Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Binghamton University news:2026

Cary Malkiewich gave an AMS Invited Address on “Higher scissors congruence”

2026-01-01T09:30:09-04:00

Cary Malkiewich gave an AMS Invited Address on “Higher scissors congruence”

Details

Cary Malkiewich (Binghamton University) gave an AMS Invited Address, “Higher scissors congruence,” at the 2025 AMS Spring Central Sectional Meeting at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS) on March 30, 2025.

AMS Spring Central 2025: Invited Addresses

Program (Sunday, March 30)

Malkiewich and Merling awarded NSF grant on K-theory and manifolds

2026-01-01T10:15:20-04:00

Malkiewich and Merling awarded NSF grant on K-theory and manifolds

Details

Cary Malkiewich (Binghamton) and Mona Merling (University of Pennsylvania) received an NSF award “Collaborative Research: K-theory, manifolds, and polyhedra,” supporting work in algebraic K-theory and topology.

Award Details

Cary Malkiewich was named a 2025 Simons Foundation Travel Support for Mathematicians awardee.

2026-01-01T10:07:55-04:00

Cary Malkiewich was named a 2025 Simons Foundation Travel Support for Mathematicians awardee.

Details

The award supports collaborations in K-theory, scissors congruence, and geometry.

Award announcement

Lorenzo Ruffoni paper accepted in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

2026-01-08T12:10:59-04:00

Lorenzo Ruffoni paper accepted in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

Details

Lorenzo Ruffoni (with Sami Douba, Gye-Seon Lee, and Ludovic Marquis) has had the paper “Convex cocompact groups in real hyperbolic spaces with limit set a Pontryagin sphere” accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society.

A preprint is available here: arXiv:2502.09470.

Related visualizations of a Pontryagin-sphere limit set: Pontryagin sphere images/animations.

Alumnus Barry Minemyer awarded AMS-Simons Research Enhancement Grant

2026-01-30T17:28:45-04:00

Alumnus Barry Minemyer awarded AMS-Simons Research Enhancement Grant

Details

Barry Minemyer (PhD 2013), Associate Professor at Commonwealth University, was awarded a 2025 AMS-Simons Research Enhancement Grant for Primarily Undergraduate Institution Faculty. Minemyer completed his dissertation “Isometric Embeddings of Polyhedra” under the supervision of Pedro Ontaneda.

About the grant, Minemyer writes: “As a faculty member at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) with a high teaching load, it is difficult to stay on top of current research breakthroughs. There is no weekly seminar, and it is difficult to find the time amongst my teaching schedule to read the most recent publications. This AMS-Simons Research Enhancement Grant for PUI faculty will allow me to take research trips that I otherwise would not have had funding for. This funding will aid in me attending conferences, giving talks, discussing mathematical ideas with other researchers, and staying up-to-date on the current research being conducted in my field.”

Minemyer will present at the Binghamton Geometry/Topology Seminar on February 5, 2026.

Graduate Spotlight: Meenakshy Jyothis joins University of Oklahoma as postdoc

2026-03-05T21:06:44-04:00

Graduate Spotlight: Meenakshy Jyothis joins University of Oklahoma as postdoc

Details

Meenakshy Jyothis (PhD 2025) is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oklahoma, working with Jing Tao.

Jyothis completed her dissertation “Towards Ivanov's Meta-Conjecture for