Category Archives: People

More stories, People, Uncategorized

Meet Max Hill

Max Hill joined our department this January as a Temporary Assistant Professor.

Let me first say: welcome to our department! What type of mathematics are you interested in?

Max: I am interested in applications of probability theory and algebraic statistics to further our understanding of evolution and the tree of life.

Do you have a favorite open problem?

Max: A favorite open problem? I am really interested in the following open conjecture, which I learned about from Olivier Gascuel last year:

Suppose you have ‘perfect data’ for some set of taxa (i.e., you have infinitely long DNA sequences from them!) and that you know the topology of their evolutionary tree. Then Gascuel conjectures that under standard DNA substitution models, the likelihood function has no local maxima other than the global maxima.

While at first this conjecture seems rather artificial, whether or not this it is true turns out to have important implications for widely-used maximum likelihood estimation algorithms—namely, whether they are consistent.

What types of courses are you most excited to teach?

Max: I learn a lot every time I teach a new course. Even when it’s something I think I am really familiar with, I find myself making new connections. This, along with interacting with my students, are two of the main joys for me of teaching math. This semester I am so happy to be teaching Math 372 (Probability and Statistics), because I really just love the ‘flavor’ of the subject, with dice and coins and betting games and all of that, which are things that make the subject come alive to me.

What have you liked the most about Hawai’i so far?

Max: About the island: The mountains and the warm breeze. About UH Manoa: Working with Dr Gross and her students has been great; they have made this a wonderful environment for me to grow and do research here. About the city: I really like Don Quijote.

Can you tell us something about yourself that might be surprising?

Max: I really like to sail, though I’ve never said on the ocean (yet).

High school, Outreach, Research, Undergrad posts

Distinguished Lecture Series: Jordan Ellenberg

The 2025 Distinguished Lectures are coming up! Our speaker is Jordan Ellenberg from the University of Wisconsin. He is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the NYTimes Best-selling author of “How Not to be Wrong” and “Shape”.

The color version of my author photo, by Mats Rudels.

He will give 3 lectures:

Colloquium: Friday, March 28, 3:30pm (PSB 217)
What does artificial intelligence have to offer mathematics?

Public Lecture: Monday, March 31, 5:30pm (PSB 217)
From malaria to ChatGPT: the birth and strange life of the random walk

Seminar: Wednesday, April 2, 3:30pm (Keller 303)
Smyth’s conjecture and a non-deterministic Hasse principle

For questions email erman@hawaii.edu

Outreach, Undergrad courses, Undergrad posts

Math 100 students fight pollution in Ala Wai Canal

As part of a project for their Math 100 course–taught by math faculty members Monique Chyba and Sarah Widiasih Post and gradaute students Moriah Aberle, Shubham Joshi, John Dukes, Christa Gogue– undergraduate students worked to combat pollution in in the Ala Wai Canal in Honolulu.  In mid-October, students made 1972 genki balls, which are balls of dense soil that contains nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, guided by their professors, TA’s, and volunteers from the  Genki Ala Wai Project.  In class, students performed computations with scientific notation and analyzed data to understand the positive effects that these genki balls could have on the ecosystem of the canal.  The balls were released into Ala Wai Canal on November 9, and the event was covered by UH News and by KITV.

 

“Quantitative reasoning and critical thinking are incredibly important skills to develop to understand and adapt to environmental as well as societal changes,” said Professor Monique Chyba.  “Math 100 is designed to teach those skills in context, students are exploring how to mathematics are interconnected with relevant aspects of their life regardless of their majors. The Genki balls project served as a bridge to expose the students to the benefits of a mathematical approach to maximize the impact of actions in environmental issues. “

People, Research, Uncategorized

Meet Forrest Glebe

Forrest Glebe is a new postdoc in our department.

DE:  Let me first say: welcome to our department! What type of mathematics are you interested in?

FG: I am interested in operator algebras and group theory. So far I have studied so-called “stability properties” of groups. My research has been to come up with explicit “almost representations” of the group that are “far” from actual representations.

 

DE: Do you have a favorite open problem?

FG: One open question I’m interested in is whether or not all groups are MF (matricial field). Roughly the MF condition says that all groups have enough “almost representations” to separate points in the group. This is the operator norm version of the more famous problems, “Are all groups hyperlinear?” and “Are all groups sofic?”

 DE: What’s your opinion? Do you think this could be true or are you looking for counterexamples?

FG: I think this is probably too good to be true, but who knows?

 

DE: What types of courses are you most excited to teach?

FG: When I first took an intro to proofs class it really changed the way I thought about math. I’m teaching 331 next semester, and I’m excited about it!

 

DE: What have you liked the most about Hawai’i so far?

FG: I’ve really enjoyed the sunrise and sunsets so far!

 

DE: Can you tell us something about yourself that might be surprising?

FG: In high school I was a theatre kid.  I was Professor Plum in our school’s adaptation of the film Clue.

 

DE: Thank you!