News

Math faculty receive University teaching awards

Math department faculty were stars at a glittering ceremony held on April 11, 2023, for the Annual Teaching Excellence Awards.

The winners from our department were:

David McArdle – Teaching Fellow Award
Anthony Rizzie – Teaching Innovation Award
William Schwendner – Outstanding Adjunct Teaching Award
Ningwei Jiang – Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award

Congratulations to all!

For a complete list of all awards from the 2023 ceremony, see the program.

Prof. Guozhen Lu Awarded Simons Fellowship

Professor Guozhen Lu has been awarded a prestigious Simons Fellowship in 2023 by the Simons Foundation for his project “Multiparameter harmonic analysis, Helgason-Fourier analysis on hyperbolic and symmetric spaces and sharp geometric and functional inequalities”.

Professor Guozhen Lu, portrait

According to the foundation website, these 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 Lu joins a select group of individuals to be awarded a second Simons Fellowship, having received it previously in 2015. The full list of 2023 awardees is available here.

Professor Lu will use this fellowship to visit collaborators and to continue his work with them and with his PhD students on geometric and functional inequalities, harmonic analysis and PDEs on hyperbolic and symmetric spaces.

2023 MATHCOUNTS Competition

On Saturday, February 11th 2023, the Department of Mathematics hosted the Eastern Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition.

The event was sponsored by UConn’s AMS, AWM and SIAM student chapters, UConn’s Department of Mathematics and the CLAS. 109 middle school students from 20 schools participated in the competition, with 12 proceeding to the state competition in March.

In addition to the competition, a trivia on UConn and mathematics was organized by Anthony Rizzie and Katie Hall, and Sarira Motaref, Associate Professor in Residence, Civil and Environmental Engineering, gave a presentation What do engineers do?. The event was coordinated by Anthony Rizzie, with Katie Hall, Masha Gordina and Mihai Fulger participation.

Graduate students Michael Albert,PJ Apruzzese, Rachel Bailey, Da Huo, Ningwei Jiang, Daniel Mourad, Kim Savinon, Caylee Spivey were instrumental to the smooth running of the competition. UConn’s Alpha Phi Omega proctored the competition. The Master of ceremonies was Doug Perkins, the enrichment teacher at the Mansfield Middle School.

We are looking forward to hosting the 2024 MATHCOUNTS competition!