A picture of me in Easton, Washington (taken by Kenny Blakey).
I am grateful to be supported by an NSF GRFP grant.
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About Me
Hi! My name is Joe (he/they), and I'm a third year graduate student in the Mathematics department at UC Berkeley. I am advised by David Nadler.
I work somewhere between symplectic and algebraic geometry, and have been thinking a great deal about positroid varieties recently.
I received my Sc. B. from Brown University, magna cum laude. There, I worked with Melody Chan and Brendan Hassett on (combinatorial) algebraic geometry.
In my free time I listen to a great deal of experimental music, and am a napping champion.
You can contact me at josephhlavinka AT berkeley DOT edu, and one can find my past papers below.Â
Research
Motivic Homotopy Theory and Cellular Schemes, UChicago REU (2022).
Automorphisms of Tropical Hassett Spaces (with Sam Freedman and Siddarth Kannan), in Port. Math. 79 (2022), no. 1/2, pp. 163-197.
Drafts of my undergraduate honors thesis, describing a generalization of the Fulton-Macpherson compactification of Conf_n(X) to a family of "weighted" compactification of spaces of the form X^n \ a set of small diagonals, are available upon request.
Teaching and Outreach
Spring 2025, I am a GSI for Math 1b, taught by Alexander Paulin. The course website can be found here.
Over the last few summers I've been very lucky to work as an instructor at Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM), where I've taught under-represented and low-income rising 7th graders some really cool math. Check BEAM out!
I am an ardent believer in Federico Ardila's axioms for mathematical education, outreach, and practice, which are as follows:
Axiom 1. Mathematical potential is equally present in different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
Axiom 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
Axiom 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
Axiom 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
As Prof. Adrila notes, these statements should not sound revolutionary, and considering the current practices of mathematical society, they are a pressing call to action.
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