Welcome to the UCLA Department of Mathematics

  • In memoriam: Leo Sario, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, 1916 – 2009
    Professor Emeritus Leo Sario died of a heart attack at his Santa Monica home on August 15, 2009. He was 93. In Finland during World War II, Sario was recognized as an excellent teacher and officer who made key contributions to the defense of the country, all while diligently pursuing his mathematical studies. After the war, Sario received his PhD under Rolf Nevanlinna and helped to establish the National Academy of Finland. Moving to the U.S. in the 1950s, he worked at Princeton, MIT, Stanford and finally UCLA, from which he retired in 1986. Sario created the theory of principal functions and wrote five major books including Riemann Surfaces with Lars Ahlfors, Classification Theory of Riemann Surfaces with M. Nakai, and Principal Functions with Burton Rodin. He also published over 130 research papers and mentored 36 doctoral students. To read a full account of Leo Sario’s life and accomplishments and a tribute by Burt Rodin, click here.


  • International Congress of Mathematicians 2010 Preview of Invited Talks

    ICM 2010 will showcase a spectacular spate of invited talks for department faculty. Applied mathematician Stanley Osher leads the way with an invitation to give a plenary address which will be on new algorithms in information science. Fellow UCLA Math colleagues Paul Balmer, Chandrashekhar Khare, Dimitri Shlyakhtenko, and Benjamin Sudakov are invited lecturers in algebra, number theory, functional analysis, and combinatorics, respectively. UCLA Math alum and IPAM science advisory board chair Peter W. Jones will also give a plenary address. The congress will be held in Hyderabad, India, August 19 – 27, 2010.


  • UCLA Math Student-Athlete Alterraun Verner Tackles Football and Proofs

    Alterraun Verner
    Watch Bruin senior star cornerback and mathematics-applied science major Alterraun Verner talk about the rewards of tackling quarterbacks on the field and math proofs off the field in My Big UCLA Moment. Verner was named to the pre-season “Watch List” for the Lott Trophy and is a two-time Pac-10 All-Academic team player.






  • Sorin Popa Accepts UCLA Mathematics Department Chairmanship

    Sorin Popa
    Effective July 1, 2009, Professor Sorin Popa assumes the position of chair of the UCLA Department of Mathematics. A professor at UCLA since 1987, Popa is a world-leading researcher in the areas of functional analysis, operator algebras, subfactor theory, and ergodic theory. His honors include a Guggenheim fellowship in 1995 and two invited addresses at the International Congress of Mathematicians, most recently in 2006 as plenary speaker. He has frequently held visiting positions in France, and from 1996 - 1998 was professor at the University of Geneva. Acting Dean Joseph Rudnick of the Division of Physical Sciences is enthusiastic about Popa's appointment and praises outgoing chair Professor Christoph Thiele for the impressive strides the department has made during his three year tenure, expressing his belief that Thiele will be “remembered as one of the great chairs of your department, indeed the campus.” Congratulations to Professor Thiele for his extraordinary service and best of luck to Professor Popa in his new role.


  • NSF Awards Major Training Grants to UCLA Math
    Effective July 1, 2009, the UCLA Department of Mathematics will be awarded two major Research Training Groups (RTG) grants from the National Science Foundation, one in algebra/number theory and the other in analysis. The RTG grants are part of the NSF initiative to enhance the mathematical sciences workforce in the 21st century and will fund numerous departmental programs, as well as provide support for graduate students, undergraduates and postdocs.


  • UCLA Math Prof Joseph Teran Talks Virtual Surgery on YouTube
    For a peek in to next generation surgery powered by mathematics, visit Xbox + math = virtual surgery.


