Sprout pre-application deadline is 3/29

The Sprout Program is back!

Funded by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), Sprout is designed to encourage and support translational research activity within the Brandeis community for faculty, postdocs, and student researchers (graduate and undergraduate) in the Division of Science. The awards (up to $25,000) are intended to help advance early-stage technologies to industry adoption.

Pre-applications are due by March 29. Successful pre-applicants will be invited to submit a final application, followed by a final pitch to a panel of industry judges.

Carolyn Abbott receives CAREER award

Carolyn Abbott, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards to 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 department or organization.”

Professor Abbott said, “This grant will support my research by providing travel support that will allow members of my group to travel to conferences to present our research, as well as to bring my collaborators to Brandeis so we can have dedicated time to make progress on our research projects.  Moreover, the support for the associated educational components will help build the mathematical community at Brandeis, in the greater Boston-area, and nationwide.”  

Professor Abbott has been an assistant professor at Brandeis since 2021, with research specializing in geometric group theory and hyperbolic geometry. The following is a more detailed research description as provided by the professor:

“The collection of symmetries of an object form an algebraic object called a group. For example, the reflections and rotations of a square form a group of size eight. Groups act on spaces: a 90 degree rotation acts on the square by turning it counterclockwise. Studying groups through the spaces on which they act leads to many questions. One could ask, for example, how many different groups act on a square? What do such groups have in common? Geometric group theory aims to answer such questions by translating the geometric properties of spaces on which a group acts into algebraic properties of the group. This project generalizes these techniques to larger classes of groups, many of which act on spaces that have a particular geometric structure, called hyperbolicity. The project supports and encourages student involvement and diversity in mathematics through support for a department and an area-wide seminar, the establishment of a research lab for undergraduates at Brandeis University, and a research workshop for early career women working in the area of groups, geometry, and dynamics.”

Eisenbud Lectures to feature Jonathan Heckman

The speaker for the 2024 Eisenbud Lectures in Mathematics and Physics will feature Jonathan Heckman of the University of Pennsylvania. The lectures will take place at Brandeis University from April 9^th – April 10^th.

The Eisenbud Lectures are offered each year and are the result of a generous donation from Leonard and Ruth-Jean Eisenbud. Each year, a set of lectures are presented by an eminent physicist or mathematician who works close to the interface of the Math and Physics.

Professor Heckman’s work involves a blend of techniques from physics and math centered on string theory and quantum field theory, which he uses to address questions in particle physics, cosmology, and quantum gravity, as well as topics in algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and information theory. 

Here is the lecture schedule:

●       Tuesday April 9, 11:30 am “Geometric Approach to Quantum Fields” (Gerstenzang 123). Light lunch follows the talk.

●       Tuesday, April 9, 4pm “Top Down Approach to Global Categorical Symmetries” (Abelson 333). Refreshments follow the talk.

●       Wednesday, April 10, 4pm “Topological Approach to Symmetries in Quantum Gravity” (Abelson 333). Refreshments follow the talk.

3MT Info Session to be held Jan. 24

The 3rd annual Brandeis 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) competition is fast approaching!

The 3MT is a spoken word competition designed to showcase graduate student research in three minutes using only one slide with the idea of appealing to a general audience. This competition is open to all graduate students who are working on a thesis/dissertation for the sciences, social sciences, and humanities/arts. Winners can win up to $1000! Learn more about the Brandeis 3MT competition.

The Preliminary 3MT competition will occur on Wednesday, March 27. The Finals are scheduled for Friday, April 5 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. There is also a remote competition for Brandeis graduate students who live outside of Massachusetts on Tuesday, April 2. 

You can learn more details about the competition during a virtual information session. Details about the info session are available here:

3MT Information Session
Wednesday, Jan 24, 2024, 12 -1 pm
Register to get Zoom link

In the past, Brandeis has had a very strong showing at the 3MT competitions. Liz Mahon, a PhD student in Psychology, received the top prize at the 2023 3MT Competition at Brandeis with her presentation “Armed Against Alzheimer’s: How Your Voice Could Save Your Mind”. She also won first place at the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) Regional 3MT Competition and went on to compete nationally at the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) 3MT Competition in Washington DC. 

Math Team Wins First at Math Olympiad

Brandeis Math Olympiad Team

The three-member Brandeis team of Nikolai Kivva, Catinca Alexandru and Mason Price took first place in the Math Olympiad held at Boston College on November 17, 2023. Eleven teams from different universities in Massachusetts took part in the competition. At the start of the competition, the team developed a strategy: in the first 15 minutes, each member studied all the proposed problems, tried them, and chose what each could handle. The problem sheet consisted of seven problems of approximately the same level of difficulty, but from different branches of mathematics, ranging from ordinary algebra to graph theory. The Brandeis team successfully completed six of the proposed problems, only failing to find the sum of an infinite series. 

After winning the competition, the Brandeis team listened to a series of talks by professors from different universities, including a great talk on random fluctuations by Jonathan Touboul, Professor of Mathematics and Ephraim Zimmerman with his research on genetic algorithms, both from Brandeis University.

A banquet for the participants followed the competition. The banquet provided participants an opportunity to meet and have a great evening with other participants. The majority of students are juniors or seniors studying math, however despite such stiff competition, the Brandeis team took home first place. 

