My name is Ana Cristina Chávez Cáliz. I was born and raised in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico. I participated in the Mathematic Olympiads, where I discovered the fun side of math.
I got my bachelor's degree in Physics-Mathematics at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo UMSNH, with the thesis titled "About Conway's and Thurston's work on tilings" under the supervision of Dr. Jorge López López.
After that, I pursued my master's degree in Mathematics at the Posgrado Conjunto de Ciencias Matemáticas (a Graduate program offered as a joint work between UMSNH, IFM, and UNAM). I graduated with the thesis "Solutions of the Bring Jerrard-Equation" again under the supervision of Dr. Jorge López López.
I obtained my Ph.D. in Mathematics at The Pennsylvania State University, supervised by Dr. Sergei Tabachnikov. I worked on "Topics in Projective Geometry of Polygons," where we explored configuration theorems, periodic billiards in ellipses, and self-duality.
I am a postgraduate research fellow at Heidelberg University, as part of the symplectic geometry group, working with Dr. Peter Albers.
When I am not doing math, I enjoy reading, painting, and biking.
I am interested in Spaces of Polygons and Tiling problems each in their Euclidean, Hyperbolic, and Projective geometry flavors. I find particularly interesting maps in Spaces of Polygons, like the Pentagram map.
I am also interested in billiard-like systems. I find profoundly interesting the invariants we still need to prove when it comes to Poncelet-like billiards. Here computer-assisted experiments are particularly useful. My research also focuses on billiards, particularly on Outer billiards in higher dimensional spaces.
2016 - 2022
The Pennsylvania State University
Ph.D. in Mathematics
2014 -2016
UMSNH-UNAM
Master's Degree in Mathematics
2009 - 2014
Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo
Bachelor's Degree in Physics-Mathematics