For centuries, mathematicians tried to solve problems by adding new values to the usual numbers. Now they’re investigating the unintended consequences of that tinkering. https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170302-class-numbers-and-the-symmetries... read more about New Number Systems Seek Their Lost Primes: Prof. Lillian Pierce is featured in Quanta magazine »
Kevin Murgas (Biomedical Engineering, Class 2017), started working on this project during a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in mathematical biology in the summer of 2015. Together with his research mentor, Dr. Marc Ryser, they developed a new approach to modeling the dynamics of physiological bone remodeling – the process responsible for keeping our bones strong and healthy. By describing the process of bone remodeling in the language of evolutionary game theory, they developed and analyzed a three-… read more about New Approach to Bone Remodeling »
SIAM is the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. We formed this chapter to promote collaboration, interdisciplinary activities, and fellowship between graduate students in the Mathematics and other related departments. Our newly formed chapter is already hard at work planning the annual Math Slam department recruitment event and organize the Triangle Area Graduate Mathematics Conference (with the help of the AMS student chapter.) We are also actively recruiting more members to our student chapter. Membership… read more about New SIAM Chapter at Duke Mathematics! »
Lillian Pierce, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics has been offered a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER Award (CAREER: The Faculty Early Career Development Program) is a foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of the organization. Professor Pierce states,“I am… read more about Professor Lillian Pierce wins NSF CAREER Award and von Neumann Fellowship »
Matt Junge, a newly hired research assistant professor, taught at the Dan River Prison and Work Farm during the 2016 Autumn semester. The course in college algebra focused on solving polynomial, exponential and logarithmic equations. Students received college credit at the University of North Carolina via the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. Class met three days a week for three hours at a time. Students put in a lot of work to keep up with the quick pace. They were especially good at pooling together… read more about Math Beyond Bars »
This summer, North Carolina School of Science and Math student Mridu Nanda spent five weeks on the Duke campus working with James B. Duke Professor Rick Durrett. The topic of their research was Spatial Evolutionary Games, which can be used to study the competition and cooperation between different cell types in cancer. Mridu's time was divided almost equally between understanding the theory that had been developed , and doing simulations in order to obtain insights into some of the cases that could not be analyzed… read more about Spatial Evolutionary Games »
"Sixty-five mathematical scientists from around the world have been named Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2017, the program's fifth year", states Steve Ferruci, Senior Programs Coordinator of the AMS in a press release. Duke University Mathematics is delighted to have Professor Jian-Guo Liu named this year. Professor Liu responded, "I am honored to be named as a fellow of AMS, and it is so gratifying to receive this recognition for doing something I truly love and enjoy." Professor Liu… read more about Jian-Guo Liu Named as Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) »
Writer, researcher, and entrepreneur Margot Lee Shetterly will speak Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at Duke University’s Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center https://today.duke.edu/2016/11/author-margot-shetterly-speak-nov-9-nasas... read more about Author Margot Shetterly to Speak Nov. 9 On NASA's Black Female Mathematicians "Hidden Figures" author to speak at the Bryan Center »
Writer, researcher, and entrepreneur Margot Lee Shetterly will speak Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at Duke University’s Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center Shetterly is the author of “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.” The talk is free and open to the public. A New York Times bestseller, “Hidden Figures” tells the story of the black women mathematicians at NASA who helped fuel some of America’s greatest… read more about The story of the black women mathematicians at NASA »
Steven J. Miller, Associate Professor of mathematics at Williams College, delivered the first Duke University Math Union (DUMU) guest lecture of the 2016-2017 year to an audience including nearly 50 undergraduates on Wednesday, September 7, 2016.. His talk, “Why the IRS cares about the Riemann Zeta Function and Number Theory (and why you should too!)” proved to be equally informative and entertaining. Afterwards, Miller, the director of a summer math research program at Williams, chatted with students about undergraduate… read more about Standing Room Only for DUMU Guest Lecture »
