Ryan Hynd is this year's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Faculty professor, hosted by Professor Tobias Colding at the MIT. Ryan completed his MSc in mathematics at Georgia Tech in 2004, and recieved his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2010, studying under Lawrence Evans.

Ryan is currently an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was appointed an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the Courant Mathematics Institute, NYU, from 2010 to 2012, and jointed the U-Penn faculty in 2012.

Ryan is an analyst whose borad research program includes the study of PDE methods in control theory, finance, and fluid mechanics. At MIT, he is working on three projects: existence of solutions of the multidimensional sticky particle system, partial regularity of doubly nonlinear parabolic systems, and the asymptotic behavior of Trudinger's equation.

Ryan has served at MIT on the department's Diversity Committee during the year. Given his experience on diversity issues at U-Penn, he has advised them on their outreach mentoring practices for URM and women students, pertaining to MIT majors and prospective majors.

Ryan taught an alaysis undergraduate seminar subject last fall, and just completed co-instructing a Projects Lab subject in the spring.

Anton Leykin, who has been selected to receive a 2017 College of Sciences Cullen-Peck Scholar Award in recognition of his innovative research. Anton is in good company with past recipients of this award, including Sung Ha Kang.
 
Cullen-Peck Scholar Awards: These awards recognize innovative research led by College of Sciences faculty who are at the associate professor or advanced assistant professor level. They are made possible through the generosity of alumni couple Frank Cullen (BS ’73 Math, MS ’76 ISyE, PhD ’84 ISyE) and Libby Peck (BS ’75 Math, MS ’76 ISyE), who wish to recognize and support faculty development within the College of Sciences.
 
Associate Professor Anton Leykin (School of Mathematics): In recognition of his outstanding research in the field of applied and computational algebraic geometry. This emerging field involves the development of techniques for solving systems of polynomial equations. It is frequently called “nonlinear algebra,” as a tip of the hat to the universally familiar field of linear algebra and an acknowledgment that future scientists and engineers will need to master not just the linear algebra of their predecessors but nonlinear algebra, too. Thus they will be empowered to cut through computational complexity and understand the content of their models. Dr. Leykin’s work spans an impressive range: from pure mathematics, to the development of novel numerical algorithms, to their implementation in software. Recent foci include the asymptotic behavior of ever larger structures, applications of generating functions of finite-state automata, and the implementation of algorithms that arise from his research. He is, in particular, a key developer of Macaulay 2, a widely used system for algebraic computation.

The College of Sciences feted new colleagues joining in the 2017-18 academic year at a summer dinner on Sept. 6. Dean and Sutherland Chair Paul M. Goldbart and Jenny Singleton, associate chair and professor in the School of Psychology, hosted the celebration, which also recognized recipients of 2017 College of Sciences awards.

“It is invigorating to start the school year by warmly welcoming new colleagues into our scholarly community and celebrating our outstanding teachers, researchers, and mentors,” Goldbart said.

One program director, one professor of practice, eight assistant professors, two associate professors, and three professors joined the college in the 2017-18 academic year. Three of them – Felix Herrmann, Gregory Sawicki, and Carlos Silva – have joint appointments in other Georgia Tech units.

The Schools of Biological Sciences and of Chemistry and Biochemistry welcomed the most number of new colleagues in the 2017-18 academic year – four each.

The Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) recruited Casey Bethel, Georgia’s 2017 Teacher of the Year, to coordinate campus communications. 

