical Society »
Registration for the 2018 Duke Math Meet is now CLOSED. The Duke Math Meet (DMM) is a regional mathematics competition for high school students held at Duke University each year. The contest is organized by the members of the Duke University Mathematics Union (DUMU) and is sponsored by the Duke Mathematics Department. The DMM lasts for one day from morning to afternoon, during which time the students have fun solving challenging mathematics problems while meeting new people and making friends… read more about Duke Math Meet 2018: Registration CLOSED »
Shira at the Algebraic CombinatoriXX II workshop at BIRS last summer Shira Viel I received my PhD from North Carolina State University under the direction of Nathan Reading. My thesis work was in algebraic and geometric combinatorics with a focus on cluster algebras. I teach and coordinate MATH 111L, Laboratory Calculus I. Along with the understanding of course content, my teaching aims to build students' enjoyment of mathematics and resilience in problem-solving. I do so… read more about Meet our newest Faculty in the Math Department »
"Math is not something to be afraid of. Rather, it is something that you should enjoy playing with." Professor Heekyoung Hahn was interviewed in Girls' Angle Bulletin's most recent issue. The magazine is published six times a year by Girls’ Angle: A Math Club for Girls, to communicate with its members and to share ideas and information about mathematics. The article is reprinted below from the Girls’ Angle Bulletin, Volume 11, Number 5. An Interview with Heekyoung Hahn Heekyoung Hahn is an… read more about Interview with Professor Heekyoung Hahn »
The Department of Mathematics, Duke University, and Duke University Press are pleased to announce that Richard Hain has been appointed managing editor for the Duke Mathematical Journal and that the journal’s editorial office will return to Duke University after more than 20 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Jonathan Wahl has served as managing editor. Wahl will continue his involvement with the journal as co-managing editor through June 2019. “We are excited for the Duke… read more about Duke Mathematical Journal returns to Duke Campus »
Data + Project: Pirating Texts This summer, undergraduates Gabriel Guedes (Math, Global Cultural Studies), Lucian Li (Computer Science, History), and Orgil Batzaya (Math, Computer Science) were directed and mentored by Grant Glass, a graduate student in the English Department at UNC-CH. Organized in collaboration with Charlotte Sussman (English) and Astrid Giugni (English, ISS) at Duke, these students set the following objectives… read more about Pirating Texts »
The 2018 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award has been awarded to Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering. The award is presented for her remarkable contributions to wavelets, especially the orthogonal Daubechies wavelet and the biorthogonal CDF (Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau) wavelet. She is recognized for her leadership in developing wavelet theory and modern time-frequency analysis which fundamentally changed image and signal processing, her… read more about 2018 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award presented to Professor Ingrid Daubechies »
On January 9th, a three-judge court declared North Carolina’s congressional map unconstitutionally gerrymandered, stating that the drawing of the state’s electoral districts gave an advantage to the Republican Party. The US Federal court cited the work of Jonathan Mattingly, Chair of the Mathematics Department at Duke University. Based on his research, Mattingly used an algorithm that generated over 24,000 redistricting maps. The results were clear - while using the same voting data, almost every map… read more about Electoral Plot - Detecting Gerrymandering with Mathematics »
Sayan Mukherjee was named Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) for his significant contributions to mathematical statistics, including kernel methodology, distributions on manifolds, and inference for dynamical systems, and for extensive work in computational biology and genomics. IMS Fellows are elected for demonstrating distinction in statistics or probability. Each fellow nominee is assessed by a committee of his/her peers for the award. Mukherjee and Duke statistics professor Peter… read more about Sayan Mukherjee named Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics »
On June 4th, 2018, Professor Ingrid Daubechies was the first female recipient of the William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding mathematical contributions that have had a direct and fundamental impact on scientific, business, finance and engineering applications. Daubechies is a professor in the departments of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering whose work has ranged from wavelets and the compression of images to applied mathematical algorithms… read more about Daubechies awarded the William Benter Prize at the International Conference on Applied Mathematics »
In cancer treatment, metastatic tumors receive equal treatment. Patients are given the same aggressive therapies when abnormal clusters of cells are discovered early, even if they may be harmless. In research studies co-led by Duke's Marc Ryser and colleagues, colorectal tumors were analyzed with genome sequencing technology and mathematical simulation models to determine whether the tumors were considered deadly. This early detection of a tumor's "ancestral tree" is a significant step toward establishing… read more about Deadly cancers detected using mathematical simulation models »
Lillian Pierce, the Nicholas J. and Theresa M. Leonardy Associate Professor of Mathematics, is one of six Duke faculty selected as a member into Duke's Bass Society of Fellows this year. Pierce is one of the leading mathematicians working on the interface of number theory and analysis. She is known by her students for her vast knowledge and ability to share this knowledge, as well as being accessible and dedicated to their learning and success. Membership in the Bass Society of Fellows is one of Duke's… read more about Lillian Pierce selected as a member of the Bass Society of Fellows »
Only ten professors were named Distinguished Professors this year in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. This distinction is given to professors for their outstanding research and teaching accomplishments. We are proud to announce that three of these professors have positions in the Math department: Alexander (Sasha) Kiselev, Mike Reed, and Vahid Tarokh. Sasha Kiselev was awarded the William T. Laprade Professor of Mathematics. Mike Reed was awarded the Arts and Sciences Professor of… read more about Duke Awards Distinguished Professorships to Math Professors »
Shomik Verma, a junior at Duke University, was one of three students from Duke to be named a 2018 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. This scholarship program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Shomik is studying mechanical engineering and minoring in mathematics and energy engineering. His professor, Nico Hotz, says of Shomik, "During my years of mentoring students and supervising their research, I have… read more about 2018 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar: Shomik Verma »