Department News and Happenings | Mathematics at Dartmouth

Mathematics is an amazing and beautiful intellectual creation, one of the human race’s deepest endeavors. The world around us, and the future world we are creating, is woven through with mathematics — from the symmetry groups of Navajo weavings, to the airflow around a flapping bird’s wing, to the security of global computer networks.

Learn more about our vibrant department, explore our daily events calendar for the most current department events, and please come visit us in Kemeny Hall.

Recent happenings in and around the Math Department

composite image of Dan Rockmore and Allen Riddell

Can a machine learn to write compelling product reviews?

May 13, 2022

Could you tell if an online review describing the palate-pleasing notes of grapefruit and tangerine in your off-dry Riesling was written by a human, or by an algorithm? Professor Dan Rockmore is part of a team that developed software to produce original expert wine reviews and syntheses of beer reviews using existing datasets and product metadata. Both approaches use transformer-based deep learning neural net architecture. Started by former Neukom Institute fellow Allen Riddell, right, and developed under Rockmore’s guidance by Keith Carlson, Guarini ’21 and postdoctoral research fellow at Tuck, the project became a cross-campus collaboration resulting in a paper in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. Practical applications include tools to assist consumers and professional reviewers, although the paper acknowledges and explores the inherent ethical implications involved. Read more in Dartmouth News and Scientific American, and listen to a short fun segment on BBC Tech Tent (@18:35).

photo of Matt Jones outdoors on a fall hike at Holt's Ledge

Matt Jones accepts position at Yale Human Nature Lab

May 09, 2022

Graduating PhD student Matt Jones, here enjoying a local fall hike at Holt’s Ledge, has accepted a postdoctoral research position at the Human Nature Lab at Yale’s Institute for Network Science. Part of a collaboration between the lab and the Sunwater Institute, a think tank whose mission is to strengthen the foundations of democracy through interdisciplinary science, technology, and open dialogue, the position has two research directions: group decision-making with a focus on the US Congress, and an evolutionary perspective on human rights and liberties. Matt and other members of Dartmouth’s Fu Lab co-authored the recently published paper Polarization, abstention, and the median voter theorem. Along with his scholarly research, Matt also received the Math Department's Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award in 2021 for his dedication to and excellence in advancing the educational mission of the department. Congratulations to Matt on his accomplishments! Photo by Yoonsang Lee

photo of Elizabeth Cascio and Maria Castro ’23

Contributing to economic immigration research with math and social sciences

May 07, 2022

Byrne Scholar Maria Castro ’23, right, took on research last winter seeking to explore the ways in which the 1965 Immigration Act changed the scope of legal immigration into the US. Working with Economics professor Elizabeth Cascio, she compared countries that were impacted far more by the Act to countries largely unaffected by the new legislation. They found that after the Act, the share of unauthorized immigration grew in countries whose restrictions had expanded. “We tried to control for factors like civil wars, natural disasters, and economic disparities as we ran regressions to explore the relationship between unauthorized immigration and countries most affected by the Hart-Celler Act,” says Maria. “My research with Professor Cascio sought to contribute to economic immigration research, which remains largely unexplored.” Maria is an Economics major and LALACS minor interested in exploring research related to labor and public economics.

Professor Sutton receives Dartmouth Social Justice Award

April 22, 2022

Congratulations to Professor Craig Sutton, one of five 2022 Social Justice Award recipients recognized for “outstanding contributions to social justice, peace, civil rights, education, public health, and environmental justice.” The recipients will be presented with their awards on May 23 in a ceremony featuring a speech by Martin Luther King III, whose father delivered a lecture at Dartmouth Hall 60 years earlier. Professor Sutton is director of the E.E. Just Program, which aims to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who choose to pursue degrees and careers in STEM disciplines. Since 2015, he has also been house professor of School House, one of six house communities designed to increase intellectual and civic engagement as well as cross-cultural exchange. His research interests in differential geometry include Riemannian geometry, spectral geometry, and homogeneous spaces. Please join us in congratulating Professor Sutton on receiving this award! Read more in Dartmouth News.

from left: Matt Jones, Lizzie Buchanan, Alex Wilson

Celebrating Graduate Student Appreciation Week

April 15, 2022

The Department recently hosted a special High Tea in honor of the 31 students in our PhD program. We would like to give our heartfelt thanks to all the graduate students in our program as we celebrate their achievements in scholarship, research, teaching and service! Graduate Student Appreciation Week was started in 1993 by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students as a way to support and appreciate graduate and professional students. Specifically, the week seeks to emphasize the contributions, impact, and value of graduate and professional students on campuses throughout the United States. From left: Matt Jones (research interests: networks, evolutionary dynamics, game theory, social systems), Lizzie Buchanan (research interests: topology, specifically knot theory), and Alex Wilson (research interests: algebraic combinatorics).

Math Department to host Sonia Kovalevsky Day, Saturday May 21, 2022

April 07, 2022

Sonia Kovalevsky Day is a fun-filled day of mathematics with hands-on workshops and talks for middle and high school female students and their teachers, both women and men. Originally started and funded by the Association for Women in Mathematics, the purpose of the day is to encourage young women to continue their study of mathematics and to assist the teachers of female mathematics students. The Dartmouth Math department hosts this event annually with the goal of inspiring young students to pursue degrees in the mathematical sciences and to honor female mathematicians such as Sonia Kovalevsky, who paved the way with her groundbreaking work and was a strong proponent of higher education for women. We are delighted to hold this fun and inspiring event in person once again!

Math alumna’s paper added to Discrete Mathematics Editor’s Choice list

March 28, 2022

Congratulations to Melanie Fraser PhD ’19, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Southern New Hampshire University, whose paper Lewis Carroll and the Red Hot Potato: A graph theoretic approach to a linear algebraic identity is featured on the 2022 Editor's Choice list in Discrete Mathematics! In 1866, Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, published an algorithm for computing the determinant of a matrix. Melanie created a new proof of the Lewis Carroll Identity and its equivalence to a graph-theoretic approach called the Forest Identity. The paper is will be freely accessible for the rest of the year, and replication code for the algorithm, coded in Mathematica, is publicly available. While earning her PhD in Mathematics under the supervision of Professor Peter Doyle, Melanie received Dartmouth’s 2019 Graduate Teaching Award. She also gave a talk about the research leading up to her paper at the “AMS Special Session on Advances by Early Career Women in Discrete Mathematics” at JMM 2019.

photo of Feng Fu, Matthew Jones, and Antonio Sirianni

Team at Fu Lab develops contemporary model on voter choice

March 25, 2022

Graduate student Matt Jones, center, is lead author on the paper Polarization, abstention, and the median voter theorem, recently published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. With co-authors Feng Fu and Antonio Sirianni, Jones developed a mathematical model in response to apparent limitations in the median voter theorem, long considered the default model of voter behavior and candidate choice. Taking into consideration three contemporary factors — the influence of ideologically motivated third-party candidates, varied reasons for voter abstention, and increasing political polarization — the new model suggests voters may be drawn further to either side of a one-dimensional political spectrum, with the existence of extreme third-party candidates potentially causing a distributional tipping point with a feedback effect. “The minimal number of realistic assumptions necessary to obtain this result makes it all the more compelling and concerning,” state the authors, who propose continued reassessment of existing rational choice voting models. Read more in Dartmouth News.

Professor Pomerance reflects on the life of Richard K. Guy

March 21, 2022

In a touching memorial tribute appearing this month in Notices of the AMS, Professor Carl Pomerance and co-author Andrew Granville write on the remarkable life of mathematician Richard K. Guy, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 103. The article is a fascinating human interest story as well as an exploration into Guy’s mathematical research interests of combinatorial game theory, number theory, and geometry. For Guy, who initially considered himself an enthusiastic amateur mathematician, an encounter with Paul Erdős in 1960 was transformative: “He ended up writing four papers with Erdős, even solving an Erdős problem and developing his voracious appetite for unsolved problems.” For many years Guy ran a Research Problems column in the American Mathematical Monthly, and his books Unsolved Problems in Number Theory and The Book of Numbers (joint with John Conway) continue to inspire and delight both experienced and aspiring mathematicians.

Studying mammalian energy metabolism with Stockholm research lab

March 11, 2022

Byrne Scholar Jacob Fyda ’22 spent two terms last year doing remote research at Stockholm’s Wenner-Gren Institute for Molecular Biosciences, investigating cellular energy metabolisms related to the genetics of thermogenesis of eutherian mammals. Working with PhD student Michael Gaudry in Dr. Martin Jastroch’s Integrative Physiology of Mammalian Energy Metabolism research group, Jacob expanded on previous work he had done in-person at the institute in Summer 2019. “Our findings helped provide additional insight into the evolution of brown adipose tissue and associated genes, with the eventual goal of applying this functional and molecular knowledge to enhance treatment of metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes,” says Jacob. “I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of Jack and Dorothy Byrne which allowed me to develop this relationship with the lab.” Jacob’s work in Dr. Jastroch’s group has led to his co-authorship on two papers, the second of which was published in PNAS in January 2022.

The 2022 Thayer Prize Exam

March 05, 2022

Attention first-year students! The Thayer Prize Exam, a contest organized by our department each year, will take place this year on Saturday, April 30 from 10am – 1pm, with location TBD. The Mathematics Department Prize fund for this exam is up to $1000, to be distributed among the exam winners. The exam consists of Mathematics Olympiad style problems, and originality and creativity are heavily weighed. You may view some recent exams for practice, along with a brief history of the prizes and the list of winners from the last 11 years. Please contact Prize Committee Chair Professor Vladimir Chernov at least 10 days in advance if you would like to take the exam but cannot take it on April 30; the alternate date is Sunday May 1.

composite image, left to right: fourth year PhD student Richard Haburcak, Athina Avrantini ’23, and Jenny Song ’23

Directed Reading Program 22W final presentations

March 04, 2022

To conclude a wonderful term of learning mathematics in our Directed Reading Program, students will give final presentations on March 7. Topics include elliptic curves, chaos, the probabilistic method, game theory, knot theory, and fractional calculus. Presentations will be about 20 minutes each with short breaks between talks. Our program pairs undergraduate students with graduate mentors to undertake independent reading projects covering advanced topics in mathematics that are generally not taught at the undergraduate level, fostering a supportive environment for students seeking to further their interest in mathematics. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, especially all of our graduate students who volunteered to mentor this term! From left: fourth year PhD student Richard Haburcak, organizer of the program, along with presenters Athina Avrantini ’23 and Jenny Song ’23. Other undergraduates presenting include Love Tsai ’23, Andrew White ’22, Katie Woolfolk ’23, Jessica Liu ’23, and Gayeong Song ’22.

Research by Neukom Fellow Olivia Chu published in PNAS special feature

February 16, 2022

Neukom Fellow Olivia Chu is co-author of the paper The microdynamics of spatial polarization: A model and an application to survey data from Ukraine, recently published in December’s special feature in PNAS. Chu is a Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow whose research focuses on the dynamics of human behavior and in particular, the effects that heterogeneous population structures have on these dynamics. Mentored by Professor Feng Fu, her research has applications to the evolution of cooperation, social integration, and polarization. In the paper, she and co-authors use a modified version of the adaptive voter model combined with survey data to show how social learning from other individuals in discussion networks can explain growing local consensus, while at the same time exacerbating spatial differences in attitudes. Chu recently presented her work in a virtual seminar at Santa Fe Institute's CounterBalance series on cyberhate, misinformation, social polarization, and other applied aspects of belief dynamics.

poster for MATH 100 / COSC 149.9 / COSC 49.02 (Topics in Probability)

Math 100 in Spring ’22: The Many Faces of Random Walk

February 11, 2022

This spring’s Topics in Probability course (MATH 100 / COSC 149.9 / COSC 49.02) will be “The Many Faces of Random Walk”, taught by Professor Peter Winkler. The class will meet in the 10 hour, MWF 10:10-11:15. Random walk is simple and ubiquitous, both a fascinating topic in its own right and a powerful tool in mathematics and computer science. Course topics will include: reversible Markov chains; electrical networks; Markov chain Monte Carlo; mixing time and approximation algorithms, Rayleigh’s “random flight” theorem; martingales and stock exchange betting; and games and other applications. Prerequisites: mathematical background of a senior mathematics major or a beginning graduate student in mathematics or theoretical computer science, including a course in probability (e.g., MATH 20 or MATH 60). If in doubt, please contact Professor Winkler. (Click/tap to view a larger image of poster.)

Professor Petkova wins prestigious NSF CAREER Award

February 01, 2022

Professor Ina Petkova is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award, described as its “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 organizations.” The grant will provide funding over the next five years for her project, Bordered Floer homology and applications, and for mentoring and outreach. As Principal Investigator, Professor Petkova will seek to develop and apply cut-and-paste mathematical tools in low-dimensional topology. She intends to further develop an invariant from bordered Floer homology for contact 3-manifolds with convex boundary, and use this invariant to address open questions in contact topology, an area with applications in physics, including classical mechanics, thermodynamics, and control theory. She also plans to extend bordered Floer homology and tangle Floer homology to integral coefficients and understand and develop the connections between knot Floer homology and quantum algebra.

