{"663811":{"#nid":"663811","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Meet Svetlana Jitomirskaya, Inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in Mathematics","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe College of Sciences is pleased to welcome \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.math.uci.edu\/~szhitomi\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESvetlana Jitomirskaya\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Distinguished Professor at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/uci.edu\u0022\u003EUniversity of California, Irvine,\u003C\/a\u003E and a prize-winning mathematician, as the inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jitormirskaya will arrive on campus in January 2023.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;The School of Mathematics is just delighted to welcome Professor Jitomirskaya,\u0026rdquo; said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/news\/michael-wolf-appointed-school-mathematics-chair\u0022\u003EMichael Wolf\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and chair of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026ldquo;We had hoped that the Hubbard Chair would be transformational for the School of Mathematics, and the appointment of Svetlana to this position exceeds our wildest ambitions. Known for her penetrating insights into mathematical physics and dynamics, she adds to our already premiere presence in mathematical physics \u0026mdash; an additional depth that rivals any other such center in North America.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJitomirskaya is one of seven new faculty members starting in Fall 2022 in the School of Mathematics. That number includes Wolf, who was named school chair in December 2021 and officially arrived at Georgia Tech last summer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe inspiration for the Hubbard Chair\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe chair is named for \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/hg\/item\/584887\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EElaine M. Hubbard\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (MATH 1972, M.S. MATH 1974, Ph.D. MATH 1980), who died in 2016 after a 28-year career as a mathematics professor at Kennesaw State University. Hubbard was a long-time friend and supporter of the School of Mathematics and a member of the College of Sciences Advisory Board.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHubbard \u0026ldquo;was a true innovator \u0026mdash; her delight in mathematics served to inspire her students,\u0026rdquo; said Paul Goldbart, who spoke at Hubbard\u0026rsquo;s memorial service six years ago and was then College of Sciences Dean. \u0026ldquo;She piloted the use of graphical calculators and gained national recognition and the Kennesaw Distinguished Teaching Award for her groundbreaking uses of technology. She spoke on mathematics education at conferences and campuses around the nation and received the Kennesaw State Alumni Association Achievement Award in 1994,\u0026rdquo; Goldbart said. \u0026ldquo;Elaine co-authored an amazing 13 textbooks on mathematics, important for their incorporation of the scholarship of teaching and learning to promote student success.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHubbard included a provision in her estate that established the Elaine M. Hubbard Endowed Chair for the School of Mathematics. Colleagues note that her passion was teaching, and the fund serves to support robust, leading-edge mathematics education and research at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Elaine Hubbard was a gentle champion of mathematics at Georgia Tech, and I believe she would be pleased by how this first result of her generosity and vision has propelled forward the school and all of its missions,\u0026rdquo; Wolf added.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026lsquo;A scientific granddaughter\u0026rsquo; of Russia\u0026rsquo;s greatest mathematician\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJitomirskaya was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, to parents who were both mathematicians. She has described both of them as survivors, having barely escaped as young children from the German invasion of Kiev (now Kyiv) in 1941.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMathematics excellence runs in her family. Her mother chaired the famed Department of Analysis at Kharkov State University (now V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University), and was also the only female professor of mathematics in Ukraine for some twenty years. Her father was a long-time chair of the Department of Mathematics at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.khadi.kharkov.ua\u0022\u003EKhADI\u003C\/a\u003E, an engineering school.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESvetlana left Kharkov (now Karkiv) at 16 to study at Moscow State University, and graduated under the supervision of Yaklov G. Sinai, himself a student of A.N. Kolmogorov, whom \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.math.gatech.edu\/~bunimovh\u0022\u003ELeonid Bunimovich\u003C\/a\u003E, Regents\u0026rsquo; Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics called \u0026ldquo;the greatest Russian mathematician ever.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJitomirskaya \u0026ldquo;brings to Georgia Tech a brilliant scientific genealogy which is really hard to match,\u0026rdquo; Bunimovich said. \u0026ldquo;She is a scientific granddaughter of A.N. Kolmogorov and her advisor Sinai is an \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/abelprize.no\/page\/history-abel-prize\u0022\u003EAbel Prize\u003C\/a\u003E winner. The spirit of this School is that mathematics is rigorously proved. In other words, mathematicians should not just prove what scientists and engineers already understood, but uncover why their ideas are right and show them the way further, and even bring in new ideas, which mathematicians must rigorously justify, especially in cases when these new ideas contradict \u0026lsquo;preexisting\u0026rsquo; physics intuition.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EInternational recognition\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJitomirskaya was awarded the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.maa.org\u0022\u003EAmerican Mathematical Association\u003C\/a\u003E in 2005, and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics awarded by the American Physics Association and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.aip.org\u0022\u003EAmerican Institute of Physics\u003C\/a\u003E in 2020. She has been a member of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.aaas.org\u0022\u003EAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)\u003C\/a\u003E since 2018, and was elected to the NAS in 2022. Jitomirskaya was invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mathunion.org\/icm\/icm-2022\u0022\u003EInternational Congress of Mathematicians\u003C\/a\u003E, held as a virtual event in July 2022.