  • UCLA Math PhD Awarded Clay Liftoff Fellowship

    Victor Lie
    The Clay Mathematics Institute has named UCLA Mathematics PhD Victor Lie as a 2009 Clay Liftoff fellow. Lie will complete his thesis "Relational time-frequency analysis" under Professor Christoph Thiele in June and is widely known in the field for his paper "The (weak-L2) Boundedness of the Quadratic Carleson Operator." Lie will use the Liftoff award this summer at the University of Chicago then assume a three-year Veblen Research Instructorship, which is a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. The Clay Liftoff Fellowships are awarded to young mathematicians who have demonstrated mathematical research of quality and significance, and who show the potential to be leaders in their field.


  • NSF Awards Postdoctoral Fellowships to UCLA Math PhDs
    UCLA Mathematics PhDs Mark Blunk and Michael Vanvalkenburgh have been named recipients of the National Science Foundation 2009 Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (MSPRF). Blunk will receive his PhD in June under the supervision of Professor Alexander Merkurjev and will conduct his fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Vanvalkenburgh will conduct his research at the University of California, Berkeley and will receive his PhD this June under the supervision of Professor Michael Hitrik.


  • Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching Hosts Julia Robinson Math Festival

    On April 23, UCLA Mathematics' Philip C. Curtis Jr. Center for Mathematics and Teaching, and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) hosted 270 Los Angeles-area middle and high students for the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival held in Southern California. UCLA math faculty, graduate students, IPAM visiting researchers, high school instructors and local puzzle masters guided students as they tested their skills and learned new math topics through activity stations. The event also featured a talk by UCLA mathematics professor Joseph Teran, who discussed the role of math in creating visual effects for movies, video games and virtual surgery simulations. UCLA math alumna Peggy Otsubo represented the event's corporate sponsor and spoke to students on how mathematics is used at Northrop Grumman. Major funding was also provided by Nancy and Nelson Blachman through the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley. For more festival information, visit http://www.curtiscenter.math.ucla.edu/k12.html and see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TCtoGQII8.


  • UCLA Math Professors Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

    Stanley Osher

    Terence Tao
    On April 20, UCLA Mathematics Professors Stanley Osher and Terence Tao joined 210 distinguished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and corporate and philanthropic leaders who were elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in recognition of preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large. Six UCLA professors were named new fellows this year. An independent policy research center, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current academy research focuses on science and global security, social policy, the humanities and culture, and education. For a complete list of 2009 fellows, visit http://www.amacad.org/enewsletter/a.pdf.


  • Tony Chan Appointed President of University in Hong Kong

    Tony Chan
    Tony Chan has been appointed the next president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for a five-year term, effective September 1. A UCLA professor of mathematics since 1986, Chan was dean of the Division of Physical Sciences from 2001 to 2006 in the College of Letters and Science. In October 2006, Chan took a temporary leave from his faculty position at UCLA to become the NSF assistant director in charge of its Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate to guide and manage research funding totaling approximately $1 billion a year to support astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science and multidisciplinary activities.

  • Professor Andrea Bertozzi to be 2009 Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer

    Sonia Kovalevsky

    Andrea Bertozzi
    The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has invited UCLA Mathematics Professor Andrea Bertozzi to give the annual Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture in July at the 2009 SIAM annual meeting. Established in 2003, the lectures honor women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to applied or computational mathematics. Bertozzi works in a wide range of areas in applied mathematics including nonlinear partial differential equations, thin films, image processing, swarming and crime modeling. SIAM has also invited UCLA Mathematics Professor Russel Caflisch to be a topical speaker at the annual meeting. For more information, visit http://www.siam.org/meetings/an09/invited.php.