Zachary Couvillion ’22 receives Byrne Prize

January 23, 2022

Congratulations to Zachary Couvillion ’22, the recipient of the 2022 John J. Byrne Jr. Prize in Mathematics! This prize was established in 2019 and is awarded to the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. “I would say that the algebra track at Dartmouth made a particularly strong impact on my future research interests,“ says Zach. “I studied specializations of Belyi maps with Professor Voight, and some aspects of the project are evolving toward a senior thesis. I hope to begin a PhD program in math in the Fall of 2022 and explore more topics in algebra and number theory. I have received excellent mentorship and support from the math department at Dartmouth, and I am excited to continue this journey in mathematics.”

photo of Peter Winkler in the Math Department

A recent evening of ‘math dinner theatre’ hosted by Professor Winkler

January 14, 2022

Since 2019 Professor Peter Winkler has hosted a series of discussions on “Probability and Intuition” over dinner in New York City. The series, started by MoMath, often focuses on mathematical questions with surprising answers. Professor Dan Rockmore describes one of the gatherings in a recent article in The New Yorker. “You don’t need to be a researcher or math teacher to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, any more than you need to be a composer or performer to enjoy music,” says Winkler. Puzzles are his particular specialty. “Puzzles are my outreach device. I like to use puzzles to teach, to get people excited, and to challenge them to think.” One recent guest reported struggling with a certain puzzle: “On average, how many cards does it take to get to a jack in a shuffled deck of fifty-two cards?” (A good exercise for our readers!) You can register to receive a new puzzle every week from Professor Winkler at mindbenders.momath.org.

poster for Essay Contest 'Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics'

Math Department and AWM Essay Contests

January 13, 2022

For the sixth year in a row our department is pleased to sponsor the Essay Contest Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics, modeled on the national AWM Essay Contest and open to all middle and high school students in the Upper Valley and to all Dartmouth undergraduates. We are very excited to share this program with our community and hope to receive some outstanding essays. In the past six years we have had many students receive recognition or win prizes in the national AWM Essay Contest! You may submit your essay to both contests; the deadline is February 1, 2022. View detailed information including contest rules, tips on choosing an interviewee, and lists of past winners. Last year two local students won prizes at the national level! (Click/tap to view a larger image of poster.)

composite image of class of 2025 Byrne Scholars, left to right: Ahrav Jain, Garrett H. Cheng, Carter Kruse; second row, left to right: Harrison Stropkay, Logan Dailey, Allison Zhuang, Andrew Xu; third row, left to right: Niccolo Campolo, Tunmay Gerg, Katie Cox

Introducing the Class of ’25 Byrne Scholars

January 12, 2022

The Math Department warmly welcomes the Class of 2025 Byrne Scholars! The Jack Byrne Scholars Program in Math and Society allows students to study with faculty committed to using mathematics to build solutions to today’s complex problems; to present research findings at conferences; to conduct independent research at Dartmouth; and to participate in research exchanges domestically and abroad. Each Byrne Scholar receives an enrichment grant from the generous Byrne Gift and joins a community of Byrne Scholars who provide mentorship both in and out of the classroom. Left to right: Ahrav Jain, Garrett H. Cheng, and Carter Kruse. Second row, left to right: Harrison Stropkay, Logan Dailey, Allison Zhuang, and Andrew Xu. Third row, left to right: Niccolo Campolo, Tunmay Gerg, and Katie Cox. (Not pictured: Clark Paolini.)

photo of Dan Rockmore in front of a blackboard

Professor Rockmore writes on proofs in The New York Review of Books

January 03, 2022

In the January 13, 2022 issue of The New York Review of Books [may require subscription], Professor Dan Rockmore gives a delightfully erudite review of Philip Ording’s 99 Variations on a Proof. Ording’s book was inspired by Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style (1947) and is wide in scope and style — deep, historical, amusing, and playful — as is Professor Rockmore’s review. “Mathematics is writing,” says Rockmore. A proof is “as close to the written transmission of one person’s pure thought as any writing can be. But even in mathematical writing, it’s not just what you say but how you say it — better known as style.” Rockmore, Professor of Mathematics and director of the Neukom Institute, is co-editor of the recently published book Law as Data: Computation, Text, & the Future of Legal Analysis.

photo of Dartmouth Formula Racing competing in the Autocross Event at 2018 Formula Hybrid

Independent research with Dartmouth Formula Racing at Thayer

January 02, 2022

With support from the generous Byrne gift, Byrne Scholar and Thayer School of Engineering student Ben Martin ’22 pursued an independent research project this past summer designing a testing setup to experimentally determine the braking characteristics of the Dartmouth Formula Racing team’s current generation of brake system. DFR designs and builds hybrid race cars to compete in the Formula Hybrid annual competition in New Hampshire; Dartmouth’s team has been competing in automotive engineering design competitions since 1995, and has competed in Formula Hybrid since its inauguration in 2006. “I planned out experiments to determine kinetic and static coefficients of friction between the pads and rotors at various temperatures, thermal response of the brake system at different levels of energy dissipation, and long term wear characteristics,” says Ben, who is Brakes Team Lead and Manufacturing Team Lead at DFR. DFR photo by Kathryn Lapierre.

composite photo of Richard Haburcak, Matt Jones,Sam Tripp, Grant Molnar, Juanita Duque-Rosero, Jonathan Lindbloom, Yanbing Gu, Kathy Lin, Matthew Ellison, and Ben Adenbaum

Directed Reading Program continues in Winter and Spring 2022!

December 07, 2021

Our Directed Reading Program pairs undergraduate students with graduate mentors to undertake independent reading projects covering advanced topics in mathematics that are generally not taught at the undergraduate level. We look forward to learning interesting mathematics with you! View a list of possible projects and graduate mentors; if you are very interested in a particular topic that is not on the list, there may be a graduate mentor who would be happy to read through that topic with you. The deadline to apply for the Winter 2022 DRP is December 24. Clockwise from top left: program organizer Richard Haburcak along with DRP graduate mentors Matt Jones, Sam Tripp, Grant Molnar, Juanita Duque-Rosero, Jonathan Lindbloom, Yanbing Gu, Kathy Lin, Matthew Ellison, and Ben Adenbaum.

photo of Joe Gyorda ’22 with Dartmouth Triathlon Team members

Modeling athletic performance using mathematical data science

December 06, 2021

Byrne Scholar and Mathematical Data Science major Joe Gyorda ’22, second from left, interned this summer at HALE Sports, which seeks to optimize the health and performance of athletes through analyzing somatic and biometric data. “The first team was building a computer vision model in which athletes could receive real-time feedback on various exercises (e.g., squat, pushup) to correct their form. Machine learning and body pose estimation models were implemented to analyze body position/angles and identify correct/incorrect form,” says Joe, himself a triathlete. In his second team Joe worked with longitudinal somatic survey data collected from college athletes, with the goal being to implement clustering algorithms to track athlete variables over time and using predictive models to determine which variables (e.g., energy, mood) are impacted by changes in another (e.g., sleep). “I am very grateful for the generosity of the Byrne Fund for supporting me and my work!”

Daniel Krashen to give C. Dwight Lahr Lecture

November 09, 2021

Daniel Krashen, Presidential Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, will give a public lecture titled Professional empathy at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday November 16 in Kemeny 008. Dr. Krashen’s research is in algebra and arithmetic geometry, specifically the study of division algebras, quadratic forms, and linear algebraic groups. These areas have connections to a wide range of fields, including physics and cryptography. He has been awarded multiple NSF grants, including a CAREER award and the prestigious Presidential Early Career (PECASE) award. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Dr. Krashen has been active in promoting outreach and diversity in mathematics at a range of levels, from middle school through early career professors, including in his work on the editorial boards of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society and the American Mathematical Monthly.

image from Dimitris Giannakis' paper 'Bridging Data Science and Dynamical Systems Theory', featured in the October 2020 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Professor Giannakis’ research highlighted in the Concord Monitor

November 03, 2021

Professor Dimitris Giannakis, whose research connects ideas from data science, machine learning, and dynamical systems theory, was recently quoted in an article in the Concord Monitor [may require subscription], speaking on the development of mathematical frameworks to improve understanding of complex systems such as the earth’s climate dynamics. “We are combining this existing body of theoretical knowledge from abstract math with data science ... to identify phenomena in nature and generate questions that are relevant at the abstract mathematical level as well as the world,” he says. “It brings in a lot of different fields of mathematics in one arena.” This image is from his paper Bridging Data Science and Dynamical Systems Theory (co-authored with Tyrus Berry and John Harlim), which was featured in the October 2020 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society. “I think mathematics is very beautiful as a language; beautiful in its own right, without reference to anything else,” says Professor Giannakis, who is a member of the Jack Byrne Academic Cluster in Mathematics and Decision Science.

Byrne Scholar Archita Harathi ’22 inducted into Phi Beta Kappa

November 02, 2021

Congratulations to Byrne Scholar Archita Harathi ’22, one of 22 students recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in this year’s fall ceremony at Dartmouth. Archita, who is majoring in Math and Economics and minoring in Computer Science, has been supported by Byrne funds in several endeavors: a summer ’21 investment banking internship at Goldman Sachs in the structured finance group; a virtual winter ’21 management consulting internship focusing on technology, media, and telecom industries at Altman Solon; and, during her freshman summer, research abroad at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. Archita also received the Town Scientific Prize for her achievement in mathematics in 2020. When not busy with academics, Archita finds time to study Indian classical music and competed in this year’s Dartmouth Idol with the help and guidance of Walt Cunningham at the Hop.

Professor Fu receives Dean of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Advising

October 21, 2021

Professor Feng Fu is among thirteen members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who have been recognized for exceptional achievement in scholarship, teaching, and mentoring for 2021. We congratulate Professor Fu on his many successes, as well as those of his students and mentees! “I am very fortunate to have the opportunity of working with our group of talented students at all levels,” says Professor Fu. “I am particularly passionate about working with both undergraduate and graduate students, and always do my best to help them to succeed in their later careers (academia and industry) after training in my lab.” The Fu Lab invites creative and self-motivated scientists (postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates) to join the research group.

composite photo of Shikhin Sethi ’19, Matt Radosevich ’20, and Jacob Swenberg ’21

2022 Byrne Prize in Mathematics: accepting applications

October 18, 2021

We are now accepting applications for the 2022 Byrne Prize in Mathematics. If you are graduating this year and planning to go to graduate school in math or a related field, please consider applying! The prize, established in 2019, is a $35,000 fellowship that recognizes the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. View the application requirements along with info about our past recipients Shikhin Sethi ’19, Matt Radosevich ’20, and Jacob Swenberg ’21.

composite photo of 2021 Dartmouth AWM exec board: Kayla Hamann ’22, Paola Karapataki ’22, Lizzie Hernández-Videa ’22, Jenny Song ’23, and Sonal Butala ’22.

Join math organizations on campus!

October 17, 2021

Math orgs on campus include Dartmouth SIAM (faculty advisors: Scott Pauls and Feng Fu), Dartmouth Math Society (faculty advisors: Vladimir Chernov and Rosa Orellana), and the Dartmouth AWM student chapter (faculty advisors: Carolyn Gordon and Rosa Orellana). This term the Dartmouth AWM exec board would like to share news of the AWM’s 50th anniversary We Speak: Inspiring Women in Math Speaker Series, featuring talks by women who have made a positive difference in the mathematics community. Clockwise from upper left: Current members of the Dartmouth AWM exec board Kayla Hamann ’22, Paola Karapataki ’22, Lizzie Hernández-Videa ’22, Jenny Song ’23, and Sonal Butala ’22.

Welcome Assistant Professor Ethan Levien

October 11, 2021

The department welcomes Assistant Professor Ethan Levien, whose research interests include stochastic processes, mathematical biology, and applied statistics. Professor Levien, who will be starting his own research group in our department, obtained his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Utah, where he studied the stochastic dynamics of chemical reaction networks. He went on to spend three years as a postdoctoral fellow in applied mathematics at Harvard University and Brandies University. His current research focuses on the role of randomness in biology, especially single-cell physiology and evolution. “Using mathematics, I try to answer questions such as: How do cells regulate their size? Why do certain traits appear to evolve separately in distinct organisms? What causes physiological differences in genetically identical cells?”

film poster for Adventures of a Mathematician

Film screening of Adventures of a Mathematician, 5 p.m. on Friday October 15

October 10, 2021

Join us at 5 p.m. on Friday, October 15 in Kemeny 008 for a screening of the movie Adventures of a Mathematician. Released in theaters last week, the film is a thought-provoking account of Jewish-Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who flees to the US in the 1930s. There, Stan helps build the first computer and create the hydrogen bomb. View more information, including the trailer! There will be an introduction and Q&A with the film director Thor Klein and the science advisor George Dyson at 5pm, followed by the screening. RSVP is encouraged to help us with planning. Sponsored by the Jack Byrne Scholars Program.

Byrne Scholar develops software for ESL tutoring startup

October 09, 2021

Supported by the Byrne gift, Byrne Scholar Anne Bailey ’22 interned at language-learning startup Cambly, whose web and mobile apps facilitate learning English as a second language by connecting students with tutors around the world. During her time at Cambly, Anne developed a system using the AWS Lambda service and learned much about developing scalable software along the way — something not necessarily easy to learn in the classroom. “Overall, this internship taught me a lot about full-stack software engineering, and I had a great time,” Anne says. “As a computer science major and linguistics minor, working as a software engineer intern at a language-learning company was a great intersection of my interests.”

poster for Prosser lecture by Christopher Moore, with photo and abstract

Christopher Moore to give Reese T. Prosser Memorial Lecture

September 30, 2021

Cristopher Moore, Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, will give a lecture titled Easy, Hard, and Impossible: The Limits of Computation at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 6 in 008 Kemeny Hall. From the abstract: “Every day we ask computers to solve problems for us — to find the fastest route across town, fold a protein into the right shape, or prove an unsolved mathematical question. In each case the space of possible solutions is vast. Why is it that for some problems, we can quickly zoom in on the solution, while for others it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack? What is it about the structure of a problem that makes it easy, or hard, or even impossible to solve?” (Click/tap to view a larger image.)

composite photo of Peter Mucha and Dimitris Giannakis

Professors Mucha and Giannakis join the Jack Byrne Academic Cluster

September 27, 2021

Professors Peter Mucha and Dimitris Giannakis are the newest members of the Jack Byrne Academic Cluster in Mathematics and Decision Science, as reported in a recent Dartmouth News story. Part of the Academic Cluster Initiative, the Byrne cluster focuses on applying mathematical thinking to some of society’s major challenges in health care, transportation, and manufacturing. Peter Mucha, Jack Byrne Distinguished Professor in Mathematics, notes that “the Byrne Cluster was particularly appealing to me because its goals are so well aligned with the activities of my research group, both developing new mathematical tools for analyzing data and working with others to use those tools in different applications.” Dimitris Giannakis, Jack Byrne Professor in Mathematics, looks forward to working across disciplines: “One of my primary research areas is climate dynamics, and I am excited about the opportunities that the Byrne Cluster will provide for innovative work in this area, in both its physical and societal dimensions.”

portion of image representing advisor and advisee connections between Fields Medalists, with nodes color-coded by lingo-ethnic identity

Herbert Chang ’18 and Professor Fu publish study on mathematical elitism

September 20, 2021

The Fields Medal is awarded to only a few young mathematicians every four years and was, in part, intended to recognize underrepresented mathematicians. In their analysis Elitism in mathematics and inequality, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications and referenced in Scientific American, former Byrne Scholar Ho-Chun Herbert Chang ’18 and Professor Feng Fu explore how 60 Fields Medal recipients relate to each other and to the broader community of mathematicians. They find that while the medal has helped to promote some previously underrepresented groups, a “Western bias” is still evident, along with an under-representation of minority groups. In particular, the study found that 44 out of 60 Fields medalists come from a highly interconnected group of mathematicians. Image by Shirley Wu.

