Last Sunday, Feb. 23rd, our department hosted an Eastern Regional MATHCOUNTS competition. 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 around 150 middle school students (mathletes) registered to compete from 15 middle schools. In addition to the competition itself, the day featured a welcome message from the CLAS Dean, an engaging presentation by Alexandra Hain (Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, https://cee.engr.uconn.edu/people/hain-alexandra), and a trivia competition organized by our PhD students. The event would not be possible without many volunteers including
Jake Brown,
Andrew DeLapo,
Chinmay Dharmendra,
Caylee Spivey
Alec Wendland,
Keith Conrad,
Griff Elder,
Mihai Fulger,
Nicole Massarelli,
Ian Hoffman, and
members of UConn Alpha Phi Omega, and UConn Math office members.
News
Paper co-authored by Professor Damin Wu wins 2025 Frontiers of Science Award
The paper “Negative holomorphic curvature and positive canonical bundle,” by Damin Wu and Shing-Tung Yau, which was published in Inventiones Mathematicae, has been selected by the International Congress of Basic Science, as a recipient of the 2025 Frontiers of Science Award.
Tomastik Prize launched by the AMS
Professor Lan-Hsuan Huang Awarded Simons Fellowship
Professor Lan-Hsuan Huanghas been awarded a prestigious Simons Fellowship in 2025 by the Simons Foundation.
According to the foundation website, these prestigious awards are based on the applicant’s scientific accomplishments in the five-year period preceding the application and on the potential scientific impact of the work to be done during the leave period.
Professor Huang joins a select group of individuals to be awarded a second Simons Fellowship, having won it previously in 2018.
Associate Professor Ling Xiao awarded the Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize by the AWM
The Association for Women in Mathematics has awarded our colleague Ling Xiao the Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize for 2025-2026. In an email, the AWM stated:
The Association for Women in Mathematics is pleased to announce that the 2025-2026 Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize has been awarded to Ling Xiao, Associate Professor of mathematics at the University of Connecticut. Xiao has been selected to receive the Michler Prize for her research accomplishments in geometric analysis and partial differential equations. Professor Xiao will spend an upcoming semester visiting Cornell.
Congratulations to Ling!
The UConn Math Department will host 2025 Spring Eastern AMS Sectional Meeting
Professor Guozhen Lu elected to CT Academy of the Arts and Sciences
Professor Guozhen Lu was elected to the Connecticut Academy of the Arts and Sciences (CAAS) with membership commencing in 2023-2024 academic year. The CAAS was founded in 1799 and is the third-oldest learned society in the United States. Its purpose is the dissemination of scholarly information. For the past 200 years, the Academy has fulfilled this mission through lectures and extensive publications such as Memoirs and Transactions of the Academy that started in 1810. Monthly presentations during the academic year (September-May) provide an opportunity for both the lay person and scholar to hear distinguished speakers discuss current work in the sciences, arts, and humanities.
UConn Mathematics Awarded GAANN Fellowship Grant from US Department of Education
The UConn Mathematics Department has been awarded a GAANN grant (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) from the Department of Education. The grant will provide five fellowships per year for three years to graduate students with excellent records who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics at UConn, a field designated as an area of national need.
Professor Guozhen Lu named Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics
Professor Guozhen Lu has been named a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics. The citation for Guozhen says this honor is:
For his sustained support and service to AWM, mentorship of early and mid-career female scientists, and advocacy in the career advancement of talented female mathematicians, including recognition in the form of honors and awards.
Congratulations, Guozhen!
As described on the AWM website, the AWM Fellows Program recognizes members who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to the support and advancement of women in the mathematical sciences, consistent with the AWM mission: “to create a community in which women and girls can thrive in their mathematical endeavors, and to promote equitable opportunity and treatment of women and others of marginalized genders and gender identities across the mathematical sciences.”
This is the first time a member of the UConn Mathematics Department’s faculty has been named a Fellow of the AWM. Guozhen was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Class of 2023) earlier this year and is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (Class of 2018).
For more about Guozhen recent appointments see our news section. Please also see UConn Today.
Professor Guozhen Lu appointed Editor-in-Chief of Forum Mathematicum
Guozhen Lu has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Forum Mathematicum, a premier journal in general mathematics.
Dr. Lu is currently also the Editor-in-Chief of Advanced Nonlinear Studies, a major journal in Nonlinear Analysis, Partial Differential Equations and Calculus of Variations, as well as Editor-in-Chief of the de Gruyter flagship book series Studies in Mathematics.
In addition, Dr. Lu has served on the editorial boards of multiple mathematical journals, including the general mathematical journal Bulletin des Sciences Mathematiques (also known as Darboux journal founded by Gaston Darboux in 1870), one of the oldest mathematical journals currently still in existence.