News and events at Department of Mathematics
Thesis defense: Matthew McCarthy
Event date: 2025/07/12
Matthew McCarthy will defend the Ph.D. thesis on Friday, July 12. The title is
“Connectedness Properties of some Subcomplexes of Twin Buildings and Their Group Theoretic Applications”.
The defense will be held at Kerchof 111 at 3:30 pm.
Everyone is invited to attend.
Jennifer Morse Invited to Speak at ICM 2026
2025/07/08
Mathematics professor Jennifer Morse will be an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia in July 2026. Held every four years, the ICM is the premier mathematics conference in the world and is the setting for the awarding of the Gauss Prize, the Chern Medal, the IMU Abacus Medal, and the Fields Medal.
Congratulations to Jennifer on this well-deserved honor!
Thesis defense: Kian Aik Cheong
Event date: 2025/06/30
Kian Aik Cheong will defend the Ph.D. thesis on Monday, June 30. The title is
“Explicit Kummer theory for some 2-dimensional formal group laws”.
The defense will be held at Kerchof 317 at 10:00 am. The defense will be in hybrid format. For those interested, the Zoom link is: https://virginia.zoom.us/my/valiagazzoomspace
Everyone is invited to attend.
Paper recognized as finalist for PNAS Cozzarelli Prize
2025/06/17
Ken Ono’s 2024 paper “Integer partitions detect the primes” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with former UVA student William Craig and collaborator Jan-Willem van Ittersum, has been recognized as a finalist for the Cozzarelli Prize. The paper was selected as a runner-up in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics category from among 3,200 papers published in PNAS last year. This marks the first time a paper in pure mathematics has been recognized by this prestigious award since 2005.
An article describing this work appeared in Scientific American in June 2025.
2025 Mathematics Final Exercises Ceremony
Event date: 2025/05/17
Final Exercises for the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences will take place on Saturday, May 17, 2025 on the Lawn.
The Mathematics Department Diploma Ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in the Pavilion I, Lower Garden from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Riverside Workshop on Geometric Group Theory at UVA
Event date: 2025/05/09
The University of Virginia will host a workshop for early career mathematicians working in geometric group theory on May 9-12, 2025. The workshop will feature three minicourse series by Harrison Bray (George Mason), Didac Martinez-Granado (Luxembourg/NUS), and Jenya Sapir (Binghamton), with introductory talks by Madeline Horton, Meenakshy Jyothis, and Aisha Mechery. The talks are aimed at graduate students and postdocs and will be accompanied by discussion sections. Remote access will be available via Zoom.
The workshop is organized by Matthew Gentry Durham (UCR) and Thomas Koberda (UVA), and is supported by NSF grant DMS-2500706.
DMP thesis defense: Nikolas Dillery
Event date: 2025/05/05
Nikolas Dillery will defend the DMP thesis on Monday, May 5. The title is
“Kazhdan’s Property (T): General Results and SL_n(Z)”.
- Date: Monday, May 5
- Time: 3:00 pm
- Place: Kerchof Hall 317
Everyone is cordially invited to attend.
Master thesis defense: Declan Stacy
Event date: 2025/04/30
Declan Stacy will defend the Master thesis on Wednesday, April 30. The title is
“Stochastic Persistence in Infinite Dimensions”.
- Date: Wednesday, April 30
- Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Place: Kerchof Hall 111
Everyone is invited to attend.
DMP thesis defense: Liran Li
Event date: 2025/04/30
Liran Li will defend the Distinguished Major Thesis on Wednesday, April 30 titled
“Automatic groups: a brief introduction”.
- Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
- Time: 11:30 am
- Place: New Cabell 027
Everyone is invited to attend.
DMP thesis defense: James Harbour
Event date: 2025/04/29
James Harbour will defend the DMP thesis on Tuesday, April 29th. The title is
Discrete measured groupoid von Neumann algebras via the Gaussian deformation
- Date: April 29th, 2025
- Time: 11:00 am
- Location: Ker 111
Everyone is invited to attend.
Masters thesis defense: Samir Fridhi
Event date: 2025/04/25
Samir Fridhi will defend the Master’s thesis on Friday, April 25th. The title is
Tate’s Thesis
- Date: April 25th, 2025
- Time: 5:00 pm
- Location: Kerchof 111
Everyone is invited to attend.
Thesis defense: Aoran Wu
Event date: 2025/04/25
Aoran Wu will defend the Ph.D. thesis on Friday, April 25. The title is
“Von Neumann orbit equivalence”.
- Date: Friday, April 25
- Time: 2:00 pm
- Place: Kerchof 317
Everyone is cordially invited to attend.