Research by Alina Glaubitz featured in SIAM News

September 09, 2021

In July SIAM News highlighted research by second-year graduate student Alina Glaubitz (joint with Professor Feng Fu) and her work on the oscillatory dynamics of social distancing. In her presentation, delivered virtually at the 2021 SIAM Annual Meeting, Alina described how she and Professor Fu incorporated an evolutionary game theory model into the epidemiological process, revealing the presence of a feedback loop between infections and social distancing. This feedback loop, an “oscillatory tragedy of the commons,” can lead to multiple waves of infection in emerging novel zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19, which are caused by respiratory viruses and are highly contagious through proximity transmissions.

composite photo of Carl Pomerance and the fictional character Sheldon Cooper

Professor Pomerance asks ‘Is 73 the best number?’

September 08, 2021

Professor Carl Pomerance was an invited speaker to a recent conference of the Northeastern Section of the MAA. His talk, ‘Is 73 the best number?’, was connected to his paper Proof of the Sheldon Conjecture (co-authored with Chris Spicer), which proved a mathematical concept inspired by an episode in the CBS series The Big Bang Theory. As stated in his talk’s abstract, “According to Sheldon Cooper, the often annoying lead character in the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, 73 is the best number. And he's eager to tell you why. But is it really? In joint work with Chris Spicer (Morningside College in Iowa), we show Sheldon just may be right.” Sheldon photo credit: Michael Yarish/©2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

composite photo of Jonathan Meng ’18 and Feng Fu

Joint paper by Jonathan Meng ’18 and Professor Fu published in Royal Society Open Science

September 05, 2021

Jonathan Meng ’18 and Professor Feng Fu have recently published the paper Understanding gambling behaviour and risk attitudes using cryptocurrency-based casino blockchain data in Royal Society Open Science. The research was funded by the Neukom Scholars Program and Neukom-Vechain RFP. Their joint work was based on Jonathan’s mathematics senior honors thesis, Understanding Gambling Behavior and Risk Attitudes Using Massive Online Casino Data, for which Professor Fu served as advisor.

image from Craig Sutton's article 'Spectral geometry in the presence of symmetry', featured in the June/July 2021 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Professor Sutton’s research featured in Notices of the AMS

August 12, 2021

The article Spectral geometry in the presence of symmetry by Professor Craig Sutton was featured in the June/July issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society. This image from the paper represents a cubical tiling of hyperbolic three-space $\Bbb{H}^3$, one of the eight Thurston geometries. Professor Sutton, whose research interests in differential geometry include Riemannian geometry, spectral geometry, and homogeneous spaces, is currently the House Professor of the School House community and is director of Dartmouths’s E.E. Just Program. Image courtesy of Steve Trettel.

composite image of 2021 incoming graduate students, clockwise from upper left: Jiayi Chen, Haochen Wu, Casey Dowdle, Anna Vasenina, Peter Nielsen, Yanbing Gu, and Jonathan Lindbloom

Welcoming our incoming PhD students

August 11, 2021

We are pleased to extend a warm welcome to nine new graduate students in our department! Clockwise from top left: Jiayi Chen (Grinnell College), Haochen Wu (Wake Forest University), Casey Dowdle (Clemson Univesity), Anna Vasenina (Grinnell College), Peter Nielsen (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Yanbing Gu (CUNY Graduate School and University), and Jonathan Lindbloom (Southern Methodist University). (Not pictured: Xie He and David Freeman.) We look forward to working with them in the fall.

Jacob Swenberg ’21 receives Dartmouth Gazzaniga Award

August 10, 2021

Jacob Swenberg ’21 was selected as this year’s recipient of Dartmouth’s Gazzaniga Award recognizing scientific achievement by an undergraduate. Jacob had previously received the John J. Byrne Jr. Prize in Mathematics, was the recipient of our department’s Best Senior Thesis Presentation award, and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 2021. Jacob, who will be starting in a PhD program at the UCLA Department of Mathematics, thanks the Dartmouth Math Department, especially his thesis advisor John Voight, for supporting him during his time as an undergraduate. Congratulations to Jacob on his many accomplishments!

composite image of Eugene Demidenko and the cover of his textbook 'Advanced Statistics with Applications in R'

Professor Demidenko on job market trends

July 26, 2021

The career and job resource website Zippia recently assembled a panel of academic statisticians to talk about current trends in the job market for statisticians. The distinguished panel included Professor Eugene Demidenko, who teaches Math 70 as the culminating course of our Mathematical Data Science major. According to Professor Demidenko, to be successful, statisticians “must possess essential skills in data analysis and computer programming, such as R, Python, or MATLAB.” His most recent textbook Advanced Statistics with Applications in R addresses the needs of modern applied statistics.

composite photo of Asher Auel and Feng Fu

Congratulations to Asher Auel and Feng Fu

June 15, 2021

Please join us in congratulating Asher Auel and Feng Fu, who have received tenure and promotions to the rank of Associate Professor! Professor Auel’s research interests are in algebraic geometry and number theory; he was among the 2020 awardees of the Simons Foundation Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians. His five-year grant will explore a project on the geometry of splitting fields and rationality. Professor Fu’s research integrates applied mathematics, social science, computer science, evolutionary biology, and statistical physics. He favors a multidisciplinary approach to research and teaching in what he calls “mathematical humanities”, ranging from quantitative explorations into human behavior, the ethics of algorithms, and mathematical models of morality.

composite photo of 2021 Mathematics PhDs, clockwise from upper left: Doug Knowles, Yitong (Pepper) Huang, James Ronan, Xingru Chen, and Laura Petto

Congratulations to our recent PhDs!

June 14, 2021

Congratulations to our graduate students who received their doctoral degrees at this year’s Investiture ceremony in June! Clockwise from upper left: Doug Knowles (advisor Ina Petkova), Yitong (Pepper) Huang (advisors Scott Pauls and D. Forger), James Ronan (advisor Anne Gelb), Xingru Chen (advisor Feng Fu), and Laura Petto (advisor M. Cheney). You may view their theses abstracts as well as our list of recent PhD students, which goes back a number of years and shows the first jobs and current positions of our PhD alumni.

Professor Rockmore writes in The New Yorker

June 25, 2021

On Father’s Day, The New Yorker published a reflective essay by Professor Dan Rockmore discussing the history of mathematical proofs and the major influence of one particular proof — the Rockmore theorem, developed by his father — on his own family’s history. About his father, a professor emeritus in the theoretical nuclear physics group at Rutgers, Rockmore says “My dad still marvels at a career and a life that he never could have anticipated... math was a gateway to order in his life.” Reflecting on the equations in his father’s proof brings Proustian moments: “For me, the symbols are mathematical madeleines. They remind me of the pads of paper that were scattered around our house, each full of my father’s scribblings.”

composite photo of 2021 senior honors theses students, from left: Jacob Swenberg ’21 and Andreas Louskos ’21

2021 Honors Theses

June 24, 2021

Congratulations to our graduating seniors who submitted and presented honors theses this year! Jacob Swenberg ’21 (advisor John Voight) and Andreas Louskos ’21 (advisor Yoonsang Lee) were both awarded high honors; Jacob received the Hazleton Mirkil Prize for Best Senior Thesis Presentation. Our Honors Program page has PDF versions of their theses as well as theses from prior years. Interested in doing independent work in mathematics? View the section on The Honors Program in Mathematics in the Dartmouth ORC.

Professor Elizalde’s research recently published in two journals

June 17, 2021

Research by professor Sergi Elizalde was recently published in a solo paper in Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A and in a co-authored paper in Nature. “My research interests are mostly in enumerative and algebraic combinatorics. I work on problems involving permutations, pattern avoidance, bijections, generating functions, lattice paths, and Young tableaux.” Regarding the Nature paper, he says “Lately I have also become interested in applications to mathematical biology, modeling chromosomal instability in cancer cells using combinatorial and probabilistic tools.” Professor Elizalde is currently the House Professor of East Wheelock and advisor to the Byrne Scholars. In 2018 he chaired the organizing committee for the 30th international FPSAC conference, which drew over 230 participants from 25 different countries to Hanover.

Xingru Chen receives Hannah Croasdale Graduate Scholar Award

June 11, 2021

Congratulations to Xingru Chen PhD ’21, this year’s Hannah Croasdale Graduate Scholar Award winner! The recipient of this Dartmouth award possesses personal qualities of intellectual curiosity, dedication, and commitment to the pursuit of new knowledge and to teaching, as well as a sense of social responsibility to the community of scholars. “It is a great honor and a privilege to be the recipient of the award. I just feel lucky to do my PhD here. Everyone, from the students to the faculty, and to the other staff, is loving and caring. I am forever grateful to the department, the graduate school, and the college for offering help and support all the time.”

Math Camp 2021: Exploring Mathematics

June 03, 2021

This year we are hosting Math Camp virtually, offering two summer enrichment sessions for local high school students in July and August. Topics covered will be outside of the usual high school syllabus and students can interact with mathematicians in a fun, non-graded environment, where an exploratory approach will be emphasized. Each program will cover different mathematical topics and students are invited to attend one or both sessions. This year’s sessions are Knot Theory and Combinatorial Games. View more info and registration link. (Click/tap to view a larger image.)

2021 Thayer Prize Exam winners

June 02, 2021

The Math Department is pleased to announce excellent results in this year’s Thayer Prize Exam, an annual first-year Dartmouth mathematics competition organized by our department. Congratulations to first place winner Hoang Nguyen ’24 and second place winner Dylan Fridman ’24! You may view the list of winners from the last 11 years along with a brief history of the prizes, which were established in 1869 to “to constitute a perpetual prize fund for superior proficiency in the higher branches of Mathematics.” The exam consists of Mathematics Olympiad style problems, and originality and creativity are heavily weighed.

composite photo of 2021 local Math Essay Contest winners, clockwise from upper left: Saia Patel, Ben Hourdequin, Allyson Lee, and Sora Shirai

Congratulations to local Math Essay Contest winners!

May 27, 2021

Congratulations to the middle and high school winners of our local essay contest Biographies Of Contemporary Women In Mathematics, modeled on the national AWM Essay Contest and open to all middle and high school students in the Upper Valley. The local 2021 winning essays are from students (clockwise from upper left) Saia Patel, Ben Hourdequin, Allyson Lee, and Sora Shirai. (Not pictured: local winner Leah Twarog.) In addition to the local prize, Ben received an Honorable Mention in the AWM national contest for his essay on Dr. Lori Siegel, Senior Modeler at Climate Interactive. You may read the winning essays here, along with those from prior years.

computed image representing the intersection between low-dimensional topology and contact geometry

Dartmouth SHUR 2021: apply by May 31

May 20, 2021

We invite Dartmouth undergraduate student applications for a Summer Hybrid Undergraduate Research (SHUR) project, partially funded by the NSF and the Neukom Institute for Computational Science. Our group will pursue a research project in low-dimensional topology with a computer science component, investigating phenomena in the intersection between low-dimensional topology and contact geometry, with the goal of building a graphical calculator for Legendrian knots. This research has entry points for students with many different backgrounds and skill sets, and we will also provide professional development opportunities, including discussions with mathematicians on research presentation and writing personal statements.

Jacob Swenberg ’21 receives Byrne Prize

May 14, 2021

Congratulations to Jacob Swenberg ’21, the recipient of the 2021 John J. Byrne Jr. Prize in Mathematics, awarded to the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. Jacob intends to continue studying algebraic number theory (and possibly algebraic geometry) in UCLA’s Mathematics PhD program. “With each math class I took, I became more convinced that I wanted to pursue math as a career,” says Jacob. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of Dartmouth’s Math Department, especially my thesis advisor, Professor John Voight.”

Prosser Lecture: Given Any Five Cards

May 06, 2021

2021 Reese T. Prosser Memorial Lecture Series by Colm Mulcahy.
“One of the most astonishing mathematical card tricks ever invented dates back over 70 years: given any five cards from a regular deck, it is possible to show just four of them to a friend and magically convey the identity of the fifth...”
Wednesday, May 19, 2021 @ 6:00PM. Zoom ID 922 7125 3913.

SIAM News article honors Professor Gelb

April 09, 2021

A recent SIAM News article highlights the career of Anne Gelb, the John G. Kemeny Parents Professor of Mathematics, mentioning her leadership in the mathematical sciences and her many contributions to SIAM. Professor Gelb’s research involves developing highly accurate and efficient data-driven numerical methods for extracting important information in applications such as medical imaging, synthetic aperture radar imaging, climatology, signal processing, and fluid dynamics. She is currently a PI of the project Sea Ice Modeling and Data Assimilation (SIMDA), a new MURI project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and has co-directed Dartmouth Mathematics REU programs during the summers of 2017, 2018, and 2020.

composite photo of 2021 Dartmouth undergraduate Math Essay Contest winners, left to right: Katherine Lasonde ’23 and Yangyang Li ’22

Announcing the 2021 Math Essay Contest winners

April 08, 2021

Katherine Lasonde ’23 and Yangyang Li ’22 won first and second prizes at the college level in our local AWM essay contest Biographies Of Contemporary Women In Mathematics. Other 2021 winning essays are from local high school students Saia Patel, Sora Shirai, and Leah Twarog, and local middle school students Ben Hourdequin and Allyson Lee. In the national AWM contest, Yangyang Li ’22 (Dartmouth) received first place at the undergraduate level, and Ben Hourdequin (Richmond Middle School) received an Honorable Mention at the middle school level. Both Yangyang's and Ben's essays feature Dr. Lori Siegel, Senior Modeler at Climate Interactive.

Byrne Scholar Winter 2021 software engineering internship

March 31, 2021

“The 2020-2021 school year (junior year for the Class of 2022) wasn’t exactly how anybody could have predicted when my class matriculated,” says Byrne Scholar Maria Roodnitsky ’22. However, thanks to the generous Byrne gift, Maria had the opportunity to spend an off term as a software engineering intern working on improving accessibility features in an iOS application with the mobile development team at Grove Collaborative. “I never could have imagined three years ago that I would be applying my love for data science and mathematics in the technology sector,” says Maria. “Having used funding to do both hands-on research with a renowned statistician and to go work in the industry itself, I can safely say that as a result of the Jack Byrne Scholars Program, I am one step closer to knowing what I want to do post-graduation. I look forward to seeing what else is in store!”

