CHAIR’S MESSAGEThis past academic year we were happy to welcome seven new full-time faculty members: Mihaela Ignatova and Atilla Yilamz as tenure-track faculty and Max Avener, Zach Bailey, Dan Rusu, Paco Villarroya and Kai Zhao as non-tenure-track faculty. They have already made significant contributions to research, teaching and service, including an Association for Women in Mathematics Sadosky Research Prize in Analysis.

Other exciting developments include a new book by Professor Martin Lorenz; the opening of the Center for Computational Mathematics and Modeling under the direction of Benjamin Seibold; and new research, conference and outreach grants.

In December, the department felt the loss of Professor Emeritus David Zitarelli (BS ’63. MS ’65, Math). His most recent book was published posthumously in early 2019. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the department for nearly 50 years, we have established a scholarship fund in his honor.

Meanwhile, long-time contributors to department’s teaching mission, Prakash Rushi and Elena Vishik, happily moved into retirement.

This spring, it was also rewarding to see our exceptional graduating class of students being recognized with awards and offers, including admission to outstanding graduate programs in mathematics and other fields, and academic and industrial jobs.

We continue to appreciate all the contributions of our students, faculty, staff and alumni in making our department successful.

Irina MitreaChair and Professor

MATHEMATICSCollege of Science and Technology

math.temple.edu

UPDATE SPRING 2019

Honoring Professor David Zitarelli through a scholarship

To honor the legacy of Professor David Zitarelli, the department has established a scholarship in his name to support today’s deserving

undergraduate students: The David Zitarelli Scholarship Fund. Your gift will support talented mathematics students as they work

to achieve their own lasting legacies.

For online donations, please visit giving.temple.edu/math. To make a gift in memory of Dr. Zitarelli, please click on the section titled Tribute Information. Select “in memory” as Tribute Type and

type in Dr. David Zitarelli as the Name of Individual.

New faculty bring research and teaching excellence

Atilla Yilmaz, Associate ProfessorAfter graduating summa cum laude from Bogazici University, Turkey, with a BS in mathematics and a BS in electrical and electronics engineering, Atilla Yilmaz earned his MS and PhD in mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.

Bringing more than 15 years of teaching experience to CST, Yilmaz was a postdoc at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and then a Morrey Assistant Professor at University of California Berkeley. He spent four years rising through the ranks at Bogazici University, served as an associate professor at Koc University, Turkey, and most recently was a visiting associate professor at the Courant Institute.

The Istanbul native has authored 15 publications in mathematics, has been invited to speak at more than 30 universities, including Temple and has recently been awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Science Academy of Turkey. At Temple, Yilmaz will pursue his research interests in probability theory and stochastic processes, statistical mechanics, partial differential equations, stochastic optimal control and population dynamics.

Mihaela Ignatova, Assistant ProfessorMihaela Ignatova, a former instructor at Princeton University, postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and assistant professor at University of California continued on page 3

Mihaela Ignatova Atilla Yilmaz

Edgar Bering: Helping students find their mathematical voicesWith the Mathematics Department’s support, postdoctoral fellow Edgard A. Bering IV has participated in the Mathematical Association of America’s Project NExT program, which stresses active learning methods and effectively reaching diverse and underserved populations.

“I incorporated some of the concepts, such as having my students in my fall geometry class write notes to a friend enrolled in linear algebra, and the way the students found their mathematical voices was really rewarding,” says Bering, who earned his PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In a rare feat for a postdoctoral fellow, Bering has also contributed to curriculum development. Meanwhile, he is researching the geometry and dynamics of mapping class groups and outer automorphisms of free groups.

“The Math Department is one of the best in supporting postdocs in terms of research, career development and growing as a member of the profession in a holistic way,” he says.

Timothy Morris: Long journey to math excellenceAfter initially dropping out as a political science major, Timothy Morris started his math education as a 23-year-old freshman at Stockton College. Making up for lost time, since joining Temple’s PhD program in 2013, he has attended schools, symposia and workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe, including in Italy and at Cambridge University’s Isaac Newton Institute—and discussed his doctoral research in low-dimensional geometry and topology throughout the U.S.

