Professor Jiawang Nie was one of 25 members recognized by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for their outstanding research and service to the community.  Professor Nie was recognized for contributions to optimization, tensor computation, truncated moment problems, and convex algebraic geometry.

Congratulations to Mathematics PhD student Johnny (Jingze) Li on his selection for the 2026 Barbara and Paul Saltman Excellent Teaching Award for Graduate Students.  Johnny's research is in the emergent phenomenon of artificial and biological neural networks.  He has taught for both the Mathematics and Bioengineering departments in a wide variety of courses as TA and as Associate Instructor for lower-division Differential Equations.

Join us in congratulating Dimitri Dine, who has been awarded a Jane Street Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF)  for 2026-2027. Dimitri is one of nine recipients of the fellowship.

The Jane Street GRF is open to students in the U.S., Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand, and supports exceptional doctoral students currently pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science, mathematics, physics, or statistics. It is a highly selective award. 

Dimitri  is pursuing his Ph.D. in Mathematics at UC San Diego and is advised by Kiran Kedlaya. His research area is non-archimedean geometry, which studies questions at the intersection of algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory by using methods from nonarchimedean analysis. In his research, he seeks to establish new connections between algebraic and metric properties in nonarchimedean Banach rings, combining the points of view of nonarchimedean analysis and commutative algebra. On the geometric side, he studies foundational questions in the theory of adic spaces, such as their formal models. 

More information about the award may be found at https://www.janestreet.com/join-jane-street/programs-and-events/grf-profiles-2026/

Assistant Professor Morris Ang has received the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability 2026 New Researcher Award in Probability Theory. The Bernoulli Society was founded in 1975 as a Section of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Established in 1885, the ISI is one of the oldest scientific associations operating in the modern world.

The Bernoulli Society supports the advancement of the sciences of probability (including stochastic processes) and mathematical statistics and of their applications to all those aspects of human endeavour which are directed towards the increase of natural knowledge and the welfare of mankind.

Morris Ang received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2022. He then spent two years at Columbia University as a Junior Fellow of the Simons Society of Fellows before joining the faculty at UC San Diego in 2024. Ang’s research interests are in Probability Theory, especially random conformal geometry: Schramm‑Loewner evolution, Liouville quantum gravity, random planar maps, and conformal field theories.

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our colleague Benedict (“Dick”) Gross on December 19, 2025.

Benedict Gross was a distinguished and profoundly influential number theorist, best known for the Gross–Zagier theorem on the L-functions of elliptic curves, as well as numerous other fundamental contributions to algebraic number theory, representation theory, and arithmetic geometry. His many honors included a MacArthur Fellowship (1986), the Cole Prize in Algebra (1987), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992), the National Academy of Sciences (2004), and the American Philosophical Society (2017).

After spending most of his mathematical career as a professor at Harvard University (1985–2015), Dick joined the UCSD Department of Mathematics, where he taught several inspiring graduate courses and played an important role in the research life of our department, particularly within our number theory group. Dick was a generous mentor to students and junior faculty, widely admired for his charisma, depth and clarity of thought, intellectual generosity, and unyielding commitment to the mathematical community.

Benedict Gross will be deeply missed by the number theory community and the broader mathematical world. For more than four decades, he shaped the field through profound mathematical contributions and exceptional dedication as a teacher, mentor, leader, and colleague. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, Professor of Medicine Jill Mesirov, his sons Sam and Isaac, and his three grandsons.

While we develop more material for our website, please refer to the tribute posted by Harvard University:

https://www.math.harvard.edu/in-memory-of-professor-emeritus-benedict-gross/

We are pleased to announce that David Gao has been awarded the 2025-2026 Physical Sciences Dean's Graduate Award for Academic Excellence, a prestigious program established to support early-career scholars demonstrating exceptional research promise. 

The fellowship provides one-time funding to advance impactful research and help recipients accelerate their academic and professional growth.

The Department of Mathematics Front Desk will be closed for Winter Break starting on Thursday 12/18/25. We will reopen on Monday 1/5/26.

Congratulations to Sofia Tkachenko, recipient of the 2025-2025 Silagi Undergraduate Award! Please join us in celebrating this outstanding achievement.

Congratulations to our 16 undergraduate math majors who have been named among the recipients of the 2025-2026 Physical Sciences Dean’s Undergraduate Awards for Excellence!

The recipients are (in no particular order):

1. Chia-Lun Tsao
2. Kenji Gunawan
3. Eric Jung
4. Sahith Edula
5. He, Yifan
6. Maya Chang
7. Hoffman, Michael
8. Charles R. Chen
9. Jack Determan
10. Ryan Batubara
11. Gexiang Zhang
12. Yimeng Yin
13. Scarlett Chen
14. Marco Bazzani
15. Gavin Zhang
16. David Stephens