Public lecture in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the AWM

March 25, 2021

Mary Gray, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at American University, will give a special public lecture titled “Don’t Say No! A Mathematician’s Journey into Human Rights” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7 via Zoom. Professor Gray researches and applies statistics and law to address human rights and equity throughout the world. Early in her career, she co-founded and served as first president of the Association for Women in Mathematics. Among her many honors, she has received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring, the Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society, and honorary degrees from three institutions. Dartmouth’s own AWM Student Chapter is sponsoring this very special public event. View the department’s poster for more details!

Research on the emergence of polarized echo chambers published in Physical Review X

March 23, 2021

Professor Feng Fu was the senior researcher on a study of political discourse in social media published in Physical Review X. In the article Public Discourse and Social Network Echo Chambers Driven by Socio-Cognitive Biases, Professor Fu, visiting scholar Xin Wang, and their co-authors present a computational model demonstrating how aggressive political messages conveyed through social media can lead to polarization and the formation of echo chambers. “This research finds that overly-amplified exposure and super-strong positioning of a campaign can actually lessen the likelihood of winning the widespread support that is desired,” says Professor Fu. “Political strategists need to consider how attack ads and other extreme messages might backfire,” observes Xin Wang, lead author of the paper. Learn more about joining the Fu Lab at Dartmouth.

View the inaugural Lahr Lecture by Edray Herber Goins

March 05, 2021

View the recording of the lecture titled A Dream Deferred: 50 Years of Blacks in Mathematics, given by Edray Goins, a number theorist, professor at Pomona College, and recent past president of the National Association of Mathematics. Professor Goins’ lecture was the inaugural talk in the C. Dwight Lahr Lecture series, named in memory and honor of Dwight Lahr’s contributions to the Department of Mathematics and to Dartmouth, and in recognition of his commitment to inclusivity and diversity. Professor Goins has recently been instrumental in carrying on the mission of Professor Scott Williams of SUNY Buffalo with his ongoing work on a searchable database for the MAD pages: Mathematicians of the African Diaspora, and in summer 2020 led an NSF-funded REU dedicated to enhancing and updating this valuable resource.

Directed Reading Program 21W final presentations

March 04, 2021

To conclude a wonderful term of learning mathematics in our new Directed Reading Program, students will give final presentations on March 11. Our program pairs undergraduate students with graduate mentors to undertake independent reading projects covering advanced topics in mathematics that are generally not taught at the undergraduate level, fostering a supportive environment for students seeking to further their interest in mathematics. Clockwise from lower right: third year PhD student Richard Haburcak, organizer of the program, along with Dylan Fridman ’24, Jacob Swenberg ’21, Eliza Crocker ’23, Sara Catherine Cook ’23, and Alex Bakos ’22. Not pictured: Ahmed Naveed ’22 and Katie Woolfolk ’23.

New book by puzzle master Professor Peter Winkler

February 26, 2021

The book Mathematical Puzzles by Professor Peter Winkler was recently published by Routledge. Each chapter explains a mathematical technique, then uses it to solve puzzles, and finally to prove a theorem. The book has received impressive praise from legendary computer scientist and mathematician Don Knuth: “This book may well be the best collection of mind-stretching teasers ever assembled. You can’t help but be inspired...” Professor Winkler is the author of two previous puzzle books, and in 2019 – 2020 was the Puzzle Master at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City.

IEEE marker at Collis commemorates birth of BASIC

February 25, 2021

An IEEE Milestone marker commemorating the creation of the BASIC programming language has been installed at Dartmouth’s Collis Center. Under the leadership of Professors of Mathematics John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz, BASIC and the Dartmouth Time Sharing System were developed at Dartmouth in the early 1960’s; much of the software was written by Dartmouth undergraduates. In 2014, Professor Dan Rockmore and filmmaker Bob Drake produced the film Birth of BASIC, a fascinating story featuring interviews with Professor Kurtz and others who were instrumental in the project.

Edray Goins to give inaugural C. Dwight Lahr Lecture

February 14, 2021

Edray Herber Goins, Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College, will give a lecture titled A Dream Deferred: 50 Years of Blacks in Mathematics at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 25 via Zoom. This is the inaugural talk in the C. Dwight Lahr Lecture series, named in memory and honor of Dwight Lahr’s contributions to the Department of Mathematics and to Dartmouth, and in recognition of his commitment to inclusivity and diversity. Among his numerous contributions to the field of mathematics, Professor Goins is a recent past president of the National Association of Mathematics, which seeks to promote the success of underrepresented minorities in the mathematical sciences. View the department’s poster for more details!

Professor Auel awarded Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant

February 13, 2021

Professor Asher Auel is among the 2020 awardees of the Simons Foundation Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians. His five-year grant will explore the project titled Geometry of splitting fields and rationality. Professor Auel, whose research is in algebraic geometry and number theory, had presented work at the 2016 Simons Symposium Geometry Over Nonclosed Fields. A meeting with a fellow presenter at the symposium ultimately led to the 2019 joint paper Conic bundle fourfolds with nontrivial unramified Brauer group, published in Journal of Algebraic Geometry.

Byrne Scholars’ summer ’19 research leads to published paper

February 12, 2021

The work of Byrne Scholars Jacob Fyda ’22 and Connor Spencer ’22 was published in an article in the Journal of Experimental Biology, joint with Martin Jastroch and Michael Gaudry of the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the Wenner-Gren Institute. In summer 2019, Jacob and Connor had conducted research in biomathematics at the institute, studying mitochondria and cellular energy metabolisms related to the genetics of thermogenesis of eutherian mammals. Former Math Department member Bjoern Muetzel, now Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Eckerd College, facilitated the exchange, which was supported by the generous Byrne gift.

Xingru Chen receives Bogart Teaching Award

February 04, 2021

Fifth-year PhD student Xingru Chen is the recipient of this year’s Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award for her dedication to and excellence in advancing the educational mission of the department. Regarding her teaching and pedagogical approaches, Xingru notes, “An overarching goal of my teaching is to engage students, awaken their capability in mathematics, their confidence in the truth of what has been demonstrated, and in the value of demonstration. I will do my utmost to create a motivating environment where students can realize their potential to master the power of understanding and discovering such truths gradually.” Congratulations to Xingru!

Professor Voight receives A&S faculty award honoring teaching and scholarship

February 03, 2021

Congratulations to Professor John Voight, one of fourteen members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences recognized for exceptional achievement in scholarship, teaching, and mentoring for 2020. Professor Voight, who received a John M. Manley Huntington Award for Newly Promoted Faculty, remarks, “Even at the frontier of discovery with my students and postdocs, we still learn from each other. One of my goals as an educator is to counter the reputation of mathematics as being a difficult subject. I try to make it intuitive, attainable, and inviting — whether in the classroom, on the page, or over breakfast.”

Professor Rockmore on three mathematicians we lost in 2020

January 20, 2021

In The New Yorker Annals of Inquiry, Professor Dan Rockmore reflects on the lives of three mathematicians we lost in 2020: John Conway, Ronald Graham, and Freeman Dyson. These three were among those interviewed by Professor Rockmore and his co-producers in their 2002 documentary The Math Life. In his New Yorker essay, Professor Rockmore explores not only their contributions, but also the human dimension of mathematics, touching on the joy of embarking on journeys of discovery. As John Conway stated, “I can sit here in this chair and go on a voyage of exploration. A very different voyage of exploration, but, still, there are things to be discovered, things to be seen, that you can quite easily be the first person ever to see.”

NYT mentions joint papers by Professor Fu and grad students

January 06, 2021

A recent New York Times article discusses the use of game theory to factor in the effect of human behavior on SARS-CoV-2 transmission, vaccination hesitancy, and vaccine delivery models. The article references papers by graduate students Xingru Chen (left) and Alina Glaubitz (right), each co-authored with Professor Feng Fu: Imperfect vaccine and hysteresis and Oscillatory dynamics in the dilemma of social distancing. “It boils down to a fundamental problem known as the tragedy of the commons,” says Xingru Chen in the article. “There is a misalignment of individual interests and societal interests.” Professor Fu notes that the department is fortunate to have such talented students in our PhD program!

Math Department and AWM Essay Contests

December 13, 2020

The Math Department is sponsoring the Essay Contest Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics, modeled on the national AWM Essay Contest and open to all middle and high school students in the Upper Valley and to all Dartmouth undergraduates. You may submit your essay to both contests; the deadline is January 31, 2021. View detailed information including contest rules and tips on choosing an interviewee. Last year three local students won prizes at the national level!

Announcing the department’s new Directed Reading Program!

December 12, 2020

Our Directed Reading Program pairs undergraduate students with graduate mentors to undertake independent reading projects covering advanced topics in mathematics that are generally not taught at the undergraduate level. We look forward to learning interesting mathematics with you! View a list of possible projects and graduate mentors; if you are very interested in a particular topic that is not on the list, there may be a graduate mentor who would be happy to read through that topic with you. The deadline to apply for the Winter 2021 DRP is December 24. From left, four of our DRP graduate mentors: Richard Haburcak, Juanita Duque-Rosero, Matt Jones, and Grant Molnar.

Professor Wallace part of Dartmouth team receiving $1.2M NSF grant

December 10, 2020

Professor Dorothy Wallace, along with Geography professors Xun Shi (Dartmouth team lead) and Jonathan Winter, are core members of the University of Idaho-led NSF RII Track-2 FEC project to study environmental risk factors of vector-borne diseases. Professor Wallace, who in Winter 2022 will lead Dartmouth’s third Mathematical Oncology DSP at the Moffitt Cancer Research Center in Tampa, has current research interests in mathematical biology and was a 2016 co-recipient of a Neukom Institute CompX Faculty Grant to explore factors contributing to the expansion of Lyme disease in the northeast.

Archita Harathi ’22 receives prize for achievement in Mathematics

November 25, 2020

Congratulations to Archita Harathi, who received Dartmouth’s Francis L. Town Scientific Prize for her achievement in Mathematics. Archita is a ’22 from Portland, Oregon, majoring in Math and Economics and minoring in Computer Science. “After graduation, I am hoping to work in finance and later attend law school,” says Archita. “I would like to thank the math department at Dartmouth for being my second home, and all of my professors for making my math experience at Dartmouth so fun and rewarding!”

Promoting STEM education in the Upper Valley

November 19, 2020

Graduate student Doug Knowles (left) and Claremont Middle School science teacher Larry Bilodeau joined with a group of fellow graduate students, several Dartmouth faculty, and a collection of local middle school educators to discuss and develop a curriculum to promote STEM education in the Upper Valley. During his time working on the pilot program of the Dartmouth Rural STEM Educator Partnership, supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Doug and his group developed a fully-contained educational module which they began implementing in early 2020, with graduate students traveling to act as classroom assistants and visible examples of modern-day scientists.

Modeling the evolutionary impact of disturbances in SCN oscillation

November 12, 2020

During Winter 2020, Connor Spencer ’22 worked with the Dartmouth Pauls Lab developing mathematical models to study disturbances in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a group of oscillating neurons responsible for coordinating circadian rhythms. Connor (left), here in 2019 with Dartmouth Triathlon teammates Maya Khanna ’22 and Colin Goodbred ’21, is a Byrne Scholar with an interest in the intersection of computer science and applied mathematics. He hopes to more fully explore this question and help establish some idea as to what could be happening in the SCN from a game theoretic perspective.

Professor Rockmore writes on math storytelling in Literary Hub

November 11, 2020

“Our current pandemic is not a first excursion into remote learning. Many may know of the origins story of calculus, born over Isaac Newton’s retreat to the countryside from Cambridge University during The Great Plague of London in the 17th century,” begins Professor Dan Rockmore in his LitHub essay How Storytellers Use Math (Without Scaring People Away). Rockmore discusses recent compelling mathematical writings by Steven Strogatz and Karen Olsson, observing that “one is a tale of how mathematics has changed all of our lives, the other a tale of how mathematics changed one life.”

Dartmouth AWM hosts Math Alumnae Panel November 11

November 04, 2020

The Dartmouth Association for Womxn in Mathematics will host a Math Alumnae Panel at 6:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, November 11. Join on Zoom for a chat with some wonderful alumnae about their careers and paths after graduation! The speaker lineup features Qian Zhang ’13, Stella Safari ’13, Glynnis Millhouse ’12, Kate Royce ’19, and Mary Versa Clemens-Sewall ’20, representing careers and work in business, fashion, tech, computer science, research, law, and data science. This event is open to all who are curious; visit the Dartmouth AWM website for event details and more information about our guests.

Announcing named lecture series in honor of Dwight Lahr

October 26, 2020

We are pleased to announce the establishment of an annual lecture series, to be called the C. Dwight Lahr Lecture Series, in memory and honor of Dwight Lahr’s contributions to the Department of Mathematics and to the College, and in recognition of his commitment to inclusivity and diversity. Dwight retired from our department in 2014 and passed away in 2016, so not all of us had the privilege of knowing him. The brief obituary contains a further link to an outline of his academic career, stating “Those who grew to know him better and interact with him daily describe him as an outstanding faculty member and professional who played a great role in pushing for the growth and support of diversity at Dartmouth.”

Applied math research team wins DoD MURI award

October 22, 2020

Professors Anne Gelb and Yoonsang Lee, along with adjunct professors Matthew Parno (Mathematics) and Chris Polashenski (Thayer School) of Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) are part of a team that has received a 2020 multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) award from the Office of Naval Research. As the principal investigator of their project Sea Ice Modeling and Data Assimilation (SIMDA), Professor Gelb is one of six women lead researchers among this year’s 26 awards. Dartmouth is represented on two of teams that received these high-profile awards for 2020. Please join us in congratulating Professor Gelb’s team on receiving this highly competitive award!

Become a mentor or mentee in Dartmouth AWM!

