News
New Issue of Spectrum Newsletter Now Available
November 1, 2012 – The fall 2012 edition of Spectrum, the department’s biennial newsletter, has just been published. Highlights include the appointment of the department’s first Fields Medalist and a new undergraduate honors track and scholarship. For more news about our faculty and student activities, please download a PDF of Spectrum here.
Ionut Chifan Wins Aldroubi-Azhari Postdoctoral Prize
June 4, 2012 – Ionut Chifan has been awarded the 2012 Samir Aldroubi and Amira Azhari Prize for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research. Chifan completed a three-year postdoc position with the department in May 2012. Chifan received his Ph.D. in 2009 from UCLA. His research is in von Neumann algebras, and he has broad interests in ergodic theory and measured...
Annual Awards Feature Unexpected Twist
June 3, 2012 – There was a surprise twist at the department’s recent 2012 student awards ceremony. Most years, the graduate student awards are like the Oscars: one winner per category. But this year, both awards were shared — and by the same two students. Jeremy LeCrone and Justin Shroeder were co-recipients of both the Billy Bryant Prize for...
International Conference on Cycles in Graphs, May 30 – June 2
May 8, 2012 – The International Conference on Cycles in Graphs was held at Vanderbilt May 30 to June 2, 2012, in conjunction with the 27th Annual Shanks Lectures. The purpose of the conference was to bring together workers from around the world to focus on recent developments in cycles in graphs. This includes many different aspects of this...
Tenth Annual NCGOA Spring Institute, May 4-10
May 7, 2012 – The Department of Mathematics hosted the Tenth Annual Spring Institute on Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras May 4-10, 2012. The theme of the 2012 event was Conformal Field Theory and von Neumann Algebras. The Spring Institute is a combination of spring school and international research conference. During the school portion of the meeting, mini-courses were...
New Scholarship Announced for Undergraduate Math Majors
January 31, 2012 – A new scholarship for undergraduate students majoring in mathematics has been endowed by former math major Elizabeth Brueggeman and her husband Mark. The $250,000 gift agreement to fund the Mark and Elizabeth Barrow Brueggeman Scholarship was made in honor of Elizabeth?s upcoming reunion in October 2012. She received her BA in Mathematics in 1981 but...
Department Is Profiled in Vanderbilt’s Arts and Science Magazine
December 14, 2011 – The Department of Mathematics’ rise to prominence in recent years is the focus of an article in the Fall edition of Vanderbilt’s Arts and Science magazine. For the full article, click here.
Fields Medalist Vaughan Jones Joins the Department
October 25, 2011 – Vaughan Jones has accepted a faculty position as Distinguished Professor with the Department of Mathematics beginning in the fall of 2011. A preeminent mathematician who comes to Vanderbilt from the University of California, Berkeley, Jones will be a tremendous addition to the department’s already strong research group in operator algebras. Jones’ contributions to mathematics have...
John Rafter Receives Gilliam Teaching Award
October 25, 2011 – John Rafter, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, is the recipient of the 2011 Harriet S. Gilliam Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Lecturers and Senior Lecturers. Rafter received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Vanderbilt in 1994. He entered the business world with Aspect Communications, also serving as an adjunct instructor at Vanderbilt...
Workshop Explores CFT and von Neumann Algebras
October 24, 2011 – The Department of Mathematics hosted a two-day Shanks Workshop on “Conformal Field Theory and Von Neumann Algebras” October 29-30, 2011. The workshop explored the deep connections between CFT and the theory of subfactors and planar algebras. A subfactor is a group-like object that can be used to investigate the symmetries of quantum physical or statistical...