Nate Tenpas

I recently completed a mathematics PhD at Vanderbilt University, jointly advised by Doug Hardin and Ed Saff. I will graduate in August 2024.  I graduated as the valedictorian from Davidson College in 2018 where my thesis in extremal graph theory was advised by Axel Brandt and Carl Yerger. 

In addition to researching at Vanderbilt, I taught and ta'd numerous undergraduate courses, ranging from introductory calculus to programming in R. My consistently excellent teaching reviews resulted in me being named being the best graduate student teacher in the department in 2023. 

Outside of academica, I have spent the last year and a half doing part time mathematical optimization work at AlphaRail, a logistics startup focused on routing and scheduling problems for freight railroads, and I participated in the 2017 Director's Summer Program at the National Security Agency. 

I can be contacted at nathaniel.tenpas@vanderbilt.edu or natetenpas1@gmail.com 

Here are links to the two submitted papers that comprise my thesis:

[2307.15822] Universally Optimal Periodic Configurations in the Plane (arxiv.org)  (joint with Doug Hardin)

[2311.05594] A Family of Universally Optimal Configurations on Rectangular Flat Tori (arxiv.org) 

I am particularly interested in the conjectured universal optimality of the hexagonal lattice (also referred to as A_2 or the equitriangular lattice). The conjecture is a major open problem and is discussed at the end of the following article: Out of a Magic Math Function, One Solution to Rule Them All | Quanta Magazine . The thesis work contributes partial progress on the conjecture. More background available under the Research tab...