October 19, 2020

The Dartmouth Association for Womxn in Mathematics is rolling out a new peer mentoring program for self-identifying womxn and allies who enjoy math. Come share your expertise and help the Classes of 2023 and 2024 make an upperclass student connection! You do not need to be a math major to participate, and you also may to join as a mentee if you wish. Please contact the chapter for more information. Current members of the chapter’s executive board are (clockwise from upper left): Roxy Holden ’21, Kayla Hamann ’22, Lizzie Hernández-Videa ’22, Jenny Song ’23, Paola Karapataki ’22, and Sonal Butala ’22.

Quanta article on the odd perfect number problem

October 08, 2020

A recent Quanta article mentions several Dartmouth connections in the quest to solve one of number theory’s most intriguing puzzles: are there any odd perfect numbers (OPNs)? Professor Carl Pomerance proved one of the many necessary conditions for OPNs as part of his thesis work, and in 1999 Professor John Voight, inspired by Richard Guy’s book Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, discovered a new kind of spoof OPN. Graduate student Grant Molnar was involved in subsequent work by the BYU Computational Number Theory Group, whose research led to the discovery of some interesting properties of spoofs. Paul Pollack, PhD ’08, professor of mathematics at UGA, expresses caution as to whether these properties may lead to a proof of the non-existence of OPNs, while Professor Voight says “It is indeed a problem for the ages, [and] perhaps it will remain so.”

2021 Byrne Prize in Mathematics: accepting applications

October 04, 2020

We are now accepting applications for the 2021 Byrne Prize in Mathematics. If you are graduating this year and planning to go to graduate school in math or a related field, please consider applying! The prize, established in 2019, is a $35,000 fellowship that recognizes the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. View the application requirements along with info about our past recipients Matt Radosevich ’20 and Shikhin Sethi ’19.

Mathematical Oncology off-campus program in Tampa

September 21, 2020

Professor Dorothy Wallace led Dartmouth’s 2020 Mathematical Oncology DSP at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Offered once every two years, the program offers students the opportunity to learn how to combine math, biology, evolutionary principles, and computer modeling while exploring oncology research. Students learn at the Moffitt Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology five days a week, and when not working hard at modeling cancer processes can relax on a visit to Crystal River to swim with manatees. View details on the next program, to be offered in Winter 2022.

Joint paper by Katherine Royce ’19 and Professor Feng Fu published

September 19, 2020

The work of Katherine Royce ’19 and Professor Feng Fu was recently published in PLOS One as their joint paper Mathematically modeling spillovers of an emerging infectious zoonosis with an intermediate host. The timely paper, based on Royce’s honors thesis, describes how zoonotic diseases are a top-10 pandemic threat, and argues for the necessity of understanding these processes via mathematical modeling. Royce presented her work in our department’s 2019 Poster Contest, in which she won second place in applied mathematics. View our gallery of 2019 posters to see interesting examples of our student-faculty research.

Professor Voight’s book on quaternion algebras soon to be published

September 15, 2020

Quaternion Algebras by Professor John Voight will soon be published in hardcover and e-book form. Part of Springer’s Graduate Texts in Mathematics series, and opening with a description of what is possibly the “most famous act of mathematical vandalism” in history, the over 800-page monograph encompasses a vast wealth of knowledge at the intersection of many fields, according to Springer. As Professor Voight writes in the book’s preface, “It is somehow fitting that I would find myself writing this text while a faculty member at Dartmouth College: the story of the quaternions is interwoven with the history of mathematics at Dartmouth.” View the current version on Professor Voight’s Quaternions page.

Summer math enrichment program led by our grad students

September 10, 2020

After completing their second year of our graduate program, Richard Haburcak, Alex Wilson, Lizzie Buchanan, Steve Fan, and Grant Molnar led two weeks of Math Camp, a summer enrichment program for junior and high school students, where topics covered are outside of the usual high school syllabus and students interact with mathematicians in a fun, non-graded environment. Supervised by Professor Marcia Groszek and instructor Mits Kobayashi PhD ’10, the graduate students devised and led workshops on cryptography, beginning with the Caesar cipher and eventually working up to public-key encryption and RSA, and, in the second week, graph theory, with a heavy emphasis on the six, five, and four color theorems. About 30 students participated in each of the week-long virtual sessions.

Recent progress on a conjecture of Erdős

September 02, 2020

Jared Duker Lichtman AB, AM ’18, currently a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford Mathematical Institute, describes recent progress on the Erdős primitive set conjecture. Lichtman’s work with Dartmouth Professor Carl Pomerance has led to several joint papers, including The Erdős conjecture for primitive sets and the forthcoming A generalization of primitive sets and a conjecture of Erdős. “I find it irresistible how subtle patterns emerge from basic multiplication,”says Lichtman. “The full Erdős conjecture has remained elusive, but working towards it has led to interesting developments.” Photo by Oxford Mathematical Institute

New course Math 72 (Honors Section): Calculus on Manifolds

August 23, 2020

Manifolds provide mathematicians and other scientists with a way of grappling with the concept of “space” (from a global viewpoint). The space occupied by an object. The space that we inhabit. The space of solutions to a system of equations. Or, perhaps, the space of configurations of a mechanical system. While manifolds are central to the study of geometry and topology, they also provide an appropriate framework in which to explore aspects of mathematical physics, dynamics, control theory, medical imaging, and robotics, to name just a few. This course will demonstrate how ideas from calculus can be generalized to manifolds, providing a new perspective and toolkit with which to explore problems where “space” plays a fundamental role.

Dartmouth recognizes Carolyn Gordon’s retirement

August 21, 2020

Throughout her long and distinguished career at Dartmouth, Professor Carolyn Gordon has been an outstanding mentor and instructor for students at all levels. She served as adviser to half a dozen PhD students and several postdoctoral fellows, each of whom went on to successful careers. A leader in promoting and supporting women in mathematics, she served as president of the Association for Women in Mathematics and subsequently established an AWM chapter at Dartmouth. As a scholar, she is best known for her groundbreaking work with fellow mathematicians David Webb and Scott Wolpert on the mathematical question “Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?” Learn more +

Two Math alumni honored with MAA writing award

July 31, 2020

Allison Henrich, PhD ’08, Professor of Mathematics at Seattle University, and Nicholas Scoville PhD ’10, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ursinus College, along with co-authors Colin Adams and Kate Kearney, received the Paul R. Halmos–Lester R. Ford Award for Top Expository Mathematical Writing in MAA Publications for their paper Knots Related by Knotoids published last year in the American Mathematical Monthly. “We are grateful to Susan Colley, Editor of the Monthly, for being such a wonderful steward of this paper, to our referees who gave us useful feedback and encouragement, and to those who decided to honor us with this award.”

Victor Churchill wins a 2020 Neukom Prize

July 30, 2020

Congratulations to Victor Churchill, PhD ’20, who received a third place Neukom Prize for Outstanding Graduate Research for his thesis Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Formation with Uncertainty Quantification. Advised by Professor Anne Gelb and having also worked with Dr. Matthew Parno of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Victor’s research areas include synthetic aperture radar image formation, compressed sensing, algorithm development for edge detection and image reconstruction, and Bayesian learning methods. His work with Professor Gelb and Dr. Parno has led to several joint papers.

Congratulations to Professor John Voight

July 09, 2020

Please join us in congratulating John Voight, who has been promoted to the rank of Professor! Professor Voight’s research interests are in number theory and arithmetic geometry, with a focus on algorithmic aspects. His recent work has included research concerning rational points on elliptic curves and the spaces that parametrize them. He has twice been awarded the Selfridge Prize, and has written a graduate textbook on quaternion algebras. He is one of six Principal Investigators on the Simons Foundation Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory and Computation, which seeks to accelerate research in these fields through the computational realization of deep theory and to use algorithmic methods to probe our conceptual understanding of complex arithmetic objects.

2020 Thayer Prize Exam winners

July 01, 2020

We are happy to announce the winners of this year’s Thayer Prize Exam, a contest organized by our department each year. Pictured clockwise from top left: Finn Hulse, Sicong (George) Shan, and Brandon Chen. George and Finn share a two-way tie for first place, with Brandon winning second place. View winners from the last 10 years along with a brief history of the prizes, established in 1869 to “to constitute a perpetual prize fund for superior proficiency in the higher branches of Mathematics.”

Math Camp 2020: Exploring Mathematics

June 26, 2020

This year we are hosting Math Camp virtually, offering two summer enrichment sessions for local high school students. Topics covered will be outside of the usual high school syllabus and students can interact with mathematicians in a fun, non-graded environment. This year’s sessions are Cryptography: from permutation ciphers to RSA, and Theory of Graphs (networks): from Königsberg bridges to the Six Color Theorem and beyond. Students are invited to attend one or both sessions. View more info and registration link.

Showcasing Math 70 team projects

June 25, 2020

We are pleased to share the team projects from Math 70, Elements of Multivariate Statistics and Statistical Learning, taught by Professor Eugene Demidenko this spring. Data scientists are among the most in-demand technical jobs, and Dartmouth offers a Mathematical Data Science major with Math 70 as the culminating course. The course combines theoretical mathematics empowered by proficient programming in R for solving real-life problems, such as the analysis of COVID-19 dynamics and its prediction, and prepares students for a career in data analysis and statistical problem solutions. View the three team projects in full PDF form.

2020 Honors Theses

June 11, 2020

Congratulations to our graduating seniors who submitted and presented honors theses this year! Clockwise from upper left: Sriram Bapatla (advisor Anne Gelb), Frederika Rentzeperis (advisor Dorothy Wallace), Jack Zhang (advisor Anne Gelb), and Matthew Radosevich (advisor John Voight). Our Honors Program page has PDF versions of their theses as well as theses from prior years. Interested in doing independent work in mathematics? View the section on The Honors Program in Mathematics in the Dartmouth ORC.

Congratulations to our recent PhDs!

June 07, 2020

Congratulations to our graduate students who are receiving their doctoral degrees this June! Clockwise from left: Victor Churchill (advisor Anne Gelb), Lizzie Tripp (advisors Scott Pauls and Feng Fu), Michael Firrisa (advisor Dana Williams), Ben Breen (advisor John Voight), and Juan S. Auli (advisor Sergi Elizalde). You may view their theses abstracts as well as our list of recent PhD students, which goes back a number of years and shows the first jobs and current positions of our PhD alumni.

Professor Rockmore and David Krakauer in Nautilus

June 03, 2020

In their article The Hidden Life of Viruses published in Nautilus, Professor Dan Rockmore and David Krakauer, Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute, draw parallels between the driving forces of nature which shape the universe at both the grandest and smallest scales. Alongside the dark matter and dark energy of the cosmos, equally invisible forces of our microbial world continue to drive the evolution of multicellular life in ways that remain largely hidden to us. “Our understanding of the biological world has also been a story of discovery of dark matter and dark energy — our collision with the coronavirus is just a most recent reminder of that theme.”

Matt Radosevich ’20 receives Byrne Prize

May 21, 2020

Congratulations to Matt Radosevich ’20, the recipient of the 2020 John J. Byrne Jr. Prize in Mathematics, awarded to the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. With advisor John Voight, Matt has been working on research involving Euclidean triangle groups and Belyi maps, to be presented as his senior honors thesis. Matt was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society last October and was also captain of the club Nordic ski team and a leader in the Outing Club.

Honoring the birth of BASIC at Dartmouth, May 1964

May 18, 2020

“It is worth remembering, as communications during the pandemic rely so heavily on computers, that it was just over 50 years ago, on May 1, 1964, that Dartmouth math professor and future president John Kemeny and math professor Tom Kurtz, along with a handful of Dartmouth undergraduates, ushered in the era of personal computing with the introduction of the BASIC programming language,” says Professor Dan Rockmore. Read the Dartmouth News story, which includes two videos on the computer language that changed the world.

Neukom Prizes for Research in Computational Science

May 16, 2020

Computational science and computational techniques are now ubiquitous across the research landscape, creating a wide range of diverse and fascinating projects. The Neukom Institute is offering Undergraduate and Graduate Research Prizes, which were created to encourage undergraduate and graduate interest in research and to recognize outstanding research in the computational sciences. The submission deadline is May 22.

Special film screening for celebration of women in mathematics

May 07, 2020

Math professor Carolyn Gordon and Thayer School of Engineering professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor have co-organized a screening and discussion of the film Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani, a documentary film by George Csicsery. See our special event listing for details on how to view the film at your convenience and then join the community discussion on May 15. Photo by Jan Vondrák

The 2020 Thayer Prize Exam

May 06, 2020

Attention first-year students! The Thayer Prize Exam, a contest organized by our department each year, will take place this year on Saturday, May 30, 2020. This year’s exam will be held online. To register, please contact Professor Vladimir Chernov by Sunday May 10, 2020. If you cannot take the exam on Saturday May 30, please contact us in advance. The alternate date is Sunday May 31. For more details, please visit the Thayer Prize page.

Professor Orellana’s research recently published in two journals

April 25, 2020

Professor Rosa Orellana’s research has led to the publication of two recent co-authored papers: An insertion algorithm on multiset partitions with applications to diagram algebras in the Journal of Algebra, and Commutation and Normal Ordering for Operators on Symmetric Functions in Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire. Professor Orellana’s research is in algebraic combinatorics with a focus on combinatorial representation theory and symmetric functions.

Welcoming our incoming PhD students

April 24, 2020

We are pleased to welcome the incoming class of PhD students for the fall! Clockwise from top left: Alina Glaubitz (TU Braunschweig, Germany, BS), Matthew Ellison (MIT, BS), Juanita Duque Rosero (University de Los Andes, Bogota, BS; Colorado State University, MS), Benjamin Logsdon (Williams College, BA), Jinman Park (Pohang University of Science & Tech, BS), and Michael Cerchia (SUNY Geneseo, BA; Wake Forest, MA). Brian Mintz (Brandeis University, BS), not pictured, is also joining the class.

Neukom Summer Scholars new deadline: May 13

April 16, 2020

Dartmouth’s Neukom Scholars Program provides support for undergraduates working on computational projects. The program’s goal is to support undergraduate research across the campus, and it seeks to fund third or fourth-year students engaged in faculty-advised research in the development of novel computational techniques as well as the application of computational methods to problems in the Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts. Awards are $1000/term for one or two terms. The application deadline for summer term is extended to May 13.

Professor Rockmore on random vs. selective testing

April 15, 2020

Professor Dan Rockmore and Government professor Michael Herron describe how a relatively small set of randomly distributed tests could give health officials a more accurate picture of the current spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the U.S. Currently, testing is heavily skewed towards those with symptoms. While this makes sense, considering limited testing resources, it prevents us from fully understanding how the impact of COVID-19 varies among regions and communities.