Thesis defense: Mojdeh Tarighat Feller
Event date: 2025/04/25
Mojdeh Tarighat Feller will defend the Ph.D. thesis on Friday, April 25th. The title is
Products of Closed k-Schur Katalan Functions
- Date: April 25th, 2025
- Time: 1:30 pm
- Location: Zoom
For Zoom link, please reach out to Jennifer Morse .
Everyone is invited to attend.
Louisa Liles Selected as MOST Fellow at the National Museum of Mathematics
2025/04/21
Ph.D. student Louisa Liles has been selected as a MOST (Mathematics Outreach Seminar and Training) Fellow with the National Museum of Mathematics in New York. This selective program, funded by the Simons Foundation, develops female mathematicians’ ability to share their knowledge and research with the general public in an engaging way. As part of the fellowship, Louisa will attend a workshop at the museum this summer and return in 2026 to give a public lecture. She will also present to middle and high school students in the community, serving as a role model for young women interested in STEM.
Sara Maloni Awarded 2025 Simons Fellowship
2025/04/20
Sara Maloni has been awarded a prestigious 2025 Simons Fellowship in Mathematics. The Simons Fellows program extends academic leaves from one term to a full year, enabling recipients to focus solely on research for the long periods often necessary for significant advances. Professor Maloni is one of approximately 50 mathematicians nationwide selected for this honor.
J.D. Quigley Awarded NSF CAREER Grant
2025/04/18
Congratulations to J.D. Quigley on receiving a prestigious NSF CAREER grant!
Professor Quigley’s research focuses on homotopy theory, algebraic topology, and K-theory. He joined the UVA Mathematics Department in 2023. Read more in the College of Arts & Sciences article
Faculty Win UVa Learning Design and Technology Grants
2025/04/18
Congratulations to several faculty for winning grants from UVa’s Learning Design and Technology:
Brianna Kurtz (lead) and Evangelos Dimou: Changing the Look of Undergraduate Mathematics Education: Training Future GTA’s in Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge Best Practices
Daniel James (lead) and Bakhyt Aitzhanova: Enhancing Transparency in Introductory Calculus Through Innovative OER & Generative AI
2025 Graduate Teaching Award Recipients
2025/04/15
The Department of Mathematics is proud to recognize four outstanding graduate student instructors for their teaching excellence:
- Michael Wills has been awarded the All-University Graduate Teaching Award
- Zivile Puospekaite received the Outstanding Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
- Raul Hernandez received the Outstanding Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
- Eleftherios Chatzitheodoridis received the Outstanding Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
Congratulations to all recipients! Their dedication, passion for mathematics, and authentic teaching approaches have made a significant impact on their students.
DMP thesis defense: Catherine Cossaboom
Event date: 2025/04/22
Catherine Cossaboom will defend the Distinguished Major Thesis on Tuesday, April 22 under the direction of advisor Ken Ono. The title is
“Distribution of Primes in Short Intervals”.
- Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
- Time: 9:00 am
- Place: Kerchof 111
2025 Undergraduate Award Winners
2025/04/10
The Mathematics Department is pleased to announce the following prize winners for the 2024-2025 year:
- E.J. McShane Prize:
- Catherine Cossaboom
- James Harbour
- Edwin E. Floyd Prize:
- Samuel Lichtman
- Luke Moyar
UVA Math Tournament (UVAMT)
Event date: 2025/04/19
The University of Virginia Math Competition for high schoolers will be held on April 19, 2025 in Wilson Hall 325. Problems are written by UVA top Putnam scorers, and events include an individual & team round, optimization round, and game round.
Details and registration can be found at this link.
AWM/Math Club Colloquium: Caitlin Leverson (Bard College)
Event date: 2025/04/17
“A Friendly Introduction to Lagrangian Realizations of Ribbon Cobordisms”
On Thursday, April 17, 2025, we are excited to host the second AWM/Math Club Colloquium by Professor Caitlin Leverson, a topologist from Bard College, at 3:45 PM in New Cabell 058. The talk is intended to be accessible to undergraduates.
Michael Wills wins All-University Graduate Teaching Award
2025/04/08
We are pleased to announce that Michael Wills has been awarded one of this year’s All-University Graduate Teaching Awards. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!
Thesis defense: Louisa Liles
Event date: 2025/04/11
Louisa Liles will defend the Ph.D. thesis on Friday, April 11th, at 9:30 am in New Cabell Hall, Room 323.
Quantum invariants and their connections with Thompson’s groups F and T
Everyone is invited to attend.