In a paper published in the SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences, Rujie Yin, Bruno Cornelis, Gabor Fodor, Noelle Ocon, David Dunson, and Ingrid Daubechies present an algorithm that eliminates the visual discrepancies of cradling in X-rays. The algorithm—and its accompanying multiplicative model—can distinguish, isolate, and remove superfluous textures caused by cradling while leaving the painting’s original textures intact. https://sinews.siam.org/DetailsPage/TabId/900/ArtMID/2243/ArticleID/1577... read more about Advanced Algorithm Improves Art Restoration Techniques »
Spring Breakthrough is a risk-free opportunity for first- and second-year students to explore their intellectual interests. For five days during spring break (March 12-16, 2017), they can participate in a mini-seminar designed to be intellectually stimulating and fun. These courses have no prerequisites, no grade or credit (but will be recorded on transcripts), and no fees. Eleven courses will be offered in a range of topics. Registration begins November 7. (https://undergrad.duke.edu/programs/spring-breakthrough) … read more about Math + Zombies + GOT = Spring Break »
The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce the establishment of the Simons Collaboration on Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis and Physics, directed by Robert Bryant at Duke University. https://www.simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-and-physical-science/news-a... read more about Simons Collaboration on Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis and Physics, directed by Robert Bryant at Duke University »
Ingrid Daubechies, a prominent mathematician whose pioneering work on wavelets is the foundation for millions of consumer products, has received a $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation. The Math + X Investigator award provides research funds to professors at American and Canadian universities to encourage novel collaborations between mathematicians and researchers in another field of science or engineering.http://today.duke.edu/2016/08/daubechies read more about Simons Foundation Awards Duke's Ingrid Daubechies $1.5M Grant »
The Mathematical Problems in Industry (MPI) is a week long workshop where companies bring real world problems to students and researchers in mathematics to find solutions. MPI takes place at a different university every summer. This is the first time Duke Mathematics has hosted the event. https://sites.duke.edu/dukeresearch/2016/07/06/taking-math-beyond-the-blackboard/ read more about Mathematical Problems in Industry »
The Duke University Math Union (DUMU) is devoted to organizing and providing resources to students interested in mathematics. Throughout the year, we invite guest lecturers, organize social events, and host a high school contest in mathematics. http://math.duke.edu/dumu-duke-university-math-union read more about Duke University Mathematics Union (DUMU) »
A thin liquid film is a layer of fluid that has a breadth much greater than its depth. A representative example is the tear film that coats your eye to protect it: the thickness of this coating is only a few micrometers but its breadth is a few centimeters, so the aspect ratio between the two length scales is about $10^{-4}$. It is difficult to control such thin films because direct contact with them can lead to rupture.By studying how physical properties,such as surface tension, affect the flow of thin films… read more about Modeling Temperature Dependence in Marangoni-driven Thin Films »
The main result of this thesis is the construction of Massey triple products of Eisenstein series. Massey triple products are a generalization of the ordinary notion of multiplication; instead of multiplying two objects together, the Massey triple product is a way of combining three different objects at once. The objects that are multiplied in this way are called cocycles, which can be thought of as representing the mathematical properties of a certain geometric space. The most familiar application of Massey triple products… read more about Triple Products of Eisenstein Series »
Six graduate students participated in the May 15, 2016 graduation ceremonies to celebrate earning their PhDs in Mathematics. Their thesis topics were impressive and varied, and reflected the breadth of study in the department. Their advisors and dissertation titles were as follows: Humberto Diaz: Advisor, Chadmark Schoen, Aspects of Motives: Finite--dimensionality, Chow-Künneth Decompositions and Intersections of Cycles Caitlin June Leverson: Advisor, Lenhard Ng, … read more about 2016 PhD Graduates »
After 45 years teaching at Duke, David Kraines will become emeritus at Duke this summer. Kraines attended Oberlin College and the University of California at Berkeley where he received his doctorate in 1965 under the supervision of Ed Spanier. After a two-year post-doc instructorship at MIT, he taught at Haverford College for three years and Aarhus Universitet in Denmark for one year before coming to Duke. He has taken sabbatical terms at the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of Minnesota, Cornell University,… read more about Professor David Kraines Retires »