Math alumna featured in MAA FOCUS

April 09, 2020

Kira Hamman MA ’99, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mathematics at Penn State, is featured in the February/March issue of MAA FOCUS, in which she recounts learning something entirely new this past summer: how to play the cello. “How often,” she asks, “do we become students of things that are uncomfortable for us to learn?” Professor Hamman’s research interests include logic and set theory, the philosophy of mathematics, and mathematics and democracy.

Announcing the 2020 Math Essay Contest winners

April 01, 2020

Math major Mary Versa Clemens-Sewall ’20 won first prize at the college level in our local AWM essay contest Biographies Of Contemporary Women In Mathematics. Her essay, For the Love of (Sharing) Math, features visiting faculty member Nadia Lafrenière, who has organized Maths en Ville walking tours of Montréal. Other 2020 winning essays are from high school students Sophie Usherwood and Sora Shirai, and middle school students Hannah Malin-Stremlau, Farren Stainton, Benjamin Thaler Wellborn, and Leigh Grace Eggleton. Three local students won prizes at the national level!

Springing into spring term

March 29, 2020

The Math Department has jumped into the work at hand for remote learning this spring! Almost all of our focus in the last few weeks has been on our courses, which you may browse on our course offerings page. We have added a new link with more details, including course descriptions and information about how each course will be taught this spring. As we move into the term, we are mindful that extending our empathy, generosity, and kindness will help ensure a smooth transition for all in the new learning environment.

Professor Winkler featured in The Guardian’s puzzle series

March 24, 2020

Can you solve this puzzle devised by Professor Peter Winkler? Featured in this week’s Monday Puzzle series in The Guardian, Professor Winkler is described by the article’s author as “one of my all time puzzle heroes.” Currently the Puzzle Master at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), Professor Winkler reminds us that to keep our minds fresh, we may sign up for free on Mind-Benders for the Quarantined! to receive his weekly mathematical puzzles from MoMath.

Mathematical art at JMM 2020

February 21, 2020

The work of Instructor Bjoern Muetzel and Yana Mohanty was featured in the JMM 2020 Art Exhibition this winter. Starting with a snub dodecahedron with mirrored inside faces, they used a spherical camera to produce an image which, when transformed via stereographic projection, highlights the chirality of this Archimedean solid. Read their submission to the art exhibition about how this was done.

Professor Feng Fu featured in Dartmouth News

February 21, 2020

Dartmouth News writes about Professor Feng Fu’s multidisciplinary approach to research and teaching in what he calls “mathematical humanities”, ranging from quantitative explorations into human behavior, the ethics of algorithms, and mathematical models of morality. “The research we do has a focus on understanding multifaceted human behavior, ranging from public health cooperation, political polarization, and diversity,” says Fu. Learn more +

Math alumnus receives national award for teaching excellence

February 13, 2020

Mark Tomforde Ph.D. ’02, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Houston, is a 2020 recipient of the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award, which recognizes teaching effectiveness that has been shown to have had influence beyond the honorees’ own institutions. He has received several other teaching awards, including the 2019 Distinguished College and University Teaching of Mathematics Award (Texas section) and the 2015 John C. Butler Excellence in Teaching Award at UH.

Modeling the spread of wildfires at INRA Avignon

February 05, 2020

During Fall term Byrne Scholar Hugo Nam ’21 spent four months at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Avignon, France. During his internship at INRA’s Biostatistics and Spatial Processes center, Hugo studied the application of Hawkes processes in developing statistical models related to the spread of wildfires in various European regions and wrote code to model such phenomena.

Mathematics REU 2020: apply by March 13

January 15, 2020

Professor Anne Gelb and Dr. Matthew Parno of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) will lead the Dartmouth Mathematics REU this summer. Students will have the opportunity to work on applications in areas such as sea ice dynamics, radar imaging, subsurface flow, near-shore wave modeling, Arctic microbial communities, and snowpack evolution.

Professor Rockmore writes on AI and the creative arts

January 09, 2020

In an essay titled The Mechanical Muse in The New Yorker Annals of Inquiry, Dan Rockmore, professor of Mathematics and director of the Neukom Institute, explores the idea of computer programs generating lyrical poetry. He poses the question: “Given the power of new techniques in artificial intelligence, why not think more broadly about the kinds of art one can make using it?”

Byrne Scholar Summer 2019 technology internships

January 08, 2020

Supported by the Byrne gift, Byrne Scholars Aadil Islam ’21 and Raymond Chen ’22 participated in summer 2019 internships. Aadil interned in a JHU APL data science camp working on models to detect fake news, and Raymond developed quality control code as a cloud applications intern at an American multinational corporation. “It was very rewarding to be able to apply what I learned in both Computer Science and Mathematics courses at Dartmouth,” says Raymond.

Service trip to Puerto Rico

January 03, 2020

Professor Sergi Elizalde, house professor of East Wheelock House, traveled to Puerto Rico with five East Wheelock students last spring as part of a service trip to El Departamento De La Comida (El Depa), a sustainability and food justice collective devoted to empowering the island’s communities to be ecologically resilient through local and sustainable farming. From left: Angel Aguilar ’22, community member Victor Dacosta, and Professor Elizalde. Learn more +

Professor Orellana elected to AMS Council

December 13, 2019

Professor Rosa Orellana has been elected to the Council of the American Mathematical Society as Member at Large. Professor Orellana’s research is in algebraic combinatorics with a focus on combinatorial representation theory and symmetric functions. At Dartmouth she co-founded a chapter of the AWM in an effort to increase the number of women taking and majoring in mathematics at Dartmouth and has organized Sonia Kovalevsky Math Days to encourage young women in our community to study mathematics.

Research in molecular and evolutionary biology

December 12, 2019

Byrne Scholar Jacob Fyda ’22 spent eight weeks this summer in the Integrative Physiology of Mammalian Energy Metabolism research group at the Wenner-Gren Institute. “I had the incredible opportunity to experience a foreign country and actively participate in a productive, high-impact lab.” Jacob’s work involved the analysis and annotation of the genomes of several hundred representative animal species, as well as phylogenetic analysis, selection pressure analysis, and the construction of evolutionary trees.

New advanced statistics book by Professor Demidenko

December 06, 2019

Professor Eugene Demidenko is the author of the recently published book Advanced Statistics with Applications in R. Professor Demidenko has broad interests in theoretical and applied statistics, applied mathematics, and biomathematics. The book is the product of a forty-year experience in teaching of probability and statistics and their applications for solving real-life problems.

Sonia Kovalevsky Day Saturday May 9, 2020

November 22, 2019

Math Department and AWM Essay Contests

November 20, 2019

The Math Department is sponsoring the Essay Contest Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics, which is modeled on the national AWM Essay Contest and is open to all middle and high school students in the Upper Valley and to all Dartmouth undergraduates. Two of last year’s winning essays received national awards. The contest deadline is January 31, 2020.

Collaborating on problems in combinatorics

November 14, 2019

Joint work of fifth-year graduate student Juan S. Auli and Professor Sergi Elizalde on inversion sequences in combinatorics has led to two papers published this year: Consecutive Patterns in Inversion Sequences in Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science and Consecutive Patterns in Inversion Sequences II: Avoiding Patterns of Relations in Journal of Integer Sequences. Learn more +

Professor Rockmore writes in The New Yorker

November 08, 2019

Where do mathematical ideas come from? In part, from “a feeling of being free, of forgetting for a moment that we are bound by gravity and logic and convention, of letting the magic happen,” writes Professor Dan Rockmore in The Myth and Magic of Generating New Ideas in The New Yorker Annals of Inquiry. “Perhaps it is the momentary feeling of being untethered that gives the mind free rein — the space to have a good idea.”

Byrne Scholar research project in biomathematics

November 07, 2019

Byrne Scholar Connor Spencer ’22, second from left, conducted research on the genetics of thermogenesis of eutherian mammals at the Wenner-Gren Institute this summer. Connor is especially interested in the intersection of computer science and applied mathematics. “My research this summer at the Wenner-Gren Institute at Stockholm University offered me with a truly life-changing experience,” he says. “I am really glad to have taken part in this research and worked with some of the best thinkers in this field.”

Professor Wallace to present at NCCC Grand Rounds

November 06, 2019

Professor Dorothy Wallace will give a talk titled Creating a Broadly Useful In Silico Tumor Simulation Through Leveraging Multiple Data Sources at Norris Cotton Cancer Center Grand Rounds on Tuesday November 12 from 12 – 1pm at DHMC. Professor Wallace, whose current research focuses on mathematical biology, will lead Dartmouth’s second Mathematical Oncology DSP at the Moffitt Cancer Research Center in Tampa this winter.

New course to be offered in Winter 2020

October 25, 2019

Math 19 (Introduction to Set Theory) will be offered in Winter 2020. Topics covered include the algebra of sets, ordinals and cardinals, transfinite induction and recursion, and the axiom of choice. Students will learn language and concepts used throughout mathematics, and will learn how to write mathematical proofs, which makes Math 19 excellent preparation for upper level courses. View the full advertisement for more information.

Talk by math and science writer Evelyn Lamb

October 24, 2019

What can you do with a math degree? Accounting, finance, and computer programming might come to mind, but what about writing and journalism? Mathematician and freelance writer Evelyn Lamb will give a talk titled Building a Creative Career in Mathematics on Thursday November 7 at 5:30pm in 008 Kemeny. This talk is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics, the Byrne Scholars Program, the Dartmouth Math Society, and the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Joint faculty and former grad student research published

October 24, 2019

Professor Scott Pauls and Daryl DeFord Ph.D. ’18 co-authored the paper Spectral clustering methods for multiplex networks, recently published in the journal Physica A. Professor Paul’s research focuses on building and analyzing network models for social, biological, and physical systems. DeFord, currently a postdoctoral associate at MIT (CSAIL), received the Hannah Croasdale Award for his approach to research and teaching while at Dartmouth.

Geometry activities at MoMath’s NYC Math Festival

October 23, 2019

Instructor Bjoern Muetzel and Byrne Scholar Hugo Nam ’21 participated in the fourth annual NYC Math Festival where they led geometry activities with children. Using solids built from Geometiles® and mirrors attached to the inside faces they created a new type of kaleidoscope with which to view New York City postcards at the festival.

At MathFest 2019 in Cincinnati

October 18, 2019

Byrne Scholar Kayla Hamann ’22 (standing, fifth from left) recently attended MAA MathFest, where she attended talks on topics ranging from recreational mathematics to math in social justice. She also attended a mentoring workshop for women where she learned from other undergrads, graduate students, professors, and professionals. “I came away from MAA MathFest with a wealth of resources,” she says. Kayla is an aspiring math major and on the executive board of the student chapter of the AWM.

Professor Pauls receives NSF funding for undergrad data science programs

October 16, 2019

Together with Thayer professors Petra Bonfert-Taylor and Laura Ray and computer science professor Lorie Loeb, Professor Scott Pauls received a $2.8M NSF Accelerating Discovery Award for the grant Data Science Infused for Undergraduate STEM Education. With this award, Dartmouth will develop teaching materials to introduce data science into first-year courses in science, technology, engineering, and math by the Fall of 2020. Learn more +

Neukom Institute opportunities for undergraduates and postdocs

October 11, 2019

Dartmouth’s Neukom Institute provides support for undergraduates working on computational projects by way of the Neukom Scholars Program and Travel Grants. In addition, the Neukom Fellows program brings to campus early-career interdisciplinary postdoctoral researchers whose work has a computational theme. View the list of current Neukom fellows to see research interests and mentorships.

Professor Demidenko speaks at campus ITC event

October 06, 2019

On Thursday October 17 Adjunct Professor of Mathematics Eugene Demidenko will give a lunchtime talk on how machine learning can be enriched by statistics. Professor Demidenko’s interests include methodological and applied statistical research with applications to advanced bioengineering technologies. He is the author of the book Mixed Models: Theory and Applications with R and is the recipient of several awards from the American Statistical Association. Register here for the talk.

At the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge

September 20, 2019

Thanks to the generous Byrne gift, Byrne Scholar Archita Harathi ’22 recently traveled to the U.K. to conduct research under the guidance of Marie Curie Fellow Irena Vankova at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. “My experience working at the British Antarctic Survey was full of learning and exploring the potential of mathematics in a variety of applications. I am forever grateful for experience and the memories I made along with it!”

Professor Pomerance and alumni attend Erdős conference

September 19, 2019

Professor Carl Pomerance, Jared Duker Lichtman AB, AM ’18, and Nathan McNew Ph.D. ’15 attended the 2019 Paul Erdős Lecture Series, a conference in memory of one of Professor Pomerance's greatest mentors. Jared will be starting a Ph.D. at Oxford with an interest in number theory of the sort Erdős particularly enjoyed, and Nathan is now Assistant Professor at Towson University. Professor Pomerance spoke on “Erdős and Primitive Sets” at the conference.

Welcome from the Dartmouth AWM

September 19, 2019

The Dartmouth Association for Womxn in Mathematics welcomes the Class of 2023! The executive board invites you to attend meetings where you can suggest programming ideas for the term and be around other self-identifying womxn (and allies) who enjoy mathematics. Clockwise from upper left: Kayla Hamann ’22, Itzel Castañeda Ruvalcaba ’20, Roxy Holden ’21, Lizzie Hernández-Videa ’22, and Paola Karapataki ’22.

Professor Winkler named Puzzle Master at MoMath

September 09, 2019

The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) has selected Professor Peter Winkler as the second Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics. He will launch “A Year of Puzzles” at MoMath and will lead a series of public initiatives, including mini-courses in puzzle solving, special events at city high schools, and a series of puzzle-themed dinners on probability and decision theory. “Being good at math is great, but not necessary. Being unafraid of math, and a bit curious, is enough to give any child or adult a big advantage.” Learn more +

Math alumnus honored by Lathisms

September 06, 2019

Enrique Treviño Ph.D. ’11, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Lake Forest College, is a 2019 Lathisms honoree in the category of Latinx and Hispanic mathematics educators. He earned his Ph.D. in mathematics with an emphasis in number theory under the guidance of Professor Carl Pomerance. Lathisms was founded in 2016 to showcase the contributions of Latinx and Hispanic mathematicians during Hispanic Heritage Month. “My favorite part of Lathisms has been the podcast. It is great to hear about the life of other mathematicians. To listen to the struggles on their path and their resilience... and to hear the joy mathematics brings to them.”