  • UCLA Math PhD Awarded 2008 Sacks Prize for Outstanding Logic Dissertation
    The Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL) has awarded Inessa Epstein the prestigious 2008 Sacks Prize for her dissertation “Some results on orbit inequivalent actions of non-amenable groups.” ASL notes that she "solves one of the most important problems in measurable group theory, the resolution of which involves a combination of deep results from different branches of mathematics." The prize is awarded to the best dissertation in logic worldwide and is shared jointly by Epstein and another recipient this year. Epstein received her PhD in 2008 under the supervision of UCLA Mathematics Professor Gregory Hjorth and is currently an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research fellow at Caltech. The annual Sacks Prize was established to honor Professor Gerald Sacks of MIT and Harvard for his unique contribution to mathematical logic, particularly as adviser to a large number of outstanding PhD students. Previous recipients include UCLA Mathematics Professors Gregory Hjorth (1994), Itay Neeman (1996, joint) and Matthias Aschenbrenner (2001). For 2006 and 2008, the department’s logic group has maintained its number two spot in the U.S. News & World Report best graduate program rankings.
  • Terence Tao and Joseph Teran Named Among DISCOVER's Top Young Scientists

    Terence Tao

    Joseph Teran
    In its special DISCOVER 50 issue, the popular science magazine spotlights the achievements of individuals who are making the most important contributions to American science. Of those 50 "best brains in science," UCLA mathematicians Terence Tao and Joseph Teran make the "20 under 40" list that highlights young visionaries who are transforming their fields. Tao is heralded for his contributions across mathematical fields and his breakthrough research in compressed sensing. Teran is noted for his cutting edge applied research in virtual surgery applications for medical imaging. For profiles on Tao and Teran, visit Discover.

  • UCLA Math Fall 2008 Newsletter Available Online



  • UCLA Math in Line to Share Award for World Record Prime Number: 243,112,609 - 1

    Marin Mersenne

    Edson Smith
    The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS ) has announced the discovery of two new Mersenne prime numbers, one of them found on a computer of the UCLA Mathematics department. A Mersenne prime is one of the form 2P-1, and UCLA's new prime has P=43,112,609. The department is a proud contributor of computing time for GIMPS and credit for the discovery will go to Edson Smith from UCLA's Mathematics Computing Group (MCG ), George Woltman, Scott Kurowski, et al. UCLA's prime is the first explicitly known prime with more than 10 million decimal digits, a discovery for which the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF ) has announced an award of $100,000. When EFF confirms the discovery, the department will share this award according to rules set by GIMPS. The new prime is not the first Mersenne Prime to be found at UCLA. In 1952, Professor Raphael Robinson used UCLA's SWAC (Standards Western Automatic Computer) computer to find five distinct Mersenne Primes with P equals 521, 607, 1279, 2203 and 2281. These were the first Mersenne Primes discovered in over 75 years, and the first to be discovered using computers. In 1962, Alexander Hurwitz found two more Mersenne primes (P=4253 and P=4423) using UCLA's IBM 7090 computer. For more information on the prime discovery, visit here. Also see UCLA Today.

  • UCLA Math Alumna-Actress-Author Publishes New Math Book
    With the publication of her latest book, 1998 UCLA Math grad Danica McKellar continues her quest to empower young girls to discover the joy of mathematics. Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss challenges 7th to 9th graders to take on this next level of mathematics by giving them the tools to ace tests and homework in her unique just-us-girls style. Her first book Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail is a national bestseller. In 2007 Danica was the department's special commencement speaker and has recently been featured in Newsweek and The New York Times, and on the CBS Early Show, and NPR's Science Friday. Best known for her roles on the television series "The Wonder Years" and "The West Wing," Danica also co-authored The Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.

  • UCLA Math PhD Wins SIAM Prize
    The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has selected UCLA Mathematics PhD student Jeremy Brandman as one of three winners in the 2008 SIAM Student Paper Competition. Jeremy will be awarded the student paper prize for "A Level-Set Method for Computing the Eigenvalues of Elliptic Operators Defined on Closed Surfaces" at the society's annual meeting to be held July 7-11, in San Diego, California. He will complete his thesis this year under UCLA Math Professor Stanley Osher and will conduct his NSF postdoctoral fellowship at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

