Last Update: April 11, 2024

Ph.D. Students

• Sheldon Parnes, Temple, 1993; linkedin page Senior Software Engineer at ANSYS; formely: Mentor Graphics.

• Ethan Lewis, Penn, 1994; for many years:IBM, Israel; currently: Adjunct Professor, Arcadia University.

• Craig Orr, Temple, 1994 ,NSA.

• John Majewicz , Temple, 1997 ; Comm. College of Phila. 1997-2009; Florida Keys Community College, 2009-2013; Penn State at Abington, Aug. 2013- .

• John Noonan, Temple, 1997; Mt. Vernon Nazarene College, OH.

• Tewodros Amdeberhan, Temple, 1997; deVry Inst. of Tech., NJ (1997-2005), DIMACS (2001-), Tulane (2005-). MIT(visiting, 2007-2008). [Tewodros's page at MIT].
  Currently: Senior Professor of Practice, Tulane University Mathematics Department.

• Melkamu Zeleke, Temple, 1998; William Patterson Univ., Wayne, NJ. Currently: Professor of Mathematics. Department Chair (2004-2010).

• Aaron Robertson, Temple, 1999; Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY. Currently: Professor and Chair of Mathematics, Colgate University.

• Akalu Tefara, Temple, 2000; Grand Valley State Univ., MI (2000-); visited MIT (2006-2007). Currently: Professor of Mathematics.

• Anne Edlin , Temple, 2000; linkedin page; Cecil College, formerly Lasalle; Currently: Professor of Mathematics, Cecil College.

• Xinyu Sun, Temple, defended his thesis in Spring 2004; Texas A&M (2004-2007), Tulane(2007-2009), Xavier(2009-2012), High-tech industry(2012-).

• Xiangdong Wen, Temple, 2005 ; Wolfram demos page; Wolfram Research.

• Vince Vatter , Rutgers. Defended his thesis on Nov. 17, 2005. St. Andrews (2005-2007) ;Awarded an NSF posdoc at MIT, but declined, to be a quantitative analyst at D.E. Shaw (2007-2007), only to realize that greedy math is not for him. Vince then became John Wesley Young research instructor at Darthmouth (2008-2010). In the Spring of 2010, Vince has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Florida, (2010-). Tenured Associate Professor (2014-). Currently: Professor (2020-.)
  Thanks to Vince, I now have numerous grandchildren, and via Robert Brignall, even two great-grandsons, David Bevan and Jakub Sliacan, and David Marchant

  Added July 7, 2023: Here is a photo (taken July 6, 2023, courtesy of Jay Pantone) comprising four generations and five descendants: my academic son: Vince Vatter, rightmost; my academic grand-children: Robert Brignall (2nd from left) and Jay Pantone (2nd from right); my academic great-grandson, David Bevan (leftmost); my academic great-great-grandson, Dan Threlfall (middle);

• Moa Apagodu, Rutgers, 2006;Virginia Commonwealth University.
  Currently: Associate Professor of Mathematics, Virginia Commonwealth University.

• Lara Pudwell , Rutgers. Lara defended her thesis on April 7, 2008. Valparaiso Univ., (Indiana), tenure-track Asst. Prof. (Aug. 2008-2014). Tenured Associate Professor (2014-2021). Aug. 2021- Tenured Full Professor. Here is Lara Pudwell's Professorial Lecture .
  Lara Pudwell got, in 2007, the School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education as a Teaching Assistant (See here).
  In 2014 Lara got the MAA Adler award.
  In 2021, Lara got the Excellence in Teaching award

• Thotsaporn Aek Thanatipanonda, Rutgers. Aek defended his thesis on Aug. 25, 2008. Visiting Asst. Prof. at Dickinson College (2008-2009), free-lance mathematician and Chess player in Thailand (2009-), Postdoctoral Fellow at RISC-Linz (2010-2011). Currently (2023): Associate Professor, Mahidol University, Salaya Campus, Thailand.
  Thotsaporn Aek Thanatipanonda got, in 2008, Dean's Award for Excellence in Research from the Graduate School (See here).

• Arvind Ayyer, Rutgers (Physics, joint with Joel Lebowtiz). Arvind defended his thesis on Sept. 25, 2008. Postdoctoral Fellow, Institut de Physique Théorique, Saclay, France (2008-2010), Krener Asst. Prof., UC Davis(2010-2013); Indian Institute of Sci., Bangalore: Asst. Prof. of Mathematics (2013-2018); Currently (2018-): Assoc. Prof. of Mathematics .
  Added Feb. 5, 2021: Arvind just became an academic father of Dipankar Roy and Subhajit Ghos, see here

• Eric Rowland, Rutgers . Eric defended his thesis on April 2, 2009. VIGRE Visiting Assistant Professor, Tulane University, (2009-2011); Postdoctoral position, UQAM (2011-2014). Marie Curie Actions COFUND postdoctoral fellow, University of Liege (2014-2016). Assistant professor, Hofstra University (2016-2020). Currently (2021): Associate Professor, Hofstra University.
  [Added April 15, 2021: Eric is the 2021 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award presented by the Metropolitan New York Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)]

• Paul Raff, [linkedin] Rutgers. Paul defended (here are the slides) his thesis on Aug. 14, 2009.
  Currently: Staff Data Scientist, Reddit.Previously: Principal Data Scientist at Aetna (Apr. 2020- Oct. 2021) Research Fellow, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers (2009-2010), Member of R&D team, amazon.com (in Seattle) (2010-2012), Applied Researcher, Bing Data Mining team, Microsoft (2012-Jan.2014), Senior Applied Researcher at Bing Data Mining team, Microsoft (Feb.2014-Sept. 2015). Principal Data Scientist Lead at Microsoft (Aug. 2018-Apr. 2020)
  Paul Raff got, in 2008, the School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education as a Teaching Assistant (See here).

