As any researcher will tell, the most daunting challenge of their field is often to find a strong connection between the hard work they do and the funding needed to make it happen.

It can be a difficult bridge to build, which is why the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CAREER Program provides grants to talented individuals to elevate their efforts to new heights. Harold Blum is among these awardees, having secured $450,000 in funding to support his research.

This is not Blum’s first connection with the foundation. Under the mentorship of department chair Tommaso de Fernex, Blum held an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship here at the University of Utah. After continuing and finishing said fellowship at Stony Brook University, he circled back to take up an assistant professor position, where he worked for many years.Blum’s research focuses on algebraic geometry, specifically in the area of higher dimensional shapes. A particular aim of his that the grant is financing is to develop theory for constructing parameter spaces of Calabi-Yau manifolds, a concept used heavily in string theory. But that’s not to say all his work is 6th dimensional, as algebraic geometry has far-reaching applications. “One of the reasons I find this field so interesting is that it combines so many aspects of mathematics,” Blum explains, continuing that “modern algebraic geometry research involves inputs from mathematical physics, differential geometry and number theory. As well, algebraic geometry has been applied to areas including cryptography, computer vision, and optics.”

With such a varied combination of fields, a strong interconnected community is required to bring in the necessary expertise. Blum has been delighted to find that community at the U, celebrating it as “a hub for research in algebraic geometry since the 1980s.” He’s enjoyed these connections with the faculty, postdocs and graduate students that share in his field, as well as those with his students. The community of mathematics in general is something Blum views very fondly, as he’s “learned so much from all my collaborators, and it’s simply more exciting doing math with other people than it is doing it alone.”

Blum’s journey will be taking him away from the U to Georgia Tech at the end of this academic year, and while we’re sad to see him go we also applaud the fantastic work he did here and the awarding of his grant. 

And it’s not like his influence is gone. Those community connections will always hold strong, collaborative work will continue, and we eagerly await what new heights his research will take him next. ~Michael Jacobsen

The Department of Mathematics celebrates the recognition of two professors on achieving a Simons Fellowship: Mladen Bestvina and Yekaterina Yuryevna Epshteyn.

The Simons Fellows in Mathematics program, offered by the Simons Foundation, provides tenured faculty in mathematics with a monetary award to extend a sabbatical from one term to a full academic year for related research expenses. Fellows are expected to focus intensively on high-level theoretical research during this leave, using the extended time to make significant advances in their fields. To qualify, applicants must hold a tenured, primary mathematics department appointment, be eligible for sabbatical leave and have institutional approval for a year-long research leave.

Mladen Bestvina

Originally from Croatia, Mladen Bestvina earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Zagreb before completing a Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee in 1984. After beginning his academic career at UCLA, he joined the U in 1994. His research lies in topology, with a focus on geometric group theory—an area that explores algebraic structures through geometric and topological methods.

As a Simons Fellow, he values the honor and the opportunity to participate in programs at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge and SLMath in Berkeley. Outside of mathematics, he enjoys biking, hiking, and playing chess.

 Yekaterina Yuryevna Epshteyn

“Katya” earned her undergraduate degree in applied mathematics and physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 2000 before immigrating to the United States as a refugee. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007, followed by an NSF-RTG postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University.

Her current research focuses on two major areas: the development of mathematical and computational models for microstructure evolution in polycrystalline materials, and the design of robust, structure-preserving algorithms for hyperbolic balance laws and related systems with uncertainty. These efforts not only address fundamental mathematical challenges but also have wide-ranging applications in engineering and the physical sciences. This past May she helped organize and host the annual NSF CompMath meeting at the U. 

As a Simons Fellow, she is honored to receive support for her first sabbatical after 15 years at the U. The fellowship offers valuable opportunities for her including focused research, travel, collaboration with colleagues, and exploration of new directions. She is deeply grateful to her mentors, collaborators, and students. Beyond mathematics, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, engaging in outdoor activities, and exploring the arts.

In the constant chaotic communication of the modern day it is vitally important to find promising individuals and raise them above the noise. That is the role of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER program: to find talented researchers and give them funding to catapult their work to new heights.

Anna Little has earned her place amongst those recipients, which includes her colleague Harold Bloom, receiving a grant of $550,000 to advance to the next stage of her career.

A Duke University alumna, Little received her Ph.D. in mathematics there before moving on to a teaching position at Jacksonville University. In an ambitious gamble she left that tenure track position for a research postdoctoral researcher appointment at Michigan State, which clearly paid dividends by setting the groundwork for research she’s being rewarded for today here at the U. 

Little’s work focuses on using geometric methods for high-dimensional data analysis, a particularly useful subject. While current technology allows us to collect huge amounts of data, it is often difficult to analyze that data in numerical form. But analyzing it geometrically can circumvent this issue, visually presenting shapes and patterns amongst the chaos. It is an approach that can be applied to many forms of data, and as Little describes, it really helps break up the “noise.”

“If you’re trying to take a picture of a molecule, you’re going to have a lot of noise in that data,” Little explains, defining that “by noise I mean measurement errors, random shifts or rotations. You’re trying to extract data from a complicated setting.” Noise of this kind is often unavoidable and can start corrupting data, but that’s where the math comes in to repair those gaps. 

On top of this high dimensional analysis, Little is also interested in inverse problems and signal processing. In particular, the analysis of mathematical models inspired by biological applications such as cryo-electron microscopy.

