MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Dear members and friends of Utah Mathematics, Welcome to the Summer 2023 edition of Aftermath magazine.

When I look at this year and all of the remarkable accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students, I am reminded of the fact that the worst of the COVID era is now behind us. It is wonderful to see that, despite the adversities posed by the recent pandemic, we continue to meet and exceed the goals of our mission of excellence in research, teaching, and dissemination of cutting-edge mathematics.

A cursory look at the webpage https://www.math.utah.edu/research/ distinctions.php can serve as a reminder of some of our faculty’s many research and teaching distinctions, too numerous to mention here. Our departmental roster continues to thrive likewise. This year, Assistant Professor Rachel Skipper will join our faculty, having spent a year of research at ENS-Paris. In like manner, our postdoctoral ranks are rejuvenated by talented researchers and educators who will join us this coming year: Debdeep Bhattacharya (PhD, George Washington), Bohyun Kim (PhD, UCLA), Jeremy Brightbill (PhD, UCLA), Alex Ginsberg (PhD, U Michigan), Swaraj Pande (PhD, Michigan), Hunter Simper (PhD, Purdue), Hwai-Ray Tung (PhD, Duke), Alp Uzman (PhD, Penn State), MyVan Vo (PhD, Purdue), and Noble Williamson (PhD, UC-Riverside).

We admitted 18 new PhD and 7 new Masters’ students in our graduate training program, and have the good fortune of recently hiring 2 terrific members of the staff, Sean Cook and Scott Patten. We have also begun collaborating with Susen Sawatzki to whom we owe this very edition of Aftermath.

This year marks the sixth, and final, year of my tenure as Chair of this remarkable department. I have had the honor of working closely with the Administration, Faculty, Staff, and Students, and I have had the distinction of interacting closely with the many generous Friends and Supporters of this department. It is not possible to adequately summarize in this format the many positive contributions of this group. The recent well-attended Department Awards Ceremony, U Convocation, and the Department’s Hooding Ceremony, were further reminders of the fantastic work that we collectively accomplish. I see only good tidings on the horizon and know that the future of leadership in our department, in the person of our incoming Chair Tommaso de Fernex, further cements the excellent work that we shall continue to do together.

With best wishes for an inspiring Summer Term,

Davar Khoshnevisan