The following individuals joined the college in the 2017-18 academic year:

  • Vinayak Agarwal, assistant professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  • Casey Bethel, program director, CEISMC
  • Thackery Brown, assistant professor, School of Psychology
  • Stephen Diggle, associate professor, School of Biological Sciences
  • Albert Fathi, professor of practice, School of Mathematics
  • Neha Garg, assistant professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  • Zachary Handlos, academic professional, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Felix Herrmann, professor, joint appointment, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and School of Computational Science and Engineering.
  • Wenjing Liao, assistant professor, School of Mathematics
  • Jesse McDaniel, assistant professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  • D. Zeb Rocklin, assistant professor, School of Physics
  • Gregory Sawicki, associate professor, joint appointment, School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Biological Sciences
  • Carlos Silva, professor, joint appointment, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Physics
  • Alberto Stolfi, assistant professor, School of Biological Sciences
  • Marvin Whiteley, professor and Bennie H. & Nelson D. Abell Chair and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular and Cellular Biology, School of Biological Sciences

Also celebrated as new colleagues were Rachel Kuske and Jenny McGuire. Kuske is a professor in and the chair of the School of Mathematics. She joined the College of Sciences on Jan. 3, 2017. McGuire previously held the position of Research Scientist II in the School of Biological Sciences. She is now assistant professor, tenure track, with joint appointment in the Schools of Biological Sciences and of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Also at the 2017 summer dinner, nine faculty members were named recipients of 2017 faculty awards.

School of Mathematics Professors John Etnyre and Ronghua Pan, with School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Associate Professor Raquel Lieberman, received the 2017 College of Sciences Faculty Mentor Awards. They were recognized for sharing their experience, providing advice and encouragement, and helping the next generation of faculty succeed.

The college selected School of Physics Professor and Chair Pablo Laguna for the 2017 Ralph and Jewel Gretzinger Moving Forward School Award. The award praises leadership of a school chair or senior faculty member who has played a pivotal role in diversifying faculty, creating a family-friendly work environment, or providing a supportive environment for junior faculty. Laguna was commended for driving equity and inclusion and for mentoring of groups underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The award is supported by an endowment fund from School of Mathematics alumnus Ralph Gretzinger.

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Assistant Professors Chris Reinhard and Britney Schmidt received the 2017 Eric R. Immel Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award salutes exemplary teaching of a foundational class by junior faculty. In particular, Reinhard and Schmidt were commended for “their imaginative and effective redevelopment” of EAS 1601, How to Build a Habitable Planet. Their work has inspired teaching assistants, excited students, and raised enrolment. The award is supported by an endowment fund from School of Mathematics alumnus Charles Crawford.

School of Physics Assistant Professor James “JC” Gumbart, School of Biological Sciences Associate Professor Brian Hammer, and School of Mathematics Associate Professor Anton Leykin were recognized with 2017 Cullen-Peck Fellowship Awards. The awards recognize innovative research led by faculty who are at the associate professor or advanced assistant professor level. They are made possible by a gift from School of Mathematics and School of Industrial and Systems Engineering alumni Frank Cullen and Libby Peck. The awards applaud outstanding research in computational biophysics (Gumbart), in the biology of competition and cooperation in bacterial systems (Hammer), and in applied and computational algebraic geometry (Leykin). 

“We are proud to have so many exceptional faculty members,” Goldbart said. “I am especially grateful for the generosity of our thoughtful alumni, whose gifts enable our colleagues to achieve the highest level of success in their teaching, research, and service.”

Recently the Board of Regents' Committee on Academic Affairs has approved the appointment of Dr Prasad Tetali as Regents’ Professor.
 

Congratulations to Prasad for this very well-deserved honor! 

 
The nomination emphasized that ``Prasad has distinguished himself across research, teaching and leadership’’, and further noted ``We do not know how he finds time to do it all, but Prasad is a model citizen in addition to being a prolific and influential researcher and a dedicated teacher and mentor.''
 
As noted in the USG policy manual, Regents’ Professorships may be granted by the Board of Regents to outstanding faculty members of the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia State University, and, in special circumstances approved by the Board, other USG institutions.

If you want to know how Robert M. Price came to study at Georgia Tech, you can thank Duke University.

Price received his B.S. in mathematics from Duke in 1952. Back then, mathematicians didn’t have a lot of options when it came to making money. “My career counselors at Duke told me that my best bet was to become an accountant,” he says. “That didn’t appeal to me.”

