Mentors

Hassan Babaei is a 5th year PhD student specializing in analysis and partial differential equations (PDEs). His research focuses on understanding behaviors of certain kinds of PDEs with applications in physics. Hassan enjoys working with undergraduate students on exploring interesting questions in analysis and PDEs, and reading research papers. He aims to help mentees develop both strong technical skills and a deep conceptual understanding of the material. 

Julian Benali is a PhD student studying commutative algebra, though he also has interests in logic, topology, and category theory. Julian is looking to work with an experienced undergraduate on a reading project in pure math. The direction is up to the student, but potential topics could include tight closure theory, the chain conjecture, recent developments in intuitionist math, or applications of topos theory.

Lisa Cenek is a 3rd year PhD student. During undergrad, she focused on graph theory, especially combinatorial optimization problems. Graph theory is an exciting area of math with lots of pretty drawings and interesting topics to read about. Lisa is open to working with students coming from any level of mathematics background (no prior experience with graph theory required). She also enjoys other computer science adjacent areas of math such as algorithms and logic, and she is looking forward to getting to work with a student on a topic they are interested in learning about. 

André is a third year PhD student studying number theory, elliptic curves, and arithmetic geometry. This involves understanding the symmetries of algebraic numbers and how they interplay with geometric objects. He would be happy to work with a student on anything of a number-theoretic or algebraic nature. 

Katie Kruzan is a 4thyear PhD student studying Mathematical Computer Science with particular interest in Algorithms and Graph Theory. She is interested in reading papers//texts with undergraduate students on topics related to their interest, and also help them learn the skills around getting the most bang-for-the-buck around reading academic texts.

Sacha L'Heveder is a 3rd-year PhD student studying group theory and dynamics. He has familiarity with Geometric Group Theory (fun with shapes), Measured Group Theory (fun with measures), Functional Analysis (fun with functions), and Dynamics (fun, but do it a lot of times). He looks forward to working with an undergraduate on a reading around a topic of their interest.

Michael Lange is a third year PhD student working in Model Theory. He is most interested in mathematical logic and also enjoys algebra. He is open to students' suggestions on a project if they have them; otherwise, he would recommend something of the form "Intro to [whatever subject you think sounds coolest]", aiming to cover the proof and key applications / examples of some fundamental theorem from that subject. 

Dane (hi that's me!) is a second year PhD student studying (complex) algebraic geometry.

I believe I would be a good match in particular for a student interested in studying abstract algebra, complex analysis, or "geometry," whatever exactly that means. That said, the student especially inspired to read with me for one reason or another is welcome to suggest their favorite textbook and we can take a look together. :)

Clay Mizgerd is a 4th-year PhD student working in probability and combinatorics. In addition to these fields, he especially enjoys number theory, and has a broad background in analysis and algebra. He is happy to read on any field of pure math, and looking forward to learning some new math together.

Abhijeet Mulgund is a 5th year PhD student studying machine learning, information theory, and complexity theory. He studies applications of deep learning to error-correcting codes. He is interested in reading on topics related to complexity theory, machine learning, or probability. These fields form a bridge between applied and pure math, which can lead to some very interesting problems.

Theo Sandstrom is a 3rd-year PhD student primarily studying commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, but with broad interest across mathematics (particularly in topics with geometric flavor). He is happy to work with undergraduates on any topic in this vast realm. Possible topics include: an introduction to X, where X in {algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, homological algebra}; elliptic curves; proof assistants (e.g., Lean, Coq, Agda); algebraic topology; knot theory; foliation theory; p-adic analysis.

Xiaoning Shi is a 3rd-year PhD student studying stochastic analysis, with broad interests in probability, analysis, and partial differential equations. She is happy to work with undergraduates on topics related to probability, stochastic processes, stochastic differential equations, or analysis more generally. She looks forward to exploring a topic of the student's interest. 

Xiaotong (Dawson) Yang is a 3rd-year PhD student interested in partial differential equations. He is interested in meeting undergraduates and reading math on analysis and beyond.