Math Hires 1st Berger-Leighton Professor of Mathematics

This spring, the Brandeis Department of Mathematics completed their search for the first Berger-Leighton Professor of Mathematics with the hiring of Dr. Daniel Álvarez-Gavela, currently an Assistant Professor at MIT. Dr. Álvarez-Gavela will be joining Brandeis in July 2024, after staying for one more year at MIT.

This new tenure-track faculty position is the result of the generous gift by Bonnie Berger ’83, a former Brandeis trustee and the Simons Professor of Mathematics at MIT, and her husband, Dr. Tom Leighton, Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT and CEO and cofounder of Akamai Technologies. Brandeis Mathematics Chair Olivier Bernardi had this to say about the hire: “Dr. Álvarez-Gavela is a superb scholar, and an individual who embodies all the qualities that Brandeis ought to represent. Dr. Álvarez-Gavela is already collaborating with Brandeis Professor Kiyoshi Igusa on an ambitious research project aimed at importing sophisticated algebraic results (first developed by Prof. Igusa and his collaborators), to bear fruition in the context of symplectic geometry. The Math Department was unanimously enthusiastic about Dr. Álvarez-Gavela and excited to see him come and develop at Brandeis, and contribute to the renewal of the Department.”

Pre-Applications to Sprout Program Due 4/17

The Sprout Program is back!

Funded by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), Sprout is designed to encourage and support translational research activity within the Brandeis community for faculty, postdocs, and student researchers (graduate and undergraduate) in the Division of Science. The awards (up to $25,000 – no overhead!) are intended to help to advance early-stage technologies to industry adoption thereby bringing your research and entrepreneurial ambitions to life.

Successful pre-applicants will be invited to submit a final application due in late May and to pitch to a panel of industry judges in early June. Pre-apply by April 17.

Eva Silverstein is 2023 Eisenbud Lectures speaker

The Mathematics department is pleased to announce that this year’s speaker for the Eisenbud Lectures in Mathematics and Physics is Eva Silverstein of Stanford University. The lectures will take place at Brandeis University from March 28^th – March 30^th. The Eisenbud Lectures are the result of a generous donation by Leonard and Ruth-Jean Eisenbud intended for a yearly set of lectures by an eminent physicist or mathematician working close to the interface of the two subjects.

Professor Silverstein is an eminent theoretical physicist who has done creative, pioneering and influential work in string theory, quantum field theory, and both conceptual and observational aspects of cosmology. She was a Sloan Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow; she is currently a Simons investigator; a fellow of the American Physics Society; and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science.

Silverstein is a fascinating speaker, and these lectures promise to be enlightening and entertaining in equal measure. Here’s the lecture schedule (refreshments will be available before each talk):

• Tuesday, March 28th at 4pm in Abelson 131: “The accelerating universe and rigid Einstein manifolds”.  For Zoom link, please contact Catherine Broderick.
• Wednesday, March 29th at 11am in Abelson 333: “The accelerating universe and integrable deformations of quantum field theories”
• Thursday, March 30th at 10am in Abelson 333: “Optimization and sampling from energy-conserving Hamiltonian dynamical systems”

There will be a reception held on campus at Feldberg Lounge in the Hassenfeld Building after the first colloquium on Tuesday, March 28th.  All are invited to attend.

Prof. Albion Lawrence and Prof. Bong Lian are hosting the 2023 lecture series.

Brandeis students ranked well at the Putnam Math Competition

The Brandeis team did very well at the Putnam Mathematics Competition this year. The Brandeis team ranked 39 out of 456 institutions! This is a great result, especially given that small institutions are naturally at a disadvantage in such rankings.

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is hosted by the Mathematics Association of American (MAA). It is an annual competition that began in 1938 for undergraduate college students from the US and Canada. The event consists of two 3-hour sessions where students work individually to solve six mathematical problems. It is famous for the intricate mathematical puzzles it proposes, whose solutions require imagination and inventiveness.

Eight Brandeis students participated in the weekly competitions at Brandeis, with Ben Kamen, Issac Berger and Phong Pham going on to compose the Brandeis Team at the national competition. Student Ben Kamen received an honorable mention since he scored 58th out of 3415 participants. The other Brandeis students also did very well.

Congratulations to the Brandeis team and all participants, and a great thank you to the Putnam coaches Kiyoshi Igusa, Professor of Mathematics and PhD student Tudor Popescu!

Math Receives Gift for Berger-Leighton Endowed Professorship

The entire Mathematics Department at Brandeis feels grateful and deeply honored by the recent gift by Bonnie Berger ’83, a former Brandeis trustee and the Simons Professor of Mathematics at MIT, and her husband, Dr. Tom Leighton, Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT and CEO and cofounder of Akamai Technologies. This gift is very timely for the Mathematics department, as they are experiencing a generational transition, and look to attract a new generation of scholars that will help shape the direction and reputation of the department for the next decades.

The Brandeis Mathematics Department has an illustrious history, and many prominent mathematicians have flourished at Brandeis. The Berger-Leighton Endowed Professorship will be a crucial tool to renew this tradition of excellence. They will aim at hiring new faculty of the highest caliber, which will serve as anchors for future research groups within the department and beyond.

Brandeis prides itself in having a faculty body that both radiates internationally and takes good care of its students internally. The Mathematics department is a prime example of this aspiration, and they are excited that the Berger-Leighton Endowed Professorship will help them achieve this vision. The first recipient of the Endowed Professorship will be hired this year. The department has an abundance of exceptional candidates. They are looking forward to welcoming a new colleague soon, and helping them bloom and become an influential mathematician.

Additional information: Brandeis Alumni, Friends and Families