Joint faculty and graduate research published in Inverse Problems and Imaging

August 30, 2019

The paper Edge-adaptive $\ell_2$ regularization image reconstruction from non-uniform Fourier data by graduate student Victor Churchill and Professor Anne Gelb (joint with Rick Archibald at Oak Ridge National Laboratory) was recently published in Inverse Problems and Imaging. Below are synthetic aperture radar images of a car reconstructed using (left) $\ell_1$ regularization and (right) edge-adaptive $\ell_2$ regularization. The top panels show the full car and the bottom are close-ups of the lower right wheel.

Welcome Assistant Professor Asher Auel

August 29, 2019

The department welcomes Assistant Professor Asher Auel, whose article The Mathematics of Grace Murray Hopper was published earlier this year in Notices of the American Mathematical Society. “I think that her story should be retold in our courses because it emphasizes the broad importance of basic training in mathematics. In some sense, you could think of mathematics as the liberal arts of the sciences. It’s the language you’ll use in all scientific disciplines. It’s a way of knowing, a way of thinking, and a way of understanding truth.”

2019 ICERM Illustrating Mathematics

August 28, 2019

Instructor Bjoern Muetzel and Yana Mohanty will be exhibiting photographs and sculptures of mirror solids at the ICERM Illustrating Mathematics Program at Brown this fall. For the piece Archimedean billiards II, they explored what happens when you attach mirror surfaces to the inside faces of a rhombicosidodecahedron. “We set out to find this out by placing a spherical camera near the center of the solid and then stereographically projecting the output.” Learn more +

Class of ’23 Byrne Scholars

August 23, 2019

Isabel Pantle, Varun (Rooney) Malladi, Eliza Crocker, and Anna Mikhailova (clockwise from top left) are among ten named Byrne Scholars in the class of 2023. The generous Byrne gift allows students to study with faculty committed to using mathematics to build solutions to complex problems, to present research findings at conferences, and to participate in research exchanges abroad.

Our recent Ph.D.s

August 22, 2019

Michael Musty and Sam Schiavone received their Ph.D.s this summer focusing on topics in algebra, geometry, and number theory. Michael’s thesis is 2-group Belyi Maps and he has a visiting position at ICERM where he will be working on visualizations of dessins d’enfants in the Illustrating Mathematics program. Sam’s thesis is On Algebras Of Low Rank And On Belyi Maps and he is moving on to a postdoc position at MIT in the Number Theory group.

Biomathematics research project in Stockholm

August 21, 2019

Byrne Scholars Connor Spencer ’22 and Jacob Fyda ’22 conducted an undergraduate research project in biomathematics at the Wenner-Gren Institute in Stockholm, Sweden this summer. Martin Jastroch and Michael Gaudry, the project’s supervisors, study mitochondria and cellular energy metabolisms. Instructor Bjoern Muetzel facilitated this exchange. From left: Martin Jastroch, Bjoern Muetzel, Connor Spencer, and Michael Gaudry.

Professor Voight’s research highlighted by Simons Foundation

July 26, 2019

The annual report of the Simons Foundation features Principal Investigator John Voight’s research in arithmetic geometry and number theory and explores where this work may lead in the future. “Our collaboration grew out of the questions: What does computational number theory look like in the 21st century, and what tools should be developed for use by the arithmetic geometry community?” Learn more +

2019 undergraduate poster gallery

July 25, 2019

Jared Hodes ’20 discusses his group’s joint work on their poster $\alpha\beta\gamma$ Conjecture for Gaussian Integers, which won Second Place in Pure Mathematics at our undergraduate poster session held annually in May. View the gallery of 2019 posters to see interesting examples of our student-faculty research.

Math alumna curates stories of mathematical resilience

July 18, 2019

Allison Henrich Ph.D. ’08, Professor of Mathematics at Seattle University, is the editor of Living Proof: Stories of Resilience Along the Mathematical Journey. This collection has an impressive Dartmouth showing: along with Henrich, Lola Thompson Ph.D. ’12, David Neel Ph.D. ’02, Nicholas Scoville Ph.D. ’10, and Dominic Klyve, Ph.D. ’07 each contributed a chapter. The book is available as a free download. Learn more +

At the National Math Festival

July 17, 2019

Instructor Bjoern Muetzel (right), Byrne Scholar Hugo Hyung Ju Nam ’21, and Math major Ty Fierce Metteba ’20 recently traveled to the National Math Festival in Washington, D.C. where they led geometry activities with children. Muetzel’s research interests include low dimensional geometry and topology, systolic geometry, and harmonic forms on surfaces.

Professor Wallace awarded for work with alumni

July 07, 2019

The Dartmouth Alumni Council presented the 2019 Rassias Award to Professor Dorothy Wallace. The award is granted to a faculty member each year and recognizes exceptional educational outreach to alumni. Professor Wallace, who has recently led alumni trips to Iceland and Greece, incorporates mathematical concepts into the excursions, making math accessible to alumni and their families.

Our recent Ph.D.s

July 06, 2019

Angelica Babei received her Ph.D. in June and will be starting a postdoc position at Vanderbilt this fall. Her research interests are in algebraic number theory and her thesis On the Arithmetic of Tiled Orders focused on computing type numbers of orders in central simple algebras.

Will Kaufman ’20 wins Neukom Prize

July 05, 2019

Math major Will Kaufman ’20 is the second place winner of the Neukom Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Computational Science for 2019. Will's project, Improving change detection algorithms with variance based joint sparsity recovery, explored image reconstruction problems in signal processing.

Victor Churchill wins Neukom Prize

June 27, 2019

Congratulations to Victor Churchill, winner of a second place Neukom Prize for Outstanding Graduate Research in Computational Science for his project Detecting edges from non-uniform Fourier data via sparse Bayesian learning. Victor works with Professor Anne Gelb on image reconstruction problems; their work has recently led to two joint papers.

Our recent Ph.D.s

June 26, 2019

Sara Chari and Melanie Dennis pose for family photos on the Dartmouth lawn following the 2019 Investiture ceremony. Sara (thesis: Orders in Quaternion and Central Simple Algebras) is moving on to a position at Bates College, and Melanie (thesis: Combinatorial Proofs to Linear Algebraic Identities) will be teaching at SNHU.

Math alumni open house

June 25, 2019

Math alumni Ken Swinski ’73, Dan Crowley ’73, and Bill Keegan ’75 enjoy refreshments and share stories at our open house during reunion week. Ken reports that his Dartmouth alumni club recently distributed copies of Professor Dan Rockmore’s book What Are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious to local high school students.

Juan S. Auli receives Bogart Teaching Award

June 14, 2019

Juan S. Auli is the recipient of this year’s Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award for his dedication to and excellence in advancing the educational mission of the department. Juan was also recognized this year as Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher for Math 20. Congratulations to Juan!

BASIC: the first user-friendly computer programming language

June 08, 2019

Spotted this week: a New Hampshire historical marker honoring the work of John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz on the development of BASIC. How did this come about? See the Granite Geek blog article, and click to view a larger image.

Undergraduate Poster Prizes

June 07, 2019

Ethan Goldman ’22 stops by the department to receive congratulations for First Place in Pure Mathematics for his poster Continued Fractions and abc-Triples. The poster was a project for the course An Introduction to Mathematics Beyond Calculus led by Professor John Voight. Ethan has not yet declared a major but is considering Mathematics.

Melanie Dennis receives Graduate Teaching Award

May 31, 2019

Congratulations to Melanie Dennis, the recipient of the 2019 Guarini Graduate Teaching Award! This award recognizes dedication, commitment, creativity, innovation, and overall excellence in teaching. Melanie has accepted a position at Southern New Hampshire University and we wish her much success.

Undergraduate Poster Prizes

May 30, 2019

Louisa Gao ’22 and Matt Sawicki ’20 won First Place in Applied Mathematics for their poster For Whom the Bell Tolls: Modeling Wind Chimes with the Classical Wave Equation. Combining their interests in math and music, they applied the wave equation to model the acoustics of vibrating cylinders in a project for Introduction to Applied Mathematics taught by Professor Dorothy Wallace.

Improving image reconstruction from very noisy data

May 15, 2019

Fourth-year graduate student Laura Petto works with Professor Anne Gelb on image reconstruction problems and is helping to design new algorithms with potential applications in the fields of aerial and medical imaging. Learn more +

Math Camp 2019

May 12, 2019

This year we are hosting Math Camp, two summer enrichment sessions for local high school students. Topics covered will be outside of the usual high school syllabus and students can interact with mathematicians in a fun, non-graded environment. Each program will cover different mathematical topics and students are invited to attend one or both sessions.

Mathematics Undergraduate Poster Session

April 27, 2019

All undergraduates who have done research projects in pure or applied mathematics are invited to present a poster at the department's annual Undergraduate Poster Session on Wednesday May 29 from 4:30–6:30pm in the main floor of Kemeny Hall. View our gallery of 2018 posters for inspiration!

Professor Pomerance's proof seen on The Big Bang Theory

April 25, 2019

Professor Carl Pomerance's paper Proof of the Sheldon Conjecture, co-authored with Chris Spicer, proves a mathematical concept inspired by an episode in the CBS series The Big Bang Theory. In the April 18 episode, excerpts from Professor Pomerance's proof can be seen written on the whiteboard in the show. Learn more +

Sonia Kovalevsky Day May 11

April 24, 2019

The 2019 Thayer Prize Exam

April 23, 2019

The Thayer Prize Exam, a Dartmouth mathematics competition for first-year students, will take place this year on Saturday, April 27 from 10am – 1pm. Please notify the Mathematics Department in advance if you would like to take the exam but cannot take it on April 27.

Presenting research at NENAD 2019

April 18, 2019

Professor Yoonsang Lee and graduate student Victor Churchill recently gave research talks at New England Numerical Analysis Day 2019 at WPI. Professor Lee gave a talk about his recent paper A seamless homogenization method for multiscale diffusion and advection operators based on joint work with Bjorn Engquist at UT Austin. Churchill's talk was on joint work with Professor Gelb, Image reconstruction via edge-masked regularization.

Juan S. Auli honored during Grad Student Appreciation Week

April 17, 2019

Math graduate student Juan S. Auli was named an outstanding graduate student teacher for his work teaching Math 20 — Probability in Fall 2018. Every year, DCAL invites undergraduates to nominate graduate students who have been outstanding teachers to be recognized during Grad Student Appreciation Week. Congratulations to Juan!

Call for students to register for the Wetterhahn Science Symposium

April 12, 2019

Are you doing research in science, math, or engineering? Present your findings at the 28th Annual Wetterhahn Science Poster Symposium on May 22. Register online by Wednesday May 8. Questions? Contact Undergraduate.Research@Dartmouth.edu.

Professor Orellana's research published in Journal of Combinatorial Theory

April 10, 2019

Professor Rosa Orellana's research on symmetric functions was recently published in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A. The paper Products of symmetric group characters is co-authored by Professor Orellana and Mike Zabrocki.

Celebrating the 2019 Math Essay Contest

April 09, 2019

The department celebrated our Math Essay Contest, Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics, with a reception and prize ceremony. Two of this year's winning essays received national awards.

Professor Sutton to speak at Indiana University

April 03, 2019

Professor Craig Sutton, whose research interests in differential geometry include Riemannian geometry, spectral geometry, and homogeneous spaces, will speak at the 2019 Bloomington Geometry Workshop at Indiana University. His talk, titled Geometric Structures and the Laplace Spectrum, is based on collaborative work with Instructor Samuel Lin.

Noncommutative Geometry Festival 2019

March 28, 2019

Professors Jody Trout and Erik van Erp are featured speakers at this year’s Noncommutative Geometry Festival. The festival will highlight some of the most significant recent advances in noncommutative geometry and identify promising new research directions. Our own department will host NCG 2020.

Geometry activities at the National Math Festival

March 27, 2019

Instructor Bjoern Muetzel and student volunteers will be leading geometric games and activities for children and visitors at the National Math Festival in Washington, D.C. this May. The festival hopes to “inspire and challenge all ages to see math in new and unexpected ways.”

Essay Contest winners announced

March 26, 2019

View the winning essays in the department-sponsored 2019 Essay Contest, Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics. Edel Galgon ’22 is the undergraduate winner, and two middle school contestants won national awards.

Celebrating the end of winter

March 14, 2019

Graduate students Emma Hartman and Melanie Dennis enjoy pizza, conversation, and a break from thesis-writing at the department's end-of-term party, held in Fall, Winter, and Spring terms.

Shikhin Sethi ’19 receives 2019 Byrne prize

March 06, 2019

The John J. Byrne Jr. Prize is awarded to the top Dartmouth graduating mathematics major interested in continuing mathematics at the graduate level. The award will cover Shikhin’s tuition for the first year of graduate school at Princeton University. Congratulations to Shikhin!

Combinatorics Through Guided Discovery

January 31, 2019

The work of Ken Bogart (1943–2005) on an inquiry-based learning approach for undergraduate combinatorics, Combinatorics Through Guided Discovery, is now available in an interactive web version, a new print edition, and pdf.
Learn more +

Instructor Muetzel presents at MoMath

December 12, 2018

Geometer and John Wesley Young Research Instructor Bjoern Muetzel presents “Reach Out and Touch Space!” at MoMath's Family Fridays series. According to the museum, the series is “designed to bring families together to enjoy a diverse array of engaging mathematical activities, promoting interest and enthusiasm among kids and adults alike. The activities are designed so that all attendees, regardless of age, can participate on an equal footing.”

Verifying an anonymously posted proof of a permutation problem

November 25, 2018

Former instructor Jay Pantone co-authored the paper A lower bound on the length of the shortest superpattern, which verifies a proof posted by an anonymous 4chan user in 2011. A recent Quanta article sheds some light on this mathematical problem.

Professor Voight co-authors paper challenging long-held assumption in number theory

November 16, 2018

Professor John Voight co-authored the paper A heuristic for boundedness of ranks of elliptic curves, soon to be published in The Journal of the European Mathematical Society. Read more in the Quanta article Without a Proof, Mathematicians Wonder How Much Evidence Is Enough.

