Lisa Piccirillo is to receive the 2019 Michael H. Granof Award, which recognizes the outstanding Ph.D. dissertation of the year from any UT Austin department. Lisa's Ph.D. thesis, "Knot Traces and the Slice Genus”, written under the supervision of Prof. John Luecke, contains several remarkable results in knot theory, including the theorem that the Conway knot is not slice, i.e., it does not bound a smooth embedded disk in the 4-ball. The Conway knot is notoriously difficult to handle, and was the only knot of at most 12 crossings for which the slice property had not been decided. Lisa has lectured widely on these results, and will begin an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, at Brandeis and MIT, in Fall 2019.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced that Karen Uhlenbeck is the recipient of the 2019 Abel Prize, a distinction comparable to the Nobel Prize.
Karen was the first Richardson Chair holder appointed to our department, in 1987. In 2014, she received Emerita status, and currently resides in Princeton, NJ, where she holds visiting positions at Princeton University and at IAS.
The statement from our department, cited by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, states (many thanks to Dan Freed for helping to prepare it):
At the University of Texas at Austin and the Department of Mathematics, we are delighted and tremendously proud of Karen Uhlenbeck, recipient of the 2019 Abel Prize. Karen was appointed as the first Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regent's Chairs in Mathematics in 1987. As a maverick mathematician, she regularly pursues new directions of research. At UT Austin, she transformed the fabric of the department with her broad view of mathematics and beyond, creating a vibrant, diverse geometry group. Her insatiable curiosity fuels both her deep vision in mathematics and wisdom in the human sphere, which was evident in her legendary generosity and attention to mentorship, especially benefiting young mathematicians: graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty members alike. She was one of the founders of the IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute, which inspired outreach activities at UT Austin, including one of the first Math Circles in the country, and her leadership made possible the Women and Mathematics program at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. It is immensely fitting that Karen receives the Abel Prize for her eminent research accomplishments. We congratulate Karen and express our gratitude for her 25 years at UT Austin, which left a legacy that we are celebrating today and which will live on for a long time.
Associate professor Rachel Ward is among 17 distinguished applied mathematicians selected for recognition at the 2019 SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE19). Her selection reflects "exemplary research, significant contributions, and outstanding service to the applied mathematics and computational science communities," according to SIAM News. "SIAM congratulates and thanks these individuals for their hard work and contributions, which strengthen and enhance the landscape of applied mathematics and computational science worldwide."
Her invited lecture will be livestreamed from the conference Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. PT/3 p.m. CT.
The DRP is a student organization which pairs undergraduate students with graduate student mentors to undertake reading projects in any area of mathematics. There are mentors and projects available for students with any math background, so this is a great opportunity for math majors and any students who want a more in-depth, personalized look at the mathematical world. Applications due February 1st through ma.utexas.edu/users/drp.
Associate professor Rachel Ward is among 17 distinguished applied mathematicians selected for recognition at the 