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Welcome to the Department of Mathematics!

Our Department is at an exciting time in our history. We expect to grow dramatically over the next decade. This year, we are hiring 2 Assistant Professors, 7 Postdocs, and a newly endowed Professor of the Practice. Apply here!

Our goals as a department are:

1. To provide world class education to our undergraduate and graduate students, and to do this in a way that is welcoming and equitable.

2. To perform mathematical research at the highest level, on the fundamental problems in the world.

3. To be ambassadors for mathematics within Vanderbilt, in the Nashville community, and beyond.

Among our 24 research faculty, our research covers a wide swath of mathematics, including homotopy theory, operator algebras, geometric group theory, epidemiology, differential geometry, approximation theory, signal processing, differential equations, numerical analysis, mathematical physics, graph theory, and number theory.

Our faculty has 3 International Congress of Mathematicians speakers, 9 Fellows of the AMS, 2 Fellows of SIAM, 5 Sloan Fellows, 2 NSF CAREER awardees, a Conant Prize winner, a Steele Prize winner, a Simons Fellow, a Humboldt Prize winner, 3 AMS plenary speakers, and a Mirzakhani lecturer.

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Department News

2024 CUBE program announced

Mar. 29, 2024—The 2024 CUBE Program is an in-person summer research experience for undergraduates. This year’s program will be held on the beautiful campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Participants will conduct research in groups of 2-3 under the supervision of research faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. The topics will be in the field of...

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Denis Osin awarded Simons Fellowship

Mar. 27, 2024—Prof. Denis Osin has received a prestigious Simons Fellowship.  According to the Simons Foundation web site: “The Simons Fellows program extends academic leaves from one term to a full year, enabling recipients to focus solely on research for the long periods often necessary for significant advances. The foundation is proud to support the work of...

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Koichi Oyakawa receives Provost Pathbreaking Discovery Award

Mar. 9, 2024—Koichi Oyakawa, a PhD student in the Vanderbilt Mathematics Department, has received the Provost Pathbreaking Discovery Award. As stated in the citation, this premier award from the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School celebrates doctoral students who demonstrate truly exceptional research...

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Dr. Lorenzo Gavassino wins the MERAC Prize

Mar. 6, 2024—Dr. Lorenzo Gavassino, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Vanderbilt Department of Mathematics and member of the VandyGRAF Initiative, has been awarded the 2024 MERAC Prize in Theoretical Astrophysics for his PhD thesis. The prize is awarded by the European Astronomical Society. His thesis focused on a thermodynamics-based formulation of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics for multi-messenger and...

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