At Temple, he helped start and has co-organized the Graduate Student Conference, a two day event where more than 100 graduate students give talks and interact with leading mathematicians. He also has co-organized Temple’s Graduate Student Seminar and Summer Reading Groups in Geometry and Topology.

Says Morris, who is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship this fall, “The environment here is awesome for graduate students who need a bit more mentorship than those who have been doing math since they were in diapers.”

Sujay Rajkumar: Tracking Transnational coal pollution in U.S. with NASALast summer, as a NASA Airborne Science Program intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, senior Sujay Rajkumar created a model that estimated it took just six days for coal burning emissions from China to cross the Pacific and reach the United States—and in December presented his findings to the California Air Resources Board.

“It just shows how accurate we can be with our computational predictions,” says the winner of the university’s prestigious Diamond Award. The biology minor also conducts research with

Temple’s Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine and Lewis Katz School of Medicine. With the Math Department, he also is an undergraduate tutor and a student ambassador in the advising office.

Ultimately, he wants to earn a PhD and research computational atmospheric chemistry and how it relates to human health and epidemiology—ideally with NASA.

Yilin Wu: Doctoral student probes biofilm growing on Jefferson Memorial“I am eager to see how I can apply my math skills to address real world problems,” says Yilin Wu, a native of China who will earn her PhD this May. “That’s why I chose applied mathematics.”

Among those real-world challenges: the black, microbial biofilm growing on the Jefferson

Memorial in Washington, District of Columbia. Wu analyzed weather data and built mathematical models that incorporated biofilm growth and marble erosion to determine the effect cleaning the biofilm with lasers might have. The research was supported by the National Park Service and National Science Foundation.

Wu also trained Temple undergrads for the Mathematical Contest in Modeling for five years and last summer taught calculus at Temple’s Japan Campus.

Wu has applied for teaching positions at colleges and small universities in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Chelsea J. Zackey: Inspired exploration of quantum machine learningSenior Chelsea J. Zackey, a mathematics and computer science major and Honors Program participant, is researching quantum machine learning issues. Inspired by Bo Ji, assistant professor of computer and information sciences, last summer she collaborated with a postdoctoral fellow from

the Centre of Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore and delivered the first seminar presentation of the fall semester at a graduate seminar exploring multi-armed bandit problems.

A peer tutor in both the Math and CIS departments, she also tutors Philadelphia High School for Girls students and is president of the Association for Women in Mathematics Student Chapter at Temple.

“Dr. Ji was the first professor to really allow me to get my hands dirty in a pure research exploration,” says Zackey, who expects to start working on a master’s degree at Temple before pursuing a PhD and a research career.

SUCCESS STORIES

NEWLY FUNDED RESEARCHDavid Futer• Hyperbolic Geometry: Effective, Quantum,

and Coarse, Simons Foundation

Isaac Klapper• Linking Microbial Metabolism to Host-Microbe

Environment, Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Gillian Queisser• US-German Collaboration toward an

experimentally validated multiscale model of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), NIH (NIMH)

Benjamin Seibold and Matthew Helmus (BIO)• Furthering computational approaches for

modeling, predicting and controlling Spotted Lanternfly invasion and its economic impact, PA Department of Agriculture

CONFERENCE AND OUTREACH FUNDINGVasily Dolgushev• Emphasis Year in Noncommutative Geometry,

NSF

David Futer• Conference on Classical and Quantum

3-Manifold Topology, NSF

Irina Mitrea and Maria Lorenz• Mathematical Confluences: A Partnership

between Temple University and the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Mathematical Association of America

Matthew Stover and David Futer• Graduate Student Conference in Algebra,

Geometry and Topology, NSF

Samuel J. Taylor• Young Geometric Group Theory VIII, NSF

New faculty bring research and teaching excellence continued from page 1 CST 2018 Distinguished

Faculty Awards

Achievement in Mathematics Award Professor Daniel Szyld

Outstanding Mathematics Department Leader Professor Irina Mitrea, Chair

Both funded by Jay Novik (BA ’67, Math), chair of the CST Board of Visitors

Riverside, earned her PhD in mathematics in 2011 from the University of Southern California.

