Faculty and Student News
Summer 2012
The Department of Mathematics is a partner in a
new and innovative PhD program in Computational Modeling and Simulation at the
University of Pittsburgh. This PhD program provides its graduate students with
an integrated program of creative, independent research, course work, and
teaching. Its students pursue research in diverse areas of computational
mathematics, engineering, science and technology. The quality of the
department's research program, the Center for
Simulation and Modeling and the accessibility of its faculty will offer
students unparalleled opportunities for individualized training and interaction.
The program's extensive seminar series exposes students and faculty alike to the
world's leading scientists and their latest research. Pitt's outstanding
research and placement resources, coupled with the university's commitment to
being one of the finest and most productive universities in the world, uniquely
positions our department to help you meet your objectives. More>
May 2012
Pitt Student Marina Moraiti Wins SIAM Research Prize
SIAM, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, presents a prize every year for the best research paper in mathematics by (authored by or co-authored by) a PhD student in mathematics in all areas covered by SIAM journals. This prize is awarded based on a worldwide competition and is quite prestigious. Marina Moraiti, a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics, is one of the winners for 2012 for her paper: "On the Quasistatic Approximation in the Stokes-Darcy Model of Groundwater-Surface Water Flows."
Marina is PhD student studying the numerical analysis of fluid flow problems. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) group in the math department has a history of excellence in development of PhD students. Marina will be the third student in CFD to win this international award- a record that no other research group in the world has matched. Previous winners include Traian Iliescu, now professor at VPI, and Carolina Manica, a professor in Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Several other students from the group, while not winning, have been cited for honors in the competition. Many PhD students from the CFD group have gone on top stellar research careers in PhD granting departments in research universities, national labs and industry.
Spring 2012
New Mathematical Biology Major
Capitalizing on our department's strength in Mathematical Biology, we have established a new Mathematical Biology major! This major will help students prepare for a career or advanced studies in quantitative biology, including biotechnology and medical fields. The major includes two new courses, Mathematical Biology (Math 1380) and Computational Neuroscience (Math 1370), taught by renowned faculty experts in these areas (Math 1380 also counts as an elective towards fulfillment of Mathematics major degree requirements). Other requirements are similar to the Applied Mathematics major, but with biology (and optionally neuroscience) courses replacing physics and computer science.
Fall 2011
Pitt Professor featured in CIO
CIO features the work of Pitt Mathematics Profs. Caginalp and DeSantis (Pitt PhD 2011) that used large scale data to distinguish effects of trend, volatility, volume, money supply and other factors in financial markets.
Fall 2011
Prof. Caginalp featured in Pitt Magazine
Pitt Magazine article describes the contributions of Pitt Mathematics Prof. Caginalp in developing the mathematics of financial markets and an understanding of market forces beyond valuation.
August 2011
Ermeritus Professot Chong-Yun Chao passes away
Department of Mathematics Emeritus Professor Chong-Yun Chao
passed away on August 26, 2011. We at the Math Department would like to send our
condolances to the family. More>
April 30, 2011
Mathematics
Commencement Brunch
Pictures>
May 2011
Senior Profile/Young Scholar: Graduating from Pitt
at 17, Carey Caginalp Already Has the Math World Abuzz More>
March 2011
Profs. Rubin and Dioron receive new grant
The project is on "Basal ganglia-thalamic signaling in parkinsonism and deep brain stimulation". The funding is being provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke within the National Institutes of Health to support a collaboration between Brent Doiron and Jonathan Rubin in Math and Robert Turner in Neurobiology, including the hiring of a postdoctoral fellow in Mathematics. Our research will include the collection and analysis of new data relating to changes in activity in particular brain areas known to be affected by Parkinson's disease. We will also develop mathematical models of this activity, which will be used to explore mechanisms that could be responsible for the changes and possible interventions that could reverse their pathological effects. Deep brain stimulation surgery is a poorly understood yet effective current therapy for Parkinson's disease, and the project will include efforts to try to understand how it works and can be optimized.
February 2010
Prof. Gartide awarded the Tina and David Bellet A&S Teaching Excellence Award
Congratulations to Paul Gartside, who is one of the two recipients of the 2010 Tina and David Bellet A&S Teaching Excellence Award, recognizing outstanding and innovative teaching in undergraduate studies.
February 2010
Prof. Thomas Hales has been honored as a winner of the 2010 Chancellor’s Awards for Distinguished Teaching, Research and Public Service.
October 2009
Quantitative finance magazine Wilmott publishes cover story interview with Prof. Caginalp
Wilmott magazine interviews Prof. Caginalp on his work in quantitative behavioral finance, how he became interested in the field, and his thoughts on future research including ongoing work with PhD candidate, Mark DeSantis. The interview also focuses on the recent financial crisis and the role of excess cash or liquidity in creating bubbles, which Prof. Caginalp has studied from various perspectives. Also discussed is non-classical interpretation of risk as part of the explanation of the crisis.
September 2009
Shanghai Evening Post interviews Prof. Caginalp on G-20
As the G20 nations gathered for their economic summit in Pittsburgh during September 2009, the Shanghai Evening Post interviewed Prof. Caginalp on the complexity of issues confronting the major nations.
March 2009
Pitt's Math Kangeroo challanges students to think "outside the box"
"Math Kangaroo is an international competition in solving mathematical problems, organized for students in grades 2 through 12. It is very popular in Europe and now is finding its way into the United States -- including Pittsburgh. No other scholarly mathematical competition in the world has such high participation: Over 5 million students from 41 countries took part in 2008"
February 2009
Asst. Prof. Brent Doiron receives 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
Please join us in congratulating Math Assistant Professor Brent Doiron on receiving 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. Prof. Doiron is one of the 118 “early-career scientists” selected for this honor because of their “outstanding promise and potential to contribute substantially to their fields.”