Professor J Thomas Beale will retire from the mathematics Department in August after 33 years at Duke. A native of Georgia, he was an undergraduate at Caltech and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at Stanford with the supervision of Ralph Phillips. He began his career at Tulane University and became a professor at Duke in 1983. He has supervised 10 graduate students in their work leading to their Ph.D.'s. His research has centered on mathematical models of basic scientific problems, usually described by partial differential… read more about Professor J. Thomas Beale Retires »
A Duke team crushed more than 500 other schools in the NCAA tournament of the math world, known by mathletes as the Putnam, claiming a top ten finish in 2016 for the 22nd time since 1990. Alex Milu ’16, Tony Qiao ’17, Trung Can ’18 and Feng Gui ’18 scored higher than 90 percent of the 4,275 undergraduates who competed in this year’s event. More than a dozen other Duke students also competed in this year’s contest. The results of the 76th annual competition were announced this month. Read the rest of the… read more about Post-Game Roundup from the Brain Teaser Bowl »
For 96 hours this January, nearly 12500 teams around the world, including 480 from the US, competed in the annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling/Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling sponsored by COMAP. Six open-ended problems were posted at 8pm on Thursday evening and teams researched, created a model, wrote up their solutions and then submitted them to COMAP on the following Monday at 8pm.http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2016/results/ The teams of Haoyang Gu, Yang Liu, Misty Sha and of… read more about Math Contest in Modeling »
Six students have been named 2016 PRUV Fellows and will work on a variety of research projects from algebraic geometry and number theory to modeling biological systems. They are Trung Can, Matthew Gherman, Feng Gui, Mendel Nguyen, Derrick Nowak and Alex Pieloch. Students will work with mentors for at least six weeks in the summer and will continue with Research Independent Study the following year. This is expected to lead to a Senior Thesis and Graduation with Distinction. https://sites.… read more about PRUV: Program for Research for Undergraduates »
The Duke Putnam team finished 10th among 577 colleges and universities in the 76th W.L Putnam Mathematical Competition. The student coach of the team, Alex Milu’15, received Honorable Mention (top 2%) and Trung Can ’18 also ranked among the top 100 of the 4275 students in the US and Canada who participated. Tony Qiao ’17 and Feng Gui ’18 ranked among the top 8% and David Geng ‘19 and Justin Luo’18 also ranked among top quarter. The contest was particularly… read more about Putnam Competition »
The Julia Dale winners for 2016 are Lindsey Brown, Bryan Liu and Paul Ziquan Yang. Each of these students excelled in upper level and graduate math courses and wrote an innovative senior thesis. Under the direction of Mike Reed and Bill Pardon, Brown used techniques of combinatorics and algebraic topology to extend the research of Carina Curto (Duke Ph.D. 2005) on sound localization in barn owls. She will attend the graduate program in applied mathematics at Harvard. Liu made advances in the program of… read more about Julia Dale Award »
The following graduating math majors have written their Senior Honors Theses on their math or math related research: Lindsey Brown, Abstract Algebra and Neural Code for Sound Localization in Barn Owls with Mike Reed and Bill Pardon. She will study applied math at Harvard University David Builes, Large Cardinals with Richard Hodel. He will attend the graduate program in philosophy at MIT and will study set theory at Harvard on the side.… read more about Graduation with Distinction »
Duke undergraduates know professor Ingrid Daubechies as an instructor of multivariable calculus, but beyond Duke, she has become famous for her study of wavelets, or mathematical functions with the ability to enhance image compression technology. Daubechies, a Belgian James B. Duke professor of mathematics and electrical and computer engineering, came to Duke in 2010 after being on faculty at Princeton University, and she served as the first female president of the International Mathematical Union from 2011… read more about Math Professor Ingrid Daubechies Makes Waves with Research »
Mathematical physicist Arlie Petters has been appointed Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, effective July 1. He will serve through June 2020. In the words of Valerie S. Ashby, Dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences : "Petters holds Trinity College appointments as professor of mathematics and physics and an appointment at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business as a professor of business administration. He succeeds Lee D. Baker, who is returning to the faculty as a professor of… read more about Appointment of Duke Mathematics Professor Arlie O. Petters as Dean of Academic Affairs »