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn July 2022, Jitomirskaya was also announced as \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/2022\/07\/05\/new-award-for-mathematical-physics-the-olga-alexandrovna-ladyzhenskaya-prize-given-to-svetlana-jitomirskaya\/\u0022\u003Ethe first winner of a new award\u003C\/a\u003E for mathematical physics: the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/2022\/07\/05\/new-award-for-mathematical-physics-the-olga-alexandrovna-ladyzhenskaya-prize-given-to-svetlana-jitomirskaya\/\u0022\u003EOlga Alexandrovna Ladyzhenskaya Prize\u003C\/a\u003E. Wolf, the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics chair, said the prize celebrates the \u0026ldquo;extraordinary mathematical contributions in the middle part of the previous century of the Russian mathematician Olga Ladyzhenskaya.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJitomirskaya has also dedicated a large portion of her career to teaching. She received the University of California, Irvine Chancellor\u0026rsquo;s Award for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research in 2018. She has advised many graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, who eventually found positions in the academic world.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;There is no better choice than Svetlana Jitomirskaya to occupy this inaugural Chair,\u0026rdquo; added \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jeanbel.math.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJean Bellissard\u003C\/a\u003E, professor emeritus in the School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech, \u0026ldquo;as she is both a worldwide recognized expert in analysis, and widely appreciated among her students and her university for her dedication to teaching mathematics at the highest level of excellence.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Mathematics progresses through a sustained conversation among a community of scholars, and Svetlana will deepen and broaden that dialogue for our scholars while exciting and inspiring our students,\u0026rdquo; Wolf said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMore new faces at the School of Mathematics\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMichael (Mike) Wolf joined the School of Mathematics as chair and professor in the fall of 2022. Wolf comes to Georgia Tech from \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.rice.edu\u0022\u003ERice University\u003C\/a\u003E, where he served most recently as Milton B. Porter Professor. During his three-decade tenure at Rice, Wolf has held many positions, including two periods as chair of the Department of Mathematics, head of a residential college, and co-founder and co-director of the Rice Emerging Scholars Program.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s Mathematics faculty is world-renowned for its strength and scope, and it is an honor to participate in its leadership,\u0026rdquo; Wolf said in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/michael-wolf-appointed-school-mathematics-chair\u0022\u003Eannouncement\u003C\/a\u003E of his new role. \u0026ldquo;Mathematics is an engine for modern science and technology \u0026mdash; from codes for cybersecurity, to differential equations that explain black holes and the interfaces of materials, to machine learning and mathematical neuroscience, and through beautiful advances whose applications will only be revealed to our grandchildren. Mathematics is everywhere, and Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s mathematicians are at the frontier.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThree assistant professors joined Wolf in the Fall 2022 semester as new School of Math faculty: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/cg66math\/home\u0022\u003EGong Chen\u003C\/a\u003E, Vesselin Dimitrov, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/web.mat.bham.ac.uk\/T.Kelly\/\u0022\u003ETom Kelly\u003C\/a\u003E; along with Academic Professionals \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hunterlehmann.github.io\u0022\u003EHunter Lehmann\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/kalilajo.github.io\/Bio\u0022\u003EKalila Lehmann\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Mathematics is also welcoming \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/people?field_job_type_tid=11\u0022\u003E15 new visiting assistant professors and postdoctoral scholars\u003C\/a\u003E for the 2022-2023 academic year.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Svetlana Jitomirskaya, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a prize-winning mathematician, joins Georgia Tech as the inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics. "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESvetlana Jitomirskaya, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a prize-winning mathematician, joins Georgia Tech as the inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics. She is among more than 20 new mathematics faculty members for the 2022-2023 school year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Svetlana Jitomirskaya, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a prize-winning mathematician, joins Georgia Tech as the inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics. "}],"uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2022-12-12 18:14:16","changed_gmt":"2023-03-02 19:45:33","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-12-20T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2022-12-20T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"663814":{"id":"663814","type":"image","title":"Svetlana Jitomirskaya (Credit: Monica Almeida for Quanta Magazine)","body":null,"created":"1670882149","gmt_created":"2022-12-12 21:55:49","changed":"1671724792","gmt_changed":"2022-12-22 15:59:52","alt":"","file":{"fid":"251382","name":"2022 12 Svetlana Jitomirskaya - Credit - Monica Almeida for Quanta Magazine.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2022%2012%20Svetlana%20Jitomirskaya%20-%20Credit%20-%20Monica%20Almeida%20for%20Quanta%20Magazine.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2022%2012%20Svetlana%20Jitomirskaya%20-%20Credit%20-%20Monica%20Almeida%20for%20Quanta%20Magazine.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3862844,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/2022%2012%20Svetlana%20Jitomirskaya%20-%20Credit%20-%20Monica%20Almeida%20for%20Quanta%20Magazine.jpg?itok=LIy1y7Rk"}}},"media_ids":["663814"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/math.gatech.edu","title":"Georgia Tech School of Mathematics "},{"url":"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/in-math-and-life-svetlana-jitomirskaya-stares-down-complexity-20221101\/","title":"Quanta Magazine: November 2022 Interview with Svetlana Jitomirskaya "}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1279","name":"School of Mathematics"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192249","name":"cos-community"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"168854","name":"School of Mathematics"},{"id":"190571","name":"Svetlana Jitomirskaya"},{"id":"191746","name":"Elaine M. Hubbard"},{"id":"190573","name":"Hubbard Chair"},{"id":"189354","name":"Michael Wolf"},{"id":"127011","name":"Leonid Bunimovich"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy: Sal Barone and Renay San Miguel\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERenay San Miguel\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer II\/Science Writer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404-894-5209\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEditor: Jess Hunt-Ralston\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["renay.san@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}