News Archive

  • Izaak Wirszup, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics and the College of the University of Chicago, died Wednesday in his Chicago home. He was 93. Wirszup, who played a key role in alerting the nation to the importance of improving mathematics education, spent a lifetime working for it, and remained engaged in the work until the end of his life. In 1983, he helped establish the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. That project has grown to become the nation's largest university-based curriculum project for kindergarten through 12th-grade mathematics. An estimated 3.5 to 4 million students in elementary and secondary schools in every state and virtually every major urban area now use UCSMP materials.
    In an interview with the University of Chicago alumni magazine, Wirszup said he was inspired by his experiences as a Holocaust survivor to make a contribution to society.
    Many alumni remember Wiszsup and his wife, Pera, when they were Resident Masters of the dormitory Woodward Court. They served in the position from 1971 to 1985 and started a lecture series to help advance closer social relations between faculty and students. In 1986, one of Wirszup's former students endowed the Wirszup Lectures.
    Wirszup joined the Chicago faculty as an Instructor in Mathematics in 1949 after receiving a message from his former professor, Antoni Zygmund, encouraging him to come to Chicago. Wirszup received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University in 1955 and was named Professor in Mathematics in 1965. He received the Quantrell Award, the University's highest honor for teaching undergraduates, in 1958.
    Wirszup is remembered by those who knew him for his warm and generous spirit. The University News Office is compiling remembrances of Izaak Wirszup. You may send your personal thoughts to Bill Harms, w-harms@uchicago.edu.
    Services will be 11 a.m. Monday in the KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd. Besides his wife, Pera, Wirszup is survived by his daughter, Marina Tatar; granddaughters, Carolyn Tatar, Dr. Audrey Tatar, and Lauren Tatar; and six great-grandsons.

    To read more, please go to this link.


  • Carlos Kenig, the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in Mathematics and the College, has been named co-recipient of the 2008 Maxime Bôcher Memorial Prize from the American Mathematical Society for his work in mathematical analysis. The 2008 prize's other co-recipients are Charles Fefferman, who is currently Professor at Princeton University and was previously Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, and Alberto Bressan, Professor at Penn State University. The AMS cited Kenig specifically "for his important contributions to harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, and in particular nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations."

    The AMS awards the Bôcher Prize every three years. Previous recipients with Chicago connections include the late Alberto Calderón in 1979 and Frank Merle of France's University of Cergy-Pontoise in 2005. Merle who is currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, co-authored one of the three papers with Kenig that are singled out for praise in the latter's Bôcher Prize citation. Co-authoring another of those papers with Kenig were Gustavo Ponce, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Santa Barbara and formerly Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, and Luis Vega, Professor at the University of the Basque Country in Spain and formerly Dickson Instructor in Chicago. The third paper was co-authored with Alex Ionescu, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

    To read more, please see this link.


  • The December 2007 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society features an in-depth article on the career of Irving Kaplansky (1917-2006), professor of mathematics at the Universty of Chicago from 1945 until his retirement in 1984, and chairman of the Department of Mathematics during 1962-1967. Written by Professors Hyman Bass (PhD Chicago, 1959) and T.Y. Lam (PhD Columbia, 1967; a student of Bass and one of Kap's 627 descendents, and a former instructor at Chicago), the article includes remembrances and tributes written by colleagues and students, many of them Chicago alumni.


  • Graduate students awards:
    • Irene Peng is the first winner of the annual Kowalsky Fellowship. Irene, a student of Professor Alex Eskin, studies the large scale geometry of groups. The Kowalski Fellowship provides support for a graduate student, preferably a woman, during the year when she is expected to complete a dissertation. The Fellowship provides a partial reduction in teaching responsibilities and a supplement to the usual graduate student stipend. The award is established through a bequest from Walter and Yvonne Kowalsky in memory of their daughter Nadine Kowalsky, who died of leukemia in 1996. Nadine graduated from the University of Chicago in 1994 with a dissertation directed by Robert Zimmer.
    • Qëndrim Gashi is the winner of the Carlos Isnard Recognition Award in Mathematics, consisting of $1,000 and an award certificate. Gashi, a student of Professor Robert Kottwitz, is interested in toric varieties. The award honors the memory of Carlos Isnard who graduated from the University of Chicago with a dissertation directed by Felix Browder. Isnard was a professor at IMPA Brazil until his death in 2006. The award was established through a gift from his daughter, Ana Luisa Isnard and her husband Jordan Perlow. The award recognizes a foreign graduate student for qualities and achievements reminiscent of those of Carlos Isnard, including scholarly achievements in mathematics, creative thought, humanism and University and community involvement.
    • Travis Schedler is the winner of the annual Highbridge Research Award. The award consisting of $5,000 and an award certificate, is given to the graduate student submitting the most promising research preprint. Schedler, a student of Professor Victor Ginzburg, is interested in non-commutative symplectic geometry. The Highbridge Capital Management firm is interested in promoting excellence in research in mathematics and in strengthening its ties to the Department of Mathematics of the University of Chicago.

  • Paul Sally Jr., Professor in Mathematics and the College, was profiled in a Monday, Oct. 1 Boston Globe story, which was published following his visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The article described Sally's career as a research mathematician and a beloved teacher. Sally is the founder and director of Seminars for Elementary Specialists and Mathematics Educators (SESAME). He also directs the Young Scholars Program providing mathematical enrichment for gifted Chicago-area students in grades 7-12.

    Link to the story: click here .