January 2009
Dr. Songul Kaya-Merdan, a 2004 PhD of our program, has just been promoted to Associate Professor at the Middle East Technical University, the leading research university in Turkey. Songul's research pioneered methods now known as local projection stabilizations and established their connection to Variational Multiscale Methods. Congratulations Songul!
December 2008
Prof. Caginalp Featured in Science Magazine News Article
University of Pittsburgh professor, Dr. Gunduz Caginalp's work on the effects of increased cash in the stock market, was used help explain the current economic crisis.
December 2008
An Article written by Pitt Math Professor Thomas Hales is featured in Notices of the AMS
Prof. Hales article is featured in a special issue of Notices about formal proofs. The edition describes how using computers in proofs both extends mathematics with new results and creates new mathematical questions about the nature and technique of such proofs. This special issue features a collection of articles by practitioners and theorists of such formal proofs which explore both aspects.
August 5, 2008
Pitt Math Professor Thomas Hales featured in a NY Times article on the construction of the Olympic Beijing National Aquatics Center
Prof. Hales uses his expertise on the Kepler Conjecture as a reference point for speculating on the use of the Kelvin Conjecture for creating the design for the Beijing National Aquatics Center.
August 1, 2008
Pitt Math Professor Thomas Hales has been selected to receive the MAA Lester Ford Award.
The award recognizes authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly. Prof. Hales is being recognized for his article
The Jordan curve theorem, formally and informally, Amer. Math. Monthly
114 (2007), no. 10, 882--894.
The prize will be presented on August 1 at the annual MAA meeting in Madison, WI.
February 4, 2008
Prof. Ermentrout is the recipient of the 2008 Chancellors Distinguished Research Award
We are happy to announce that Professor Bard Ermentrout is the recipient of the 2008 Chancellors Distinguished Research Award. The award is given for substantial and continuing record of outstanding research and scholarly activity. Please join us in congratulating Professor Ermentrout for his outstanding achievement.
Fall 2007
Pittsburgh Quarterly Article "The Proof of the Proof" Features Dr. Hales and His Work on the Kepler Conjecture Proof
"40,000 lines of computer code, 300 pages of logic. [University of Pittsburgh professor Dr. Thomas Hales] nails a computation that is the most important mathematical discovery in the last 25 years. Now he just has to dedicate the next 20 years to proving it."
August 19, 2007
Professor Gunduz Caginalp is quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about investing in today's market
July 9 , 2007
Chair of Math Department becomes Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Science for Undergraduate Students
Professor Juan Manfredi, currently chair of the Department of Mathematics, will become the School of Arts and Sciences associate dean for undergraduate studies, effective September 1, 2007. Professor Ivan Yotov will serve as interim chair of the Department of Mathematics from September 1 until August 31, 2008.
June 10, 2007
Prof. Caginalp Featured in New York Times Article About the Stock Market
University of Pittsburgh professor, Dr. Gunduz Caginalp's work on the article “Overreactions, Momentum, Liquidity and Price Bubbles in Laboratory and Field Asset Markets", Published in The Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets, now The Journal of Behavioral Finance, was used help explain the current trends of the stock market.
March 13, 2007
Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh Receive Training Grants from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation
Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have received three grants totaling more than $7 million from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Science Foundation to support programs that train undergraduate and graduate students in basic neuroscience, computational neuroscience, multimodal neuroimaging, and other interdisciplinary endeavors. The programs will be offered through the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), which is jointly run by the universities.
“The three new grants the CNBC has received will enable our students to participate in the synthesis of disciplines, which is the essence of modern neuroscience,” said Peter Strick, professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and codirector of the CNBC. “We are moving into a new era of multidisciplinary training in which we are asking our students to stretch intellectually. The result is a new generation of multidisciplinary neuroscientists who are comfortable asking complex questions and then using the most appropriate approaches to solve them.”
March 1, 2007SIAM News 'Mathematics and the Brain' Issue Features Department Faculty
The Department of Mathematics features prominently in the March 2007 "Mathematics and the Brain" issue of SIAM News. Professor G. Bard Ermentrout serves as a guest editor and is the author of an article titled "Neurophysiology and Waves" with department PhD alumnus David Pinto.
Professor Jonathan Rubin also is coauthor of an article titled "Neuronal Dynamics and the Basal Ganglia," and PhD alumnus Boris Gutkin is the coauthor of an article titled "Phase-Resetting Curves and Neuromodulation of Action Potential Dynamics in the Cortex."
The articles highlight the fact that Department of Mathematics faculty are making important and productive contributions to the growing field of mathematical neuroscience.
January 16, 2007Professor Hales Recognized by the American Mathematical Society for Kepler Conjecture Proof
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has granted Professor Thomas C. Hales the society’s inaugural David P. Robbins Award, in honor of his proof of the Kepler Conjecture. Professor Hales shares the prestigious award with Samuel Ferguson of the National Security Agency, who coauthored part of the published proof. The AMS has lauded their work as “a landmark achievement.”
More: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New Scientist
May 3, 2005Professor Vainchtein Receives National Science Foundation's CAREER Award to Study How Materials ‘Remember’ Their Shapes
Assistant professor of mathematics Anna Vainchtein has been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The prestigious, five-year, $400,000 award will fund Vainchtein’s work on materials with “shape memory.” The project also will involve training graduate and undergraduate students in an interdisciplinary research program, mentoring female graduate students, and outreach activities for middle school and high school students.