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On Thursday, November 30th, 2023, the LSU MATH 4020 Capstone Course lead by Professor Peter Wolenski and Professor Nadejda Drenska conducted presentations from four separate research teams of students. Each project represented the achievements of an intense semester long effort exploring the practical applications of mathematics research. These research projects unfolded throughout the fall semester, with graduate student leaders guiding and collaborating with undergraduate students in each team.

Iswarya Sitiraju is the 2023 recipient of the Pasquale Porcelli Graduate Student Research Excellence Award. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation under Professor Gestur Olafsson, with an expected graduation in Summer 2024. Her research focuses on homogeneous spaces, abstract harmonic analysis, and mathematical physics. She has already submitted an article to a top-tier journal in her field and is preparing another paper on deep learning with Professor Peter Wolenski.

 A team from the LSU Department of Mathematics was recently awarded a $2.5 million NSF Research Training Group Grant to support initiatives for students and early-career mathematicians seeking to engage in cutting-edge research in the fields of topology, representation theory, and mathematical physics. The LSU team consists of lead PI Dr. Pramod Achar, along with four Co-PIs: Dr. Pallavi Dani, Dr. Gestur Olafsson, Dr. David Shea Vela-Vick, and Dr.

 The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Zhiyu Wang was a Hale Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in 2020 from the University of South Carolina. 

 The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Xingting Wang was an Assistant Professor at Howard University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2014. 

His research interests include Quantum Groups and Mathematical Physics and is funded by a grant of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

 The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Manasa Vempati was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech and in Fall 2022, she was on leave as a postdoctoral fellow at ICERM, Brown University. 

She received her Ph.D. in 2021 from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research interests include harmonic analysis and PDE’s.

The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: 

Xiaoqi Huang was a Novikov Postdoctoral Fellow at Math Department of University of Maryland. He obtained his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 2021. 

His research interests lie within harmonic analysis, partial differential equations and mathematical physics. 

The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Ben Fehrman was a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK. His research is funded through an EPSRC Early Career Grant. He received his Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Chicago. 

His research interests are in Stochastic partial differential equations and Data analysis/Machine learning.

The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Nadia Drenska was a Rufus Isaacs Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Johns Hopkins University. She received her Ph.D. in 2017 from NYU. Her research interests include financial mathematics, optimal control theory, and data science (online machine learning problems).

The LSU Math Department welcomes its new Assistant Professors: Ana Balibanu was a Benjamin Peirce Fellow and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in 2017 from the University of Chicago, and her research interests are in geometric representation theory.