Tag Mathematics
Two UW–Madison faculty among 2023 Sloan Research Fellows
Being honored are Andrew Buller, assistant professor of chemistry, and Jose Israel Rodriguez, assistant professor of mathematics.
American Physical Society names four UW faculty fellows
Four University of Wisconsin–Madison professors have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society, recognizing advances in physics through original research and publication, significant and innovative applications of physics, and leadership, service and contributions to the teaching of physics.
UW mourns an important mathematician and beloved mentor
Georgia Benkart, emeritus professor of mathematics, died unexpectedly on April 29. “Each of her papers was a polished gem,” a colleague says of Benkart. Among many professional distinctions, she served as president of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 2009–11.
Researchers videotape hundreds of classrooms in 8 countries to study teaching
Essential to the study’s success are observation systems designed by Courtney Bell, a UW–Madison learning sciences professor who directs the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Math research produces better way to identify gerrymandering
UW mathematicians are analyzing how algorithms, not just maps, are used to gerrymander political districts. They hope to expose techniques that politicians might use to create biased districts, and use that knowledge to prevent it.
UW–Madison engineering alum awarded prominent fellowship
Bailey Flanigan is a 2019 recipient of the prestigious Hertz Fellowship for young researchers. Eleven fellows were awarded as much as $250,000, allowing them to pursue innovative lines of research.
UW–Madison mathematicians named Simons Fellows
Andreas Seeger, Autumn Kent and Gheorghe Craciun are among 48 distinguished scientists named to the fellowships, which will help them “focus solely on research for the long periods often necessary for significant advances.”
Millar was math professor, noted UW–Madison research administrator
Terry Millar, who died March 9, was one of the world’s foremost researchers in computable model theory, and is remembered by UW colleagues as a mathematician with a mind that never hit pause.
Swimming microbes steer themselves into mathematical order
The movement of crowds of things too small to easily see — like single-celled organisms and filaments inside individual cells responsible for cell-division — is critically important to research in materials science, engineering and biochemistry.
Two UW–Madison researchers awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships
Sloan Research Fellowships are given to promising young researchers in the early stages of their careers. UW–Madison’s 2019 Sloan Fellows are mathematics professors Mihaela Ifrim and Botong Wang.
Unraveling threads of bizarre hagfish’s explosive slime
Jean-Luc Thiffeault, a University of Wisconsin–Madison math professor, and collaborators Randy Ewoldt and Gaurav Chaudhary of the University of Illinois have modeled the hagfish’s gag-inducing defense mechanism mathematically.
Brady or Rodgers: UW math professor to tell national TV audience who’s greater
Sometimes math professors find themselves in surprising places. Look for UW–Madison's Jordan Ellenberg in the national broadcast of the Nov. 4 match-up between the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football.
Breaking ground with Grace
Grace Wahba, who retired in August, was the first female faculty member in the Department of Statistics at UW–Madison. Her work centered on the extraction of information from large data sets, particularly in the medical field.
Professor’s innovations changed how children learn math
Emeritus professor Tom Carpenter, whose student-centered ideas about teaching math to young children from all backgrounds and skill levels helped transform the field of mathematics education, died Aug. 7
UW mathematician on NOVA
Appearing on the PBS program "Nova," UW–Madison professor and math expert Jordan Ellenberg explains how understanding simple facts about probability can help people in their everyday lives. "Prediction by the Numbers" airs Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. CST.
UW-Madison researchers tackle bias in algorithms
If you’ve ever applied for a loan or checked your credit score, algorithms have played a role in your life. You might assume that computers remove human bias from decision-making, but research has shown that is not true.
Women in the math department find strength in numbers
More female mathematicians teach, mentor and conduct research at UW–Madison than at nearly any other major math department in the country.
Professor: Use math to pick your bracket winners. Really.
It's more than picking the teams with the most ferocious mascots. When picking your brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament, Engineering Professor Laura Albert McLay says you can use math. The Markov Chain, for instance. Also, she spins a pretty mean basketball.
Video: I calculate, therefore I am: Mixing math and philosophy
By double majoring in math and philosophy, Hannah DeBrine says she learns both kinds of truth: Logical truth, and individual people's truth. Even if a good philosophy class ends with more confusion than it started with.
Squished cells could shape design of synthetic materials
Nobody knew what would happen if something soft and squishy like a synthetic vesicle got into the mix.