• Emilie (b. Hogan) Purvine Rutgers . Emilie defended (here is the movie: part 1, part 2, ) her thesis on April 7, 2011. Currently: Principal Investigator. Formerly: Computational Mathematics Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2012-2015; Postdoctoral Research Associate at PNNL (Aug. 2011-Nov. 2012).

• Andrew Baxter, Rutgers. Andrew defended (here is the novie: part 1, part 2) his thesis on April 14, 2011. Currently: Associate Teaching Professor of Mathematics, 2018-; Previously: Lecturer of Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University,2011-2018. Also Pennsylvania Mathematics Initiative Workshop Director. 2012-.
  Andrew Baxter got, in 2009, the School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education as a Teaching Assistant (See here).
  Added May 18, 2019: Andrew Baxter won the prestigious Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching

• Brian Nakamura, Rutgers. Brian defended (here is the movie: part 1, part 2) his thesis on March 28, 2013; here are the slides. Currently (2021-): Google.
  Peviously: Postdoctoral associate CCICADA, (July 2013-2015)], private industry, New York City.

• Kellen Myers, Rutgers. Kellen defended (here is the movie: part 1, part 2) his thesis on April 6, 2015. Currently: Assistant Professor, Tusculum University, Tennessee. Formerly: Tenure-track assistant professor, SUNY Farmingdale, 2015-2016; Research Fellow, Univesity of Tennessee, 2016-2020.
  Kellen Myers got, in 2015, Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student from the Graduate School (See here).

• Matthew Russell, Rutgers, (co-advised by Vladimir Retakh, and also interacted with James Lepowsky). Matthew defended (here is the movie: vimeo:part 1,part 2     youtube: part 1,part 2 ) his thesis on April 7, 2016.
  Current position: Lecturer, Univesity of Illinios, Urbana-Champaig (2022-)
  (Before that: Teaching Instructor of Mathematics (2016-2018), Teaching Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University (2018-2021)).
  Matthew Russell got an 2016 award for distinguished contributions to undergraduate education.

• Nathaniel Shar,Rutgers, Nathaniel defended (here is the movie: vimeo:part 1,part 2     youtube: part 1,part 2) his thesis on March 31, 2016. Google, June 2016-.

• Nathan Fox, defended (here is the movie: vimeo:part 1,part 2     youtube: part 1,part 2) ) his thesis [Here are the slides ] on March 31, 2016. Visiting Assistant Professor, College of Wooster, Ohio (Sept. 2017-2020). Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Canisius College (2020-).
  [old page]

• Anthony Zaleski defended his thesis on March 29, 2018 (here is the movie: vimeo: part 1,part 2) [Here are the slides ]
  Current affiliation (Aug. 2018-): Blueshift Asset Management.

• Bryan Ek defended his thesis on March 29, 2018 (here is the movie: vimeo: part 1,part 2) [Here are the slides ];
  Current affiliation (July 2018-): SPAWAR, Charleston, SC .

• Andrew Lohr defended his thesis on April 5, 2018. (here is the movie: vimeo: part 1,part 2) [Here are the slides ]
  Current affiliation (July 2018-): Microsoft, Redmond, WA.

• Richard Voepel, Rutgers, [fulfilled all the requirements for a PhD, including the research for the thesis, ( see this paper and this paper) but decided to withdraw without defending]

• Yukun Yao [姚宇坤] , Rutgers, defended his thesis on March 17, 2020. [slides].
  Currently: Goldman Sachs, NY, (2020-)

• Yonah Biers-Ariel, Rutgers, defended his thesis on March 24, 2020. [slides].
  linkedin. Currently: Quantitative Trader, Jane Street, NY. (2020-)

• Mingjia Yang [杨明佳] defended her thesis on March 24, 2020. [slides]

• Blair Seidler ( linkedin), defended his thesis on Aug. 14, 2023. [slides]
  Currently: Teacher, Fair Lawn Highchool]

• AJ Bu (Alison J. Bu) defended their thesis on Feb. 29, 2024. [slides]

• Robert Dougerty-Bliss defended his thesis on March 4, 2024. [slides]
  [Robert's brilliant post]

• George Spahn defended his thesis on March 4, 2024. [slides]

  ---

• Lucy Martinez, current student.

Masters Students

• Trevor Bass, Rutgers [defended his master's thesis on June 6, 2005.]

• David John Wilson, Rutgers [defended (here is the movie: part 1, part 2] his master's thesis (an exposition of the future!) on April 21, 2011. PhD University of Bath, UK, 2014 ] [Read also report].)

• Aron Samkoff, Rutgers [defended his master's thesis on April 13, 2015. See also Maple code ]

• Ha Luu, Rutgers [defended her master's thesis on Dec. 10, 2015. See also first Maple code and second Maple code].

• Emily Kukura, Rutgers [defended her master's thesis on April 10, 2017. [Here are her slides.] See also Maple code (and some sample input and output files) in this directory]

Postdoctoral Mentees

• Andrew Sills (2003-2007), currently Full Professor of mathematics, Georgia Southern University

• Debbie Yuster (2007-2009,co-mentored with Fred Roberts) currently, Ramapo College of New Jersey.

• Luis Medina (2008-2010), currently Full Professor of mathematics, Univerity of Puerto-Rico.

• Jonathan Bloom (2014-2015). Currently: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of mathematics, Lafayette College .

• Amita Malik (2017-2020). Currently: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of mathematics, Penn State University.

• Stoyan Dimitrov (2022-).

Added July 3, 2020: Here are screenshots of the participants in Dr. Z.'s 70th surprise birthday party (taken by Yukun Yao) pic1   pic2 . mesiba passwd: C₃₅ .