Chair’s MessageGreetings! I am happy to share this edition of theTemple mathematics newsletter, which coversthe news, research and events during 2015.

Our faculty members continue to be recognizedand honored for their contributions tomathematical research and to the mathematicscommunity. Our undergraduate and graduateprograms continue to grow. New for this year, we hosted both an undergraduate mathematicsconference and a graduate student conference in algebra and geometry.

We also all survived an extensive remodeling of our home, Wachman Hall.

Once again I want to thank colleagues, studentsand staff for all of their hard work.

I wish you all well in the year ahead.

Best regards,

Ed LetzterProfessor and Chair, Department of Mathematics

New Faculty from MIT and Germany focus onnoncommutative algebra and computation-based neuroscience

Associate Professor S. Gillian Queisser and Assistant ProfessorChelsea Walton joined the Mathematics Department in July 2015.

Chelsea Walton: Algebraic approaches to quantum symmetry

Chelsea Walton, Selma Lee Bloch Brown(tenure track) Assistant Professor, studiesnoncommutative algebra, with a specialfocus on quantum symmetries.

Symmetry is a classical notion that arisesin biology, architecture, music and manyother fields. Classically, symmetries areobserved, yet in the quantum settingobservability is rather unintuitive and somust be studied indirectly. Walton’scontributions to this field include thestudy of quantum symmetries (or lackthereof) on commutative domains, Weylalgebras, “Artin-Schelter regular”algebras, and path algebras.

Walton also has made contributions in noncommutative algebraic geometry, afield that is especially useful for analyzing noncommutative algebras whoseorigins lie in physics. In collaboration with Susan J. Sierra, University ofEdinburgh, Walton answered a 23-year-old problem of C. Dean and L. W.Small concerning the noetherianity of enveloping algebras of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras.

Walton, whose research is funded by the National Science Foundation, came toTemple from MIT, where she was an NSF postdoctoral fellow and C.L.E. MooreInstructor. Prior to that she was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University ofWashington-Seattle. She completed her doctoral work at the University ofMichigan-Ann Arbor and the University of Manchester, UK. She is originallyfrom Detroit, Michigan.

S. Gillian Queisser: Applying mathematics to neuroscience

Associate Professor S. Gillian Queisser’s research interests include numericsand scientific computing, high-performance computing and applications to thelife sciences. His primary research goal is to move the frontiers of computation-based neuroscience toward a discipline driven by physical first principles,numerical methods and large scale simulations.

Assistant Professor Chelsea Walton

MATHEMATICSUPDATEWINTER 2016

College of Science and Technology

Support Mathematics

There are many opportunities tocontribute to the continued success of the Department of Mathematics. You can support student scholarships,faculty endowment and innovativeprograms.

To learn more about how you canimpact the department’s future and the future of our graduates, pleasecontact John Walker, associate vice dean, at 215-204-8176 orjohn.walker@temple.edu

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New PhDsScott Ladenheim, May 2015. His thesis, Constraint preconditioning for saddlepoint problems, was completed under the guidance of Professor DanielSzyld. Ladenheim is now a postdoctoral research associate in the School ofComputer Science at the University of Manchester, U.K.

Christian Millichap, May 2015. His thesis, Mutations and geometric invariantsof hyperbolic 3-manifolds, was completed with his advisor, AssociateProfessor David Futer. Millichap is now a tenure-track assistant professorof mathematics at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Brian Paljug, May 2015. His thesis, Deformation complexes for algebraicoperads and their applications, was completed under the direction ofAssociate Professor Vasily Dolgushev.

Ahmad Sabra, July 2015. Sabra’s thesis, Nonlinear partial differentialequations and optical surfaces design, was completed under the direction ofProfessor Cristian Gutierrez. Sabra now holds a postdoctoral researchposition in the Faculty of Mathematics, Infomatics, and Mechanics,Warsaw Center of Mathematics and Computer Science, University ofWarsaw, Poland.

Matthew Lagro, July 2015. Lagro’s thesis, A Perron-Frobenius type of theoremfor quantum operations, was completed under the guidance of ProfessorWei-Shih Yang.

Ahmad Sabra selected young researcher at Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Ahmed Sabra, PhD ’15, was selected to participate as a young researcher atthe 2015 Heidelberg Laureate Forum in August. The participatinglaureates were all winners of the Abel Prize, Fields Medal or TuringAward. The goal of the forum is to foster interaction between laureatesand young researchers.

Graduate students’ summerresearch travelsFarhan Abedin attended the Mathematical SciencesResearch Institute, Berkeley, Summer SchoolIncompressible Fluid Flows at High Reynolds Number,July 27 to Aug. 7.