What did fire his imagination was finding a way to merge his love of numbers with his rapidly growing interest in computer science, then a nascent discipline.

Powering Up the Computing Industry 

Price kept looking for that chance, and Georgia Tech gave it to him in 1956. That’s when Price, freshly married and with a baby on the way, was hired as a programmer at what would eventually be known as the Rich Electronic Computer Center. He also started studies for an M.S. in mathematics, which he received in 1958.

Working and studying at Georgia Tech allowed Price to position himself at the beginnings of the U.S. computer industry because of the job he took at Control Data Corporation (CDC). Starting as a staff mathematician in 1961, he was chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) before retiring in 1990. During his tenure, Price saw CDC and a handful of others, including IBM, General Electric, UNIVAC, and Honeywell, build the market for supercomputers.

At the same time, Price was building CDC’s business model and strategy, expanding his company’s offerings beyond machines and software to services based on computers and into international markets. The lessons he learned while researching at Tech – team building, collaboration – helped him guide his company to new heights.

Collaboration Is Key

“Executive management is, at its root, nothing more than solving problems and learning how to talk to people, to work with people,” Price says. “The only way a startup like Control Data was going to make significant progress was through collaboration, with competitors and customers,” he says. “That wasn’t the normal way that businesses – or for that matter universities – operated in those days. But the problems I was working on begged for a collaborative effort. Georgia Tech has always been a leader in interdisciplinary teams, and it still is today.”

The Tech students of 2017, raised on laptops, smartphones, and ubiquitous wireless networks, may have to fire their own imaginations to picture the state of technology in the 1960s: room-sized computers with bulky rotating magnetic drums for data storage and no special programming languages to run the machines.

The widely acknowledged father of supercomputing, Seymour Cray, worked at CDC during Price’s time. Price says others at CDC were just as brilliant as Cray. “It was absolute fun to go to work every day because of some of the most innovative, fun people to work with that I have ever known. They were bright people, but not one-dimensional.”

Price has other ways to pass along the lessons he’s learned from Georgia Tech and CDC. In 1985 he founded the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs, which helps startup companies in the nonprofit sector. Price also exercises his interest in growing technology companies as president and CEO of PSV Inc., which provides small businesses with investment, human resources, and strategy services.

Price has spent a lot of time in the classroom since establishing himself in the business world. He has taught at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and at the Pratt School of Engineering. Price has been a guest lecturer at Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University,  and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He sits on the Georgia Tech College of Sciences Advisory Board.

Advice for Tech Students

Price has seen technology companies transform the business and entertainment worlds, and he realizes the enormous potential for more change, thanks to technologies like the Internet of Things. As befitting someone who wrote a book called The Eye for Innovation (Yale Press, 2005), Price encourages students of science and engineering to make sure they know the difference between invention and innovation.

“Innovation is solving a problem, meeting a need in a better way,” he says. “Invention is inventing some algorithm or device, and if you don’t know what the hell the problem is, or what the device is good for, you’re going to waste a lot of time trying to apply your invention.”

He counsels students to make sure they chase their life’s passion, not just future paychecks. “I would tell them to find something in life that really intrigues them, whether it’s manual labor, digging a ditch, or solving equations of fluid dynamics – whatever it is that is fun for you. If you don’t really feel it’s all worthwhile, that it’s fun, then you’re lost from day one.”

 

Congratulations go to Georgia Tech math major Libby Taylor, who has won the AWM’s Schafer Prize!
 
The Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize is awarded to an undergraduate woman for excellence in mathematics.  The Schafer Prize was established in 1990 by the Executive Committee of the AWM and is named for AWM former president and one of its founding members, Alice T. Schafer, who contributed a great deal to women in mathematics throughout her career.

This Friday at 3pm several Undergraduate Reseachers presented a project to faculty, Balasz Strenner and Dan Margalit, in the Skiles building.

