Two flat paper shapes are considered "scissors congruent" if you can cut up one shape and rearrange it as the other. But is there a way to determine this relationship if you don't have scissors? Are there characteristics you could measure ahead of time that would determine this, and would they apply to both two and higher dimensional shapes? These questions have been pondered by mathematicians for over a century. This fall Jonathan Campbell of Duke University and … read more about Mathematicians Cut Apart Shapes to Find Pieces of Equations »
Dr. William G. Kaelin Jr., a Duke trustee and alumnus, was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Kaelin received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Duke and is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Kaelin shared the prize with Sir Peter Ratcliffe of Oxford University and Gregg Semenza of Johns Hopkins University for research on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability… read more about Duke Alumnus, Trustee William Kaelin Receives Nobel Prize for Medicine »
Award makes Duke a National Science Foundation center for data/statistical science A Duke University team led by professor of statistical science and mathematics Sayan Mukherjee has won a three-year, $1.5 million dollar grant that will develop the foundations of data science both at Duke and in the broader NC Research Triangle and surrounding region. As part of the award, 25 Duke faculty from the departments of computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, and statistical science will collaborate to… read more about Duke Researchers Awarded $1.5M Tripods Grant »
The work of James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics Jonathan Mattingly appeared in numerous media outlets this fall — including this News & Observer article — following the N.C. Supreme Court's decision that political maps for the state were unconstitutional and must be redrawn. Mattingly, who testified as an expert witness in the case, leads a nonpartisan research group "Quantifying Gerrymandering" that grew out of a project initiated by a Duke mathematics undergrad. read more about Mathematician's research influences NC ruling »
Researcher Shan Shan discussed how math informs the beauty of the world. She's exploring lemur evolution through the topography of their teeth and using the Duke Compute Cluster to do the heavy lifting. Minute Marvels are really short videos depicting scholarship that Duke researchers have conducted with Duke Research Computing resources. Check out more at Duke Research Computing Minute Marvels. read more about Beautiful Math with Shan Shan »
The Flatiron Institute, an internal research division of the Simons Foundation, is a community of scientists whose mission is to advance scientific research through modern computational methods including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation. Ingrid Daubechies played an instrumental role in the conception of the institute in 2012, when she proposed the notion of a center devoted to data analysis. Since then the Flatiron Institute has grown to over 150 scientists working across computational… read more about The Simons Foundation Flatiron Institute Names Auditorium after Ingrid Daubechies »
Duke Mathematics professor Ingrid Daubechies was one of nine to be awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University. One of the world’s leading mathematicians, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, a MacArthur Fellow, and past president of the International Mathematical Union, Ingrid Daubechies is the James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University. Daubechies was born and educated in Belgium and moved to the U.S. in 1987. She came to Duke in 2011 after stints… read more about Ingrid Daubechies is awarded an honorary degree by Harvard University »
Blue Devil of the Week: Helping People Unlock Math's Mysteries Name: Matthew JungeTitle: Research Assistant Professor, Duke Department of MathematicsYears at Duke: 3 What he does at Duke: Late in his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, Matthew Junge thought he was destined for a career as an actuary, using established elements of math to determine the likelihood of real world occurrences. But… read more about Blue Devil of the Week: Matt Junge »
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 »