Will Kaufman ’20 receives the Francis L. Town Scientific Prize

November 16, 2018

Congratulations to Will Kaufman ’20 for being selected to receive the Francis L. Town Scientific Prize for his achievement in Mathematics.

Annual Holt's Ledge hike at the department's Fall party

November 01, 2018

After hiking Holt’s Ledge near the Dartmouth Skiway, the Math extended family takes a well-earned break in anticipation of dinner and good cheer at the department’s annual Fall Party.

Professor Rockmore organizes film series exploring STEM themes

November 01, 2018

What’s the science and math behind these films? Professor Dan Rockmore organized the STEM @ The Nugget series to spark discussion among local school students. Colleagues from Dartmouth's departments of Computer Science, Physics, History, and Earth Sciences will bring their expertise. The films will run on Monday school holidays during this year.

Joint faculty and undergrad research published in Royal Society Open Science

November 01, 2018

Math major Tucker Evans ’19 and Professor Feng Fu co-authored the paper Opinion formation on dynamic networks: identifying conditions for the emergence of partisan echo chambers, recently published in Royal Society Open Science. “I would like to express my gratitude to the college and the mathematics department in particular for their support,” says Evans. “This project has been a wonderful learning experience.”

Summer research internships in Germany

October 04, 2018

Byrne scholars Anuraag Bukkuri, Megan Green, and Kyle Bensink did summer research internships at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, working in the genetic diversity, bioinformatics, and genome research groups. From left: Kyle Bensink, Anuraag Bukkuri, Bjoern Muetzel, Ben Peter, and Kay Pruefer.

Academic Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASURE)

September 27, 2018

Professor Rosa Orellana supervised three students for eight weeks as part of the ASURE summer program at Dartmouth. The three students, all from UPR, were supported by the PR-LSAMP funded by NSF. From left: Fermin Arraiza Truust, Andres Ramos-Rodriguez, and Dylan Cruz Fonseca. Their research was in algebraic combinatorics.

Professor Elizalde receives Outstanding Mentoring and Advising award

September 20, 2018

Professor Sergi Elizalde has received the Dean of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Advising. “I enjoy mentoring research, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, and I love teaching smart and motivated Dartmouth students who are eager to learn,” says Professor Elizalde, whose main field of research is enumerative combinatorics.
Learn more +

Professor Pauls is the new director of DCAL

September 10, 2018

Mathematics Professor Scott Pauls will be the new director of the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL), announced Interim Provost David Kotz. 'Scott is ideally suited to carry on the important and innovative work that flourished at DCAL thanks to Lisa Baldez and the center’s talented staff,' says Kotz.

Professor Trout's research published in European Journal of Mathematics

September 07, 2018

Math Professor Jody Trout co-authored the paper $K_0$-theory of n-potents in rings and algebras, recently published in the European Journal of Mathematics. Professor Trout’s research interests include functional analysis, operator algebras, $K$-theory, noncommutative geometry, and quantum theory.

Dartmouth Mathematics REU

August 17, 2018

Professors Feng Fu and Anne Gelb organized the Dartmouth Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which brought eight students from all over the United States to Dartmouth for seven weeks this summer for collaborative research on “The Mathematics of Misinformation”.

Department hosts international combinatorics conference

August 05, 2018

Participants enjoy a talk during FPSAC 2018, hosted by the Math Department this summer. “Everybody who works in combinatorics anywhere in the world knows about this conference,” says Professor Sergi Elizalde, chair of the organizing committee. “Each talk is eye opening.”
Learn more +

Graduate students and professor receive Selfridge Prize in Number Theory

July 30, 2018

The Number Theory Foundation’s 2018 Selfridge Prize in Number Theory has been awarded to Michael Musty, Sam Schiavone, Jeroen Sijsling, and John Voight for their paper A Database of Belyi Maps. The prize is awarded to the best paper submitted to the Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium (ANTS) conference proceedings.

Undergraduate poster session

July 17, 2018

View our gallery of undergraduate research posters presented at this year's undergraduate poster session. Matthew Yung ’18, Hailey Jiang ’19, Ray Guo ’19, and Eva Wang ’19 authored the poster shown here, which was the first place winner in applied mathematics.

Instructor Muetzel organizes geometry exhibitions at local schools

July 12, 2018

Bjoern Muetzel, a John Wesley Young Research Instructor in Mathematics, recently organized an exhibition of geometry games and puzzles at several local schools. The K-5 students learned about geometric shapes such as the platonic solids, projections, and tessellations.

Daryl DeFord PhD ’18 receives Dartmouth's Hannah Croasdale Award

June 17, 2018

Congratulations to Daryl DeFord PhD ’18 as he receives Dartmouth's Hannah Croasdale Award! Daryl is currently a postdoc in the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group at MIT and Tufts.
Learn more +

Professor Winkler appointed to Advisory Board for the National Museum of Mathematics

June 07, 2018

Prof. Peter Winkler, the William Morrill Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, has been appointed to the Mathematics Advisory Board for National Museum of Mathematics, an award-winning museum located in Manhattan. “The museum highlights the role of mathematics in illuminating the patterns and structures all around us. Its dynamic exhibits, gallery, and programs are designed to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity, and reveal the wonders of mathematics,” says the museum’s website. “The museum’s innovative exhibits will engage folks from 105 to 5 years old—and even younger.”

Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day

May 16, 2018

Faculty, graduate students, and undergrads gather while hosting seventy middle and high school students at Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day, a fun-filled day of mathematics with hands-on workshops and talks for middle and high school female students and their teachers.

Graduate Student Ben Breen receives the Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award

May 09, 2018

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Ben Breen, winner of this year's Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award for his dedication to and excellence in advancing the educational mission of the department. In Fall term Ben taught an accelerated version of multivariable calculus for first-year students.

Jared Duker Lichtman ’18 named Churchill Scholar

February 28, 2018

Jared Duker Lichtman ’18 has received a Churchill Scholarship, which annually funds 15 American students nominated from 110 participating U.S. institutions for a year of master's-level study in a STEM field.
Learn more +

Mathematical Oncology off-campus program in Tampa

February 14, 2018

When not working hard at modeling cancer processes, students in our new off-campus program at the Moffitt Cancer Research Center relax by swimming with manatees. From left: Lawrence Abu-Hammour '19, Alice Hsu '19, Shannon Fee '18, and Jade Yen '19.

At the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego

January 17, 2018

Anirudh Udutha ’18 and Jared Duker Lichtman ’18 join Professor Emeritus Carl Pomerance at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. Jared and Professor Pomerance spoke in the AMS Special Session on Computational Combinatorics and Number Theory.

At the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego

January 17, 2018

Dartmouth Math undergraduate students Tucker Evans '19, Jonathan Meng '18, and Herbert Ho-Chun Chang '18 (from left) are invited to present their research work with Professor Feng Fu at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego.

AWM recognizes Professor Carolyn Gordon

November 22, 2017

Professor Carolyn Gordon is a member of the inaugural class of the Association for Women in Mathematics Fellows Program. This program recognizes Professor Gordon and other mathematicians for their “unwavering commitment to promoting and supporting women in mathematics”, honoring their sustained work in support of the AWM mission.

Shikhin Sethi ’19 receives prize for achievement in Mathematics

November 22, 2017

Congratulations to Math major Shikhin Sethi ’19, who received the Francis L. Town Scientific Prize for his achievement in Mathematics. Shikhin works with Professor Peter Doyle on projects involving topology, algorithms, and probability. He plans to go to graduate school and eventually do research in mathematics or computer science.

Professor Rockmore on the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards

November 03, 2017

Professor Dan Rockmore speaks with VPR on the new Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards and what he sees as an opportunity for the arts to provide an important pause for reflection which is often overlooked in an age of accelerating digital technologies.

Yixuan He ’18 gives talk at SIAM Annual Meeting

September 21, 2017

Yixuan He '18 was one of twelve undergraduate students invited to give a talk at the 2017 SIAM Annual Meeting, where she presented on her research with Professor Dorothy Wallace on a model of cancer tumor growth.

Faculty and grad student research featured in SIAM News Online

September 08, 2017

SIAM News Online features graduate student Xingru Chen’s research on vaccine compliance joint with Professor Feng Fu.

Professor Pomerance on his collaboration with Paul Erdős

August 29, 2017

In this Numberphile video, Professor Emeritus Carl Pomerance recounts how a “joke” article in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics led to a career-changing collaboration with Paul Erdős — and to a meeting between Erdős and baseball legend Hank Aaron.

Professor Rockmore named Associate Dean for the Sciences

August 17, 2017

Prof. Dan Rockmore has been named associate dean of the sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “It’s important for scientists and mathematicians to talk to each other on college campuses,” says Rockmore, “but we should not let that conversation become too hermetic. Our ideas need to be out in the world.”

What makes a number “Goldbachy”?

August 17, 2017

Professor Emeritus Carl Pomerance explains what makes 210 especially interesting with regard to Golbach’s Conjecture. How can a number be very “Goldbachy”? Watch the Numberphile video to find out.

Professor Wallace receives Dean of the Faculty Mentoring Award

July 19, 2017

Professor Dorothy Wallace has received the Dean of the Faculty Mentoring Award for 2016-17. Professor Wallace has previously earned an award for Graduate Faculty Mentoring.

Simons Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory and Computation

July 17, 2017

Professor John Voight is a Principal Investigator on the newly announced Simons Foundation Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory and Computation. The collaboration seeks to accelerate research in these fields through the computational realization of deep theory and to use the computational tools to probe our conceptual understanding of complex arithmetic objects.

FPSAC 2018 coming to Dartmouth this summer

July 06, 2017

Coming in 2018: the The 30th International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics. The Math Department is hosting this conference which will take place July 16-20, 2018.

2017 graduating Ph.D. students

July 04, 2017

Our graduate students have many talents. Everett Sullivan won a Dartmouth College Libary Book Arts Prize this year, receiving an Honorable Mention in Letterpress Printing. From left are Everett, Tim Dwyer, and Seth Harris.

David Freund receives Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award

June 13, 2017

Fourth year Ph.D. student David Freund received this year's Kenneth P. Bogart Teaching Award. The Dartmouth Mathematics Department gives this award annually to the final year graduate student who best exemplifies outstanding dedication to and excellence in advancing the educational mission of the department. Congratulations, David!

Daryl DeFord receives Dartmouth Graduate Teaching Award

June 13, 2017

Fourth year Ph.D. student Daryl DeFord, pictured here coaching at NHSPE Mathcounts, received this year's Dartmouth Graduate Teaching Award. This award recognizes dedication, commitment, creativity, innovation, and overall excellence in teaching. Congratulations to Daryl!

New book explores the question “What Are the Arts and Sciences?”

May 25, 2017

Professor Dan Rockmore is the editor of the new book What Are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious (Dartmouth College Press/University Press of New England), in which his colleagues explain their fields and what it is that they do. Professor Rockmore wrote the chapter on mathematics.

Math department hosts Discrete Math Day

May 16, 2017

On May 6, the Math department hosted Discrete Math Day. It was co-organized by Sergi Elizalde, Rosa Orellana, Jay Pantone and Peter Winkler. Discrete Math Days in the Northeast is a conference series that seeks to bring together a community of combinatorists in the northeast, providing a relaxed atmosphere and a friendly environment conducive to fostering collaboration accross institutions and disciplines.

AMS publishes new text by Professor Shemanske

May 08, 2017

Modern Cryptography and Elliptic Curves: A Beginner’s Guide by Professor Thomas Shemanske will soon be published by the American Mathematical Society.

Congratulations to Dartmouth’s 2017 Putnam team

May 02, 2017

The Dartmouth Putnam team ranked 26th nationally in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Congratulations to team members James Drain '17, Jared Duker Lichtman '18, and Dong Won Kang '17!

Professor Wallace gives talk in Iceland

April 25, 2017

A group of Dartmouth alumni, parents and friends visit Iceland in April 2017, accompanied by Professor Dorothy Wallace who gave a talk on the probability of eruption of the volcano Katla. This photo is taken at the place where the mid-Atlantic ridge rises out of the sea.

Jared Duker Lichtman ’18 wins Goldwater Scholarship

April 13, 2017

Jared Duker Lichtman '18 was recently selected as a Barry Goldwater Scholar.

Jared is among three Dartmouth undergraduates who received the prestigious scholarship this year.

Caren Diefenderfer, 1952 – 2017

April 03, 2017

Caren Diefenderfer '73, among the first class of women at Dartmouth, an active member of the MAA and NNN, and recent recipient of the Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching died on March 31, a significant loss to the community.

Research talks at JMM

March 28, 2017

Prof. Dorothy Wallace gave a talk at the Joint Mathematics Meetings 2017 in Atlanta on the consequences of rising temperatures for malaria vector abundance. Her work is joint with several authors, two of which are Dartmouth undergraduates Jacob Savos and Ann Dunham.

Research talks at JMM

March 28, 2017

Prof. Dorothy Wallace gave a talk at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta on a model of cancer tumor growth. Among her many collaborators are numerous undergraduates: Paula Chen, Michelle Chen, Milan Huynh, Evan Rheingold, Ann Dunham, Sophia Jiang, Celeste Rodriguez, Molly Carpenter, Rachel Chang and Yixuan He.

Research talks at JMM

March 28, 2017

Prof. Dorothy Wallace gave a talk at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta on the extensive preparation for teaching that is part of the graduate program in Mathematics.

Professor Wallace participates in panel on diversity in math

March 22, 2017

Professor Dorothy Wallace participated in a panel at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta on "Women and scholarly publishing in mathematics".

Climate Mirror at Dartmouth

March 10, 2017

Professor Dan Rockmore and Sarunas Burdulis have joined volunteer efforts at Climate Mirror and ArchiveTeam to backup all U.S. government data, including climate datasets. Climate Mirror at Dartmouth

Mathematics meets art: Concinnitas series at the Met

February 15, 2017

Professor Dan Rockmore has helped to curate “Picturing Math,” an exhibit of aquatints on display in the Metropolitan Museum. The title of the collection is Concinnitas, a word used by the Renaissance philosopher Leon Battista Alberti to describe the balance of number, outline, and position he thought characterized a beautiful work of art.

Professor Fu's research featured in The Dartmouth

January 02, 2017

The Dartmouth writes about Professor Feng Fu’s research on combining evolutionary game theory models with empirical data to improve our understanding of real-world cooperation problems, such as climate change, vaccine compliance and antibiotics overuse.