Hussein Awala participated in the 6th Symposium onAnalysis and PDEs in June at Purdue University and inthe NSF-CBMS Regional Conference in theMathematical Sciences in July at North Dakota StateUniversity.

Hussein Awala and Luca Palluchini participated in the8th Workshop on Geometric Analysis of PDEs andSeveral Complex Variables in August in Serra Negra,Brazil.

Naeyong Kong participated in the Centre deMathématiques-Pacific Institute for MathematicalSciences Summer School in Probability at McGillUniversity between June 15 and July 11.

Kathryn Lund-Nguyen was a summer intern inGraduate-Level Research in Industrial Projects forStudents (GRIPS)-Berlin 2015.

Thomas Ng attended the Mathematical SciencesResearch Institute (Berkeley) Summer SchoolGeometric Group Theory in June.

Eric Stachura attended the Summer School on CurrentTopics in Mathematical Physics in August at FedericoSanta María Technical University in Viña del Mar,Chile.

Mathematics students win College of Science and Technologyawards

GRADUATE STUDENTAhmad Sabra: College Research Award.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTSMatthew Berardi: Scott Hibbs Memorial Award

Christopher W. Copple Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics: Andrew Schneider, Matthew Berardi

Francis James and Helen C. Sholomskas Award forOutstanding Students: Giovanni Adiletta, Patricia Anderson,John Edwardson, Jr., Louis Graup, Kyle Nardi, Daniel Reich,Emily Wetzel-Ulrich

Phyllis Zayon Steinberg Memorial Award in Mathematics:Mark Mikida

Most promising Mathematics Major Award: Fiona Galzarano, Nirali Patel

Student and postdoctoralteaching and serviceawards

The winners of the 2015 Department ofMathematics student and postdoctoralteaching and service awards were:

• Excellence in Teaching for aPostdoctoral Assistant Professor:Sunnie Joshi

• Excellence in Teaching for a GraduateTeaching Assistant: Matthew Lagro

• Graduate Student Service Award:Christian Millichap

• Undergraduate Student Service Award:Sarah Munson; Louis Graup, Mia Hunsicker and Seth Epstein

STUDENT AWARDS

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NEW RESEARCH GRANTSVasiliy Dolgushev• Questions on Algebraic Operads and RelatedStructures, NSF

David Futer• Connections in Low-Dimensional Topology,

NSF

Yury Grabovsky• Linear and Non-Linear Elasticity: Study ofExact Relations and Instabilities, NSF

Isaac Klapper and Daniel B. Szyld• Collaborative Research: Connecting Omics toPhysical and Chemical Environment inCommunity Microbial Ecology, NSF

Martin W. Lorenz• Noncommutative and Commutative InvariantTheory, National Security Agency

Irina Mitrea• Geometric Measure Theory and Higher OrderElliptic Problems, Simons Foundation

Brian Rider• Limit Laws Arising in Random Matrix Theory,

NSF

Benjamin Seibold• CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research:Control of Vehicular Traffic Flow via LowDensity Autonomous Vehicles, NSF

Daniel B. Szyld• Multiple Preconditioners for Saddle-Pointand Other Problems, NSF

Chelsea Walton• Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry andNoncommutative Invariant Theory, NSF

Since computational methods in neuroscience are currently based onanalogies, rather than detailed physical models, Queisser and his researchgroup use and develop numerical methods for large-scale computing toanalyze continuum-based models of three-dimensional neuronal processes onintricate morphologies.

Queisser is also currently extending his interdisciplinary approach to “virtualmedicine” by coupling electrical, biochemical and mechanical processes—andby developing efficient numerical methods—to help transform medical

procedures from anexperience-governeddiscipline to anoptimized andindividualizedprocess.

Queisser completedhis PhD in 2008 at the Ruprecht-KarlsUniversity ofHeidelberg, where hewas also a researchassociate at theSimulation inTechnology Research

Group. From 2008 to 2010, he also was the independent research group leaderof that university’s Computational Neuroscience Research Group at theCluster of Excellence CellNetworks. From then until he joined Temple this past summer, he was a W-1 professor in the Goethe University of Frankfurt’sDepartment of Computer Science and Mathematics. His research has beensupported by the CellNetworks Cluster of Excellence and the German FederalMinistry of Education and Research.

UNDERGRADUATERESEARCHERSSeveral undergraduates have participated inmathematics research through CST’sUndergraduate Research Program. They includeJames Fitzgerald (mentored by GerardoMendoza), Louis Graup (mentored by BenjaminSeibold), Abe Lyle (Yury Grabovsky), Hansen Pei(Yury Grabovsky), Daniel Reich (Chelsea Walton),Yeahuay Wu (Matthew Stover), Patrick Wynne(Yury Grabovsky). Fitzgerald's poster in the CSTresearch symposium was awarded 3rd place.

