News

Xiaodong Yan Named Head of the Department of Mathematics

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The Department of Mathematics is pleased to announce that Professor Xiaodong Yan has been appointed Head of the Department of Mathematics, effective August 23, 2026 for a five-year term.

Professor Yan joined the UConn Mathematics Department in 2007 and has played a central role in the department’s academic and administrative life. During her time at UConn, she has served in several leadership positions, including Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Department Head, helping to strengthen the department’s educational programs and research enterprise.

Professor Yan’s mathematical work covers nonlinear PDEs, calculus of variations, problems arising from materials science, among other areas.  She has mentored graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior faculty. Her dedication to excellence in research, teaching, and service has earned the respect of colleagues both within UConn and in the broader mathematical community.

As Department Head, Professor Yan will lead the department in advancing its missions of research, education, and public engagement.

Congratulations to  Professor Yan on her appointment!

Kyu-Hwan Lee and collaborators solve outstanding problem in Galois theory

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Professor Kyu-Hwan Lee, together with Xiaoyu Huang, Blake Jackson, Bjorn Poonen, Rachel Pries, and Shaowu Zhang, has resolved a long-standing case of the inverse Galois problem by proving that the Mathieu group M23M_{23} occurs as a Galois group over the rational numbers. Their paper,“The Mathieu Group M23M_{23} Is a Galois Group over Q\mathbb{Q}“, establishes the final missing sporadic simple group as a Galois group over Q\mathbb{Q}.The result is especially significant because M23M_{23} was the last of the 26 sporadic finite simple groups not previously known to arise as a Galois group over the rational numbers. During the 1980s, mathematicians succeeded in realizing the other 25 sporadic groups, but the M23M_{23} case resisted repeated attempts for decades. Lee and his collaborators have now completed this program.

The authors construct an explicit degree-23 polynomial with rational coefficients whose splitting field has Galois group M23M_{23}. To achieve this, they combine techniques from algebraic geometry, number theory, and computational mathematics, constructing an explicit regular Galois extension of Q(t)\mathbb{Q}(t) with Galois group M23M_{23}.

This breakthrough resolves an outstanding problem in inverse Galois theory.

Paper: The Mathieu Group M23M_{23} Is a Galois Group over Q\mathbb{Q} [arxiv.org]

 

Ovidiu Munteanu Coauthors AMS Monograph on Ricci Solitons

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Professor Ovidiu Munteanu has coauthored a new book, Ricci Solitons in Dimension 4 and Higher, published in the prestigious Mathematical Surveys and Monographs series of the American Mathematical Society. The 395-page volume, written by Bennett Chow, Ovidiu Munteanu, and Brett Kotschwar, presents the fundamental concepts, constructions, techniques, and major results in the study of Ricci flows and Ricci solitons.  The Ricci flow, introduced by Richard Hamilton and famously used by Grigori Perelman in the proof of the Poincaré Conjecture, has become one of the central tools in modern geometric analysis.

As the authors explain in the Preface:

“The purpose of this book is to present an organized collection of results for Ricci solitons in dimensions 4 and higher and to advertise some related open questions whose resolutions would help to advance the theory. Our primary focus will be to present a coherent theory in dimension 4, where applications to topology appear most promising.”

The monograph provides a comprehensive treatment of the rapidly developing theory of Ricci solitons, bringing together foundational results, current methods, and important open problems. By focusing especially on four-dimensional manifolds, the book highlights connections between geometric analysis and topology and serves as a valuable reference for researchers and graduate students working in differential geometry and related fields.

Congratulations to Professor Munteanu on this significant publication!

UConn Math Awards Day 2026

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Wednesday, April 22, we gathered to celebrate our students, both undergraduate and graduate, at the annual Awards Day ceremony. Seventeen awards were made at the event. From the induction of PME society students to awards for graduate students, it was a joyful afternoon, with delicious refreshments served. Thanks to all who helped made this event so successful, and special thanks to Rachel D’Antonio for her role over many weeks in putting the entire event together.
This year’s student awards included new ones: the Ezell undergraduate and graduate awards. The graduate award went to Anh Do and the undergraduate award winner was Srijan Raghunath.

Graduate Research Forum 2026 held on May 2

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On Saturday, May 2, 2026,  the 2026 Graduate Research Forum was held to showcase and celebrate our graduate students’ accomplishments.  Eleven PhD-candidate speakers as well as one of our PhD-alumni presented talks on their research work, demonstrating the wide spectrum of our department’s research activities. The audience included graduate and undergraduate students as well as many of our colleagues. The atmosphere was cheerful, and a good time was had by all.   The event was sponsored by the UConn Math Department’s Mathematical Sciences Research Collaboratory and the Graduate Program.  

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Amit Savkar receives Provost Award for Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship

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Professor Amit Savkar has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Provost Awards for Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Distinguished Faculty Teaching category. 
 
This award is given to faculty who have demonstrated significant individual contributions to the local community, state, nation, or world through distinguished University community-engaged scholarship. 

UConn Math Department hosts Eastern Regional MATHCOUNTS competition

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The UConn Math Department hosted our fourth-annual Eastern Connecticut MATHCOUNTS competition on Saturday, February 21, 2026. This is an official part of the National MATHCOUNTS competition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathcounts). We have hosted the Eastern Connecticut Regional competition for several years now, and it has been supported by the Department of Mathematics and UConn’s CLAS. This year we had more than 100 middle school students (mathletes) registered to compete from 13 middle schools. In addition to the competition itself, the day featured a welcome message from the CLAS Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Initiatives, Derek Houston, and a presentation by UConn’s PhD alum, Lisa Naples, Fairfield University, and a trivia competition. The event would not be possible without many volunteers from the Math Department and members of UConn’s Alpha Phi Omega.