While she isn’t looking for these patterns inside the noise, she often spends her time assisting others to take a break from their own noisy lives. In an initiative that was also supported by her award, she led a retreat for doctorate students and postdocs. In such a highly strenuous field like STEM it can be challenging to find time to take care of oneself, leading to unsustainable performance. Little explains that “It’s important to work smart, to avoid burning out, and to understand one’s limits.”

Whether it be the noise of her research or the noise of life, Anna Little is taking the steps to both overcome it and help others do the same. And thanks to this award she’ll be able to continue to do so for many years to come.

My grandma was a teacher, and my mom studied teaching, so I grew up surrounded by educators. In high school, Math was my favorite subject.

The Department of Mathematics is hiring a bumper crop of new faculty members for the 2025-26 academic year. Two of them are profiled here:  Petar Bakić and Daniel Sinambela.

Finding the right questions
Petar Bakic

Petar Bakic

Petar Bakić, a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics. Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, Bakić graduated from the University of Zagreb and pursued a career in academia in research and teaching. For him, mathematics is finding the right questions to ask rather than seeking the answers to them.

His work centers on representation theory — a field in mathematics that employs linear algebra concepts (such as matrices) for studying the symmetries of spaces. It provides a concrete way to understand abstract algebraic structures by expressing them through linear transformations of vector spaces. Though it is inherently abstract, it connects to other applicable fields including harmonic analysis, geometry, number theory, and physics.

Abstract math researchers are often unheralded, as the complexity and nature of their research means it is not broadcasted to the general public to the same degree as other research fields. However, Bakić is part of a broad research community that is conducting research at an unprecedented rate — helping to advance our collective understanding and to push the frontiers of mathematics.

Beyond the research lab, Bakić enjoys being outdoors and exploring Utah. The Wasatch is a particular favorite for him to go hiking and on bike rides. Above all for Petar Bakić though, are activities involving friends and colleagues. 

by Ethan Hood

The Department of Mathematics is hiring a bumper crop of new faculty members for the 2025-26 academic year. Two of them are profiled here: Chris Miles and Tim Tribone.

Tim Tribone

Finding the right Level

Tim Tribone

Everyone learns in different ways. Some are great at memorization, others visualization.  Where one person learns well in a group another will thrive on their own. This can lead to roadblocks in subjects like math, as it can be tricky to approach students at a level they understand and in a way they mesh with. If overcome it reveals a massive strength of the field: teaching problem-solving and pattern-recognition skills that are useful anywhere. But the process of getting there, of finding that level students are at, can be a complicated challenge. 

Enter Tim Tribone, who among other things has led undergraduate research focused on the mathematics behind card games, taught classes at every level and worked with students exploring virtual reality as a pre-calculus teaching tool.

Tribone has a knack for finding new approaches to meet a student’s needs and interests, a skill that developed from r his own educational journey. Originally a music major, he eventually shifted towards math following the guidance of a mentor. He would continue working his way to a Ph.D. from Syracuse University before taking  a postdoctoral researcher position here at the U.

Along the way, Tribone has learned the importance of helping students at the level they currently are. For his undergraduate researchers he’s learned from his music major experience to create an environment that shows them what a career in math is like. But for his students in business math it’s far more important to treat math like a toolbox, focusing more on direct use and applications so a student can recognize, for example, why an Excel equation isn’t working. 

This sort of teaching is Tim Tribone’s focus moving forward as he takes a faculty position at the U. He enjoys working with postdocs, faculty and undergraduates in research, but he’ll be devoting the lion’s share of his time to teaching. Any student can learn and excel in mathematics, you just need to find the right level for them to do so.  

Blazing a New Trail
Chris Miles

Chris Miles

As technology evolves and industries grow, education must adapt to prepare the next generation for these upcoming opportunities.This requires bringing in new instructors to teach new classes, a rare and exciting opportunity to design entirely new curriculums. The new bioinformatics major is one such initiative, a trailblazing endeavor that new math faculty Chris Miles will soon be joining. 

Or perhaps “rejoining” would be the better word to use here as Miles is one of our own alumni. A first-generation student originally from Pennsylvania, he’s returning to the U after teaching at both New York University and UC Irvine. Called back in part by the aforementioned new major, he explains that “It’s an exciting chance to build something new here; it’s a perfect project- based subject to design classes around.” 

When asked to describe his vision for these new classes, he says that “In this field, you often have biological data from an experiment and have to figure out what to do with it. I want to expose students to that process, present data and encourage them to figure out how to use it. There’s no right answer!” That’s the beauty of a new degree, there’s no tradition that must be adhered to, so you truly get to design whatever works best.

On top of helping to pioneer the bioinformatics curriculum, Miles will also continue his research in “mathematical biology,” which includes the applications of mathematical modeling and AI with biological data. Machine learning allows researchers to survey all data in a set simultaneously and find patterns or equations: in the study of cells, these equations work to help us understand why cells work so well despite being built by seemingly random and disorderly molecular building blocks. Miles describes a field of two extremes where “some researchers will write equations for what they think is true of biology while others let AI decide.” He continues with,“I think it's fun to walk between the two extremes and take the best aspects of both.”

On a new path using new tools, adaptation is mandatory to succeed, but that’s an expertise Chris Miles brings to the table. He looks forward to teaching aspiring students in the upcoming semesters, pushing forward on this exciting new frontier of interdisciplinary discovery.