New faculty hires continued from page 1

Berhanu elected AMS fellowProfessor Shiferaw Berhanu has been elected tothe 2016 class of Fellows of the AmericanMathematical Society. He will be officiallyinducted at the annual Joint MathematicsMeetings in Seattle. The Fellows of theAmerican Mathematical Society programrecognizes members who have madeoutstanding contributions to the creation,exposition, advancement, communication andutilization of mathematics.

He will be joining two other department facultymembers who were elected AMS fellows for the2015 class: Irina Mitrea and Igor Rivin.

Faculty honorsAssociate Professor David Futer has been named the 2015-16 Elinor LunderFounders’ Circle Member of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Professor Irina Mitrea was awarded an Association for Women inMathematics Service Award at the AWM Reception and Awards Presentationin January at the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, Texas. Shealso won the 2014 College of Science and Technology Dean’s DistinguishedExcellence in Mentoring Award.

Benjamin Seibold was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professorby the Temple University Board of Trustees, effective July 1, 2015.

Assistant Professor (Instructional) Elena Ya Vishik won the 2014 CST Dean’sDistinguished Teaching Award.

Professor Shiferaw Berhanu

Associate Professor Gillian Queisser

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Past Events• Last April, Temple hosted the Philadelphia Undergraduate Mathematics Conference Series.

Over 70 undergraduates, graduate students and faculty participated. Undergraduates gavetalks on their mathematical research, and there was a poster session for undergraduate andgraduate students.

The plenary lecture, Integration using Algebraic Topology was delivered by Robert Ghrist,Andrea Mitchell University Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Department ofElectrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. A mini-course,“Analysis and Statistics in Number Theory”, was presented by Austin Daughton, PhD ’12.There also was also a session on professional development.

The conference was organized by Professor Irina Mitrea, Associate Professor (Instructional)Maria Lorenz and Assistant Professor (Instructional) Ellen Panofsky. The series wassupported, in part, by the National Science Foundation through the MathematicalAssociation of America’s Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences program.

• Last May, Temple hosted the two-day Graduate Student Conference in Algebra, Geometry,and Topology. There were approximately 85 student participants. The conference featured 30-minute research talks by graduate students and four keynote lecturers: Julie Bergner of the University of California, Riverside; Jessica Purcell of Brigham Young University; ChelseaWalton of MIT/Temple University; and Daniel Wise of McGill University.

The event was supported by the Department of Mathematics, the College of Science andTechnology, the Temple University Graduate School and an NSF conference grant on whichMillichap was the PI and Futer and Paljug were co-PIs.

• The department hosted its fourth annual Mid-Atlantic Numerical Analysis Day. Theseconferences are aimed at graduate and postdoctoral researchers from the region, who presentshort talks and participate in the poster session. The keynote talk was delivered by EitanTadmor, Center for Scientific Computation and Mathematical Modeling and Department ofMathematics, University of Maryland, College Park. The event was organized by AssociateProfessor Benjamin Seibold and Professor Daniel Szyld.

K-12 OutreachLast year, the department again hosted two of its most popular initiatives for K-12 students.The fourth Mathematics Circle for middle-school students was fully enrolled within 24 hours.The free program's organizers included Professor Irina Mitrea, Associate Professor(Instructional) Maria Lorenz and Assistant Professor (Instructional) Ellen Panofsky and Temple math graduate student Christian Millichap.

The department also organized its fourth-annual Sonia Kovalesky Day. Fifty-eight youngwomen in grades 5 through 8 participated. The event was organized by Mitrea with co-organizer Professor Maria Lorenz.

Faculty Notes

Professor Shiferaw Berhanuserved on the ScientificCommittee for the 8th Workshopon Geometric Analysis of PDEsand Several Complex Variables inAugust in Serra Negra, Brazil.Professor Berhanu was also PI on an NSF conference grantsupporting the workshop; he andProfessors Gerardo Mendoza and Irina Mitrea were among the main lecturers.

Associate Professor David Futerco-organized the “Classical andquantum hyperbolic geometryand topology” conference held in July in Orsay, France. Theconference honored the eminentgeometer Francis Bonohan. Futerwas also a co-PI on the NSF grantsupporting the conference.

Professor Daniel Szyld has beennamed editor-in-chief of theSociety for Industrial and AppliedMathematics’ Journal of MatrixAnalysis and Applications.

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