The project which was organized by the SoM faculty members, was about curves on surfaces: One can encode a curve on a surface as a path connecting various points on a surface. Some paths are clearly not efficient: if we go from A to B, then B to C, we could have simply gone from A to C. On higher genus surfaces, paths can be inefficient in more complicated ways, but one can make a list of what the inefficient paths can look like and how they can be made more efficient.

The students designed a way to encode paths as a sequence of letters and numbers, and wrote a Python-implementation of the curve tightening process, which looks for inefficient subpaths of a path and replaces them with their efficient counterparts. This curve tightening problem is an ingredient of my Macaw project, which is an implementation of a quadratic time algorithm of Margalit, Yurttas and myself for the Nielsen-Thurston classification problem of mapping class groups of surfaces.

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) has named Georgia Tech student Libby Taylor the recipient of the 2018 Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize. She will receive a B.S. in Mathematics from Georgia Tech in spring 2018, only two years after she graduated from Wheeler High School, in Marietta, Georgia.

Taylor’s advanced mathematical abilities have been evident since high school, according to School of Mathematics Emeritus Professor Tom Morley. As a high-school junior, Taylor took Morley’s third-year-college course Combinatorial Game Theory, and she led the team that applied the theory in interesting ways to Gomoku, the classic five-in-a-row game from China. Taylor’s work, Morley says, “showed mathematical maturity way beyond her age or educational background.”

Also while in high school, Taylor took the undergraduate Number Theory and Cryptography course taught by School of Mathematics Professor Matthew Baker.

As an undergrad at Georgia Tech, Taylor has been taking graduate-level courses and conducting original mathematics research. Hard working and highly motivated, she regularly attends research seminars, reads math books and papers voraciously, and eagerly gives talks at workshops and conferences in the U.S. and overseas. She learns as much as she can from discussions with graduate students, postdocs, and professors.

Professors describe Taylor as a strong, talented student with staggering potential, who is fearless in learning new topics, asks insightful questions, and is quick to pick up sophisticated ideas. Already she has six preprints published, one manuscript in preparation, and a chapter in a book about categorical representation theory called “Soergel Bimodules.”  

“I have been continually impressed by her mathematical intellect, her initiative, and her ability to absorb mathematics,” says School of Mathematics Assistant Professor Jennifer Hom. “I look forward to seeing what Libby’s future holds.”

“The friendly atmosphere in the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics contributed greatly to my mathematical development,” Taylor says. “It has always been easy to find professors willing to help answer questions, suggest further reading, and discuss mathematical ideas with me. This environment is not present everywhere; this is something special about Georgia Tech.”

Taylor specifically credits her research mentors, Baker and School of Mathematics Professor William T. “Tom” Trotter, both of whom began advising Taylor on research projects when she was still in high school.  “Their mentorship gave me a significant head start in my mathematical education and research,” Taylor says.

The Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize is named after the former president and founding member of AWM who contributed greatly to women in mathematics. The prize recognizes excellence in mathematics by an undergraduate woman.

Each year, AWM names a winner, a runner-up, and at least two honorable mentions.  Among them are the following with Georgia Tech connections:

AWM will recognize the 2018 winner, runner-up, and honorable mentions on Jan. 10, 2018, at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meeting, in San Diego, Calif.

“This achievement has validated the work I have put into my education over the past few years,” Taylor says. “The accomplishments of past recipients motivate me to continue working hard to live up to their examples.” 

Georgia Tech’s reputation and a family connection were the main factors that brought Iban J. Ariza all the way from Barcelona, Spain, to Atlanta, Georgia. Aspiring to be an industrial engineer, Iban knew that Tech has the top Industrial Systems Engineering program in the U.S.

In addition, his father, Carlos Ariza, got an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Business Administration at Tech. “He continues to be full of praise for Tech,” Iban says of his father.

An avid soccer and golf player, Iban is graduating with a B.S. in Discrete Mathematics. He completed high school at LaSalle Bonanova, in Barcelona, Spain. “During my high school years, I was constantly challenged to reach new goals and to learn as much as I could in preparation for my university studies,” Iban says. “My high school helped me ease into the demanding environment that is Tech.”