  • National Academy of Sciences Elects UCLA Math Professors for Membership

    Tom Liggett

    Terry Tao
    On April 29, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced the election of UCLA Mathematics Professors Thomas Liggett and Terence Tao to the academy. Liggett is one of 72 new members, and Tao one of 18 new foreign associates from nine countries, who are recognized by the NAS for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. UCLA Math alum and Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) Scientific Advisory Board Chair Peter Jones of Yale University was also elected this year. Previously elected math faculty include Professor Stanley Osher (2005), and Professors Emeriti Lennart Carleson (2006), Robert Steinberg (1985), and Lloyd Shapley (1979). For a list of new members, visit (NAS link).

  • 2008 Clay Liftoff Fellowships Awarded to UCLA Math PhDs
    The Clay Mathematics Institute has named UCLA Mathematics PhD students Inessa Epstein and Robert Waelder as 2008 Clay Liftoff fellows. Epstein completed her thesis "Some results on orbit inequivalent actions of non-amenable groups" under Professor Gregory Hjorth. She will use the Liftoff award in summer 2008 at the University of Illinois at Chicago under Professor Alex Furman. Waelder will complete his thesis "Elliptic genera of singular varieties, and the equivariant McKay correspondence" under UCLA Math Professor Kefeng Liu and will conduct his summer fellowship under Professor Anatoly Libgober, also at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Clay Liftoff Fellowships are awarded to young mathematicians who have demonstrated mathematical research of quality and significance, and who show the potential to be leaders in their field.

  • Los Angeles Math Circle Scores in Mathematics Competitions

    Olga Radko
    LAMC Organizer
    Congratulations to Alexandre Boulgakov, Jeff Manning and Patrick Chen who represented the Los Angeles Math Circle (LAMC) team in the 59th Annual American Mathematical Contest (grade 12) and placed fourth in California. The American Mathematical Contest is the first of a series of contests sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America through their program, the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). Twelve students went on to the second stage of the contests, the American Invitational Math Exam, scoring in the top 1% of the AMC 10 or in the top 5% of the AMC 12. In this stage, Alexandre and Jeff scored among the top 500 students in the country and qualified for the nationwide competition, the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) that will take place at the end of April. More congratulations go to LAMC students Jeff Manning who received a first place prize, and Eureka Ma who received an honorable mention in the 10th Bay Area Math Olympiad. BAMO is an annual contest consisting of five proof-type math problems solved over four hours. The event attracts several hundred students from the Bay Area and all over the U.S. For more on the LAMC and K-12 outreach in the Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching visit (Curtis link).

  • UCLA Mathematics Professor Terence Tao to Receive 2008 Waterman Award
    The National Science Foundation (NSF) will honor Professor Terence Tao with the prestigious Alan T. Waterman Award for his extraordinary work across several mathematical areas. The annual Waterman award, which recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by NSF, is the highest honor the foundation bestows. Through the years, Tao's work has often been funded by NSF grants. In addition to a medal, Tao will receive a grant of $500,000 over three years for scientific research. The award will be presented at a black tie dinner program at the U.S. Department of State on May 6.

  • Professor Chandrashekhar Khare Awarded 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
    On April 3, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation granted UCLA Mathematics Professor Chandrashekhar Khare one of only four fellowships in mathematics. Khare is a number theorist who specializes in motives, Galois representations, and automorphic forms. In its 84th annual competition for the United States and Canada, the Foundation awarded 190 fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars. The successful candidates were chosen from a group of more than 2,600 applicants. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. For a complete list of awardees visit Guggenhiem Fellowships

  • Inwon Kim Secures Sloan Research Fellowship
    The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded UCLA Mathematics Assistant Professor Inwon Kim a 2008 Sloan Research Fellowship in mathematics. Established in 1955, the fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently, a total of 118 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics. Kim is one of two UCLA 2008 Sloan fellowship recipients. For more on Kim's research, visit www.math.ucla.edu/~ikim.