Ignatova brings nearly 15 years of teaching experience to her new role in the Mathematics Department. Her work has been published in the Nonlinearity Journal as well as the Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, and she has been invited to lecture at more than 40 universities, including Princeton, UCLA, UC Riverside and Stanford University.

A passionate educator, Ignatova has taught mathematics courses ranging from basic math to upper-level, multi-variable calculus courses. The Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Merit Award winner is tri-lingual, and her research interests include partial differential equations, mathematical fluid dynamics and harmonic analysis.

SK Day, in March, brought more than 90 local middle school girls to Main Campus to learn about the field of mathematics and possible career paths. SK Day is about exposure and opportunity, and it epitomizes the principle that equal opportunity to study mathematics yields similar performances of girls and boys.

Other departmental outreach activities include tutoring and other collaborations with the Philadelphia High School for Girls and a Cryptography workshop for high school students at the Franklin Institute.

Sonia Kovalevsky Day at Temple

For more news, go to math.temple.edu

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Undergraduate conferenceIn April, the Department of Mathematics hosted the Philadelphia Undergraduate Mathematics Conference Series, a collaborative effort of the mathematics departments at Bryn Mawr College, La Salle University and Temple University.

More than 80 students from 7 higher education institutions in the region participated in plenary lectures, student talks, a poster session and a professional development panel. The series’ goal is to provide professional opportunities and exposure to undergraduate students interested in research and careers in mathematics.

Award WinnersFACULTY

• Edgar Bering –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Teaching Award by a Postdoctoral Fellow

• Mihaela Ignatova –2019 Association for Women in Mathematics Sadosky Research Prize in Analysis

• Kelli Jones and Jeromy Sivek – 2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Teaching Award by NTT Faculty

• Maria Lorenz –2018 Mathematical Association of America EPaDel Crawford Award for Distinguished Teaching

• Rebeca Lufi –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Teaching Award by an Adjunct Faculty

• Georgia Triantafillou –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Teaching Award by TT Faculty

Katherine Burke: Recipient of Novik Fellowship Katherine Burke is a first-year graduate student in the Mathematics Department and a recipient of the Jay Novik Endowed Graduate Fellowship. In 2017, she graduated from The George Washington University and then completed a post-baccalaureate program at Smith College in the Center for Women in Mathematics.

“When I visited Temple, I was welcomed by the supportive community of graduate students and professors. After such a positive experience and learning about the diverse research happening in the department, it was an easy decision for me to pursue my graduate studies at Temple. The Novik Fellowship has allowed me to do what I love and completely focus on my studies. I feel very fortunate to be able to study at Temple, in such an amazing department, and live in such a great city.”

Jay Novik, (BA ’67, MATH), chair of the college’s Board of Visitors, established one of CST’s first endowed fellowships for graduate students. Fellowship funding at CST is often several thousand dollars less than at peer institutions. Fellowship gifts, which help to close this funding gap, are a key component in attracting talented graduate students who might have otherwise enrolled in other top research universities. 

STUDENTS

• Sarah Connahan –2018 Diamond Award

• Khanh Le and Rebekah Palmer –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Service Award for Graduate Students

• Sujay Rajkumar –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Service Award for Undergraduate Students and 2018 Diamond Award

• Thomas Ng –2018 CST Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

• Luca Pallucchini –2018 CST Outstanding Research Assistant Award

• James Rosado –2019 Department of Mathematics Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student

• Chelsea Zackey –2019 Diamond Award

• Two teams of undergraduate students representing Temple University at the 2018 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling earned Honorable Mentions: (1) Jhang Huynh Duy, Chau Nguyen and Khoi Hoang Tuan and (2) Aaron Kaplan, Daniel Lapsely and Karla Onate