What is the most important thing you learned at Georgia Tech?

To always get your sleeping hours. ALWAYS.

Most people think that Georgia Tech will cut down your hours of sleep and cause a lot of stress because of the demanding workload. I believe you can do anything with proper organization.

Is your method of study time consuming? Is there a better way to learn? Can you absorb more information in a shorter time by using techniques x,y,z? Freshmen students should be looking at how to improve their study methods.

Learn how to learn, then actually learn. But my main recommendation would be to always get your sleep.

What surprised you most at Georgia Tech?

It came as a huge surprise to me when I learned that Tech hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1996, especially because Barcelona, my hometown, hosted them in 1992.

I was also surprised to experience the wide diversity and inclusion from different organizations on campus. Moreover, it is a good feeling to know that you’re in one of the top universities in the country and that you’re learning with some of the best professionals in their fields of study.

Which professor(s) or class(es) made a big impact on you?

I consider a class to be impactful if I ended up enjoying the subject more than when I started taking it. Among the classes I enjoyed more in the end are probability and statistics taught by Professor Plamen Iliev; quantum computing, by Professor Brian Kennedy; and calculus, by Prov. Stavros Garoufalidis.

Most of my computer science classes – such as algorithms, data structures, and operating systems – were impactful, as was my research mentor, Professor Lew Lefton.

What is your most vivid memory of Georgia Tech?

All the soccer days that I spent with friends.

When I first came to Tech, I played indoor soccer every Friday. That is where I met most of my current friends and best friends. Now, we post our game highlights on Facebook and meet almost every day for about two hours. It feels amazing. Soccer is called the “Beautiful Game” for good reasons.

A shout-out to my intramural team, called Root 19! We have won three Independent Soccer Intramural tournaments, two India Club Tournaments, and countless other competitions. To them, I say: “Guys, we’ve left a legacy in this university. Hopefully, we'll get a statue someday!”

What was the most valuable outcome of your participation in experiential learning activities?

My first internship, during freshman year, helped me understand that industrial engineering was not my passion. After careful thought, I decided to change my major to discrete mathematics.

But as a self-learner, I was passionate about many subjects – including chemistry, biology, and physics. I almost transferred to physics and chemical engineering before deciding on mathematics. There is a lot to think about when changing your major field of study, so talk to your advisors. They provide great insight.

What advice would you give to incoming freshmen at Georgia Tech?

I would encourage students to start working and applying for internships in their early years. Get a feeling of what the market needs and the common jobs for someone with your degree.

In addition:

  • Find your passion; talk to your advisors to learn if your passion aligns with the job market
  • Always get seven to eight hours of sleep
  • Eat healthy
  • Go out with friends at least once a week
  • Find a way to relieve stress: sports, yoga, walking, traveling
  • Avoid 8 AM classes
  • Make use of professors’ office hours
  • Stay motivated
  • Stay happy and laugh everyday
  • Learn how to invest

Where are you headed after graduation?

Georgia Tech has done a great job to prepare me for my future. I currently have a couple of offers to work as a software engineer with Fortune 500 companies, but I am still interviewing with other companies.

Georgia Tech has great computer science and mathematics programs. However, what you really need to educate yourself in is your passion and your ability to think creatively and solve real-world problems. Much of the high-demand workforce skills come from self-learning or continued learning, which arise from motivation, commitment, and a need to improve our world.

The Tech Topology Conference brings together established and beginning researchers from around the country for a weekend of mathematics in Atlanta. Check back soon for more details. We are pleased to announce this year's speakers:

The 2017 conference features a session of five-minute lightning talks.

If you are interested in giving such a talk (on behalf of your work or someone else’s) please see the "Registration and Support" page.
Deadline for submitting proposals for Lightning Talks is October 31.

organizers: J. Etnyre, J. Hom, P. Lambert-Cole, J. Lanier, C. Leverson, D. Margalit, and B. Strenner
Supported by the NSF and the Georgia Institute of Technology

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