Welcome to the UCLA
Department of Mathematics
2007 Commencement Speaker Danica McKellar Publishes Math Book for Girls
Declaring math to be her "secret weapon" for success, 1998 UCLA math alumna Danica McKellar delivered the Department's 2007 commencement address to an enthusiastic crowd of student fans. Best known for her roles on the television series "The Wonder Years" and "The West Wing," Danica also co-authored The Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem and has been an ardent promoter of girls' math education. Her new book "Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail" gives aspiring female mathematicians the tools to master math concepts that relate to real life. To view her entertaining and inspiring address, visit http://www.uclalumni.net/NewsLinks/home.cfm.
Computing Staff Brings W3C Validation to Web
Fearlessly engaging the Dragon of Redmond, the MCG staff have drastically simplified several of the Department's web pages while retaining the visual elements agreed on by the Web Committee. Particularly see the new Departmental logo on the Computing Group sub-pages. They now pass the W3C HTML and CSS validators. The pages display satisfactorily on a wide range of page sizes with varied font-size as needed by our visually impaired Department members. See the web review document for a statement of principles and goals, and a proposed set of web policies. A rogue's gallery of competing websites can be seen, showing how well these policies are (or aren't) followed in the real world. Template pages are available:
| General Department | MCG Pages with New Logo |
Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching Established
The UCLA Department of Mathematics is delighted to announce the establishment of the Philip C. Curtis Jr. Center for Mathematics and Teaching. The Curtis Center is dedicated to developing and supporting quality mathematics programs that interface with the K-12 community, including outreach programs for K-12 students, professional development programs for K-12 teachers, and teacher preparation programs for UCLA undergraduates. For more details, see the full announcement of the establishment of the Curtis Center at www.math.ucla.edu/education/matheducation.shtml.
UCLA Math Student Awarded Clay Liftoff Fellowship
The Clay Mathematics Institute has named UCLA Mathematics Ph.D. student Adrian Ioana as a 2007 Clay Liftoff fellow. He completed his thesis "Rigidity results in the orbit equivalence theory of non-amenable groups" under Professor Sorin Popa. Ioana will use the Liftoff award in summer 2007 at Texas A&M University under Professor Gilles Pisier and has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech in fall 2007. The Clay Liftoff Fellowships are awarded to young mathematicians who have demonstrated mathematical research of quality and significance, and who show the potential to be leaders in their field.
AMS Honors UCLA Mathematics with Award
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has presented its second annual 2007 Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department to the UCLA Department of Mathematics. The award recognizes a department that has distinguished itself by undertaking an unusual or particularly effective program of value to the mathematics community, internally or in relation to the rest of society. AMS cited UCLA Math's comprehensive vision for its undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and K-12 math education programs, as well as its important interactions with the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), and "providing an outstanding model of all that a mathematics department can be." View the full award article in the June/July 2007 Notices of the AMS. See additional links:
| AMS Press Release | UCLA Today | UCLA Home |
UCLA Math SIAM/ACM Prize Winners
Former UCLA Math student and Brown University mathematics professor Chi-Wang Shu received the 2007 SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering in Costa Mesa in February. Shu completed his PhD at UCLA under Professor Stanley Osher in 1986. UCLA Math Professor-in-Residence Achi Brandt received the prize in 2005. For more about the award, see http://www.siam.org/prizes/sponsored/cse.php
New York Times Features Professor Terence Tao
In a front page Science Times feature of the March 13, 2007 edition of The New York Times, UCLA mathematics professor and 2006 Fields medalist Terence Tao is profiled with a special focus on his January 17, 2007, standing room only colloquia on "Structure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers." The article can be viewed at this link (registration required). Also, a webcast of the lecture can be seen at http://www.webcast.ucla.edu.
First Endowed Chair in Mathematics
UCLA Mathematics Professor Terence Tao has become the first scholar appointed to UCLA's James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Science. Visionary donors and UCLA alumni Jim and Carol Collins gave the College a $1 million gift to endow this chair. While the vast majority of endowed chairs are designated in one particular field, the Collins Chair may be awarded to a professor in any of the College's more than 30 departments. Collins said he and his wife are "delighted" that Tao has been appointed and said Tao is "one of a kind."
Professor Stanley Osher Receives USACM Award
The United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) has awarded UCLA Mathematics Professor Stan Osher its 2007 Computational and Applied Sciences Award for his pioneering work in high resolution schemes for hyperbolic conservation laws and Hamilton-Jacobi equations, level set methods for moving fronts involving topological changes, and total variation and PDE based image processing techniques. The award will be given at the 9th U.S. National Congress in Computational Mechanics to be held in San Francisco on July 23-26, 2007.
Professor Stan Osher Awarded Docteur Honoris Causa from ENS de Cachan
UCLA Mathematics Professor Stanley Osher was awarded the Docteur Honoris Causa from ENS de Cachan, a prestigious public institution of research and higher education founded in 1912 and one of France's four "Grandes Ecole." Honored for his contributions in reshaping the discipline of numerical analysis, Dr. Osher invented innovative numerical technologies and applied them to nearly all fields of numerical simulation, from aeronautics to material science, and from brain science to the movie industry. This award follows Dr. Osher's election to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist. Dr. Osher also serves as the Director of Special Projects for the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA.
Math Grad Receives Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award
UCLA Mathematics PhD student Ronald Lok Ming Liu has been chosen to receive the Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award for 2006-2007. The annual awards are based on faculty recommendations and honor graduate students who have demonstrated exemplary academic achievement, research and university citizenship.
UCLA Associate Professor Narutaka Ozawa Awarded 2006 Analysis Prize
Associate Professor Narutaka Ozawa received the prestigious 2006 Analysis Prize from the Mathematical Society of Japan for his study of the structure of type II1 factors. Established in 2002, the prize honors researchers who have attained remarkable achievement in the field of mathematical analysis or related field.
UCLA's Tony F. Chan Heads Math and Physical Sciences at NSF
Tony F. Chan, UCLA Dean of Physical Sciences and Professor of Mathematics has been named Assistant Director for Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) at NSF. In his new position starting October 1st, 2006 Chan will oversee a research budget of approximately $1 billion a year to support astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science and multidisciplinary activities. Says NSF Director Arden L. Bement Jr., "America has turned to the foundation for leadership in fundamental research and in sustaining our national competitiveness. No one is better suited to meet that challenge than Tony Chan."
UCLA Math Emeritus Professor Wins Prestigious Abel Prize
UCLA Mathematics Emeritus Professor Lennart Carleson has been awarded the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. This award is named for the brilliant 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, and is widely considered to be the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics." The prize comes with a monetary award of $920,000 USD, and was given for Carleson's "profound and seminal contributions to harmonic analysis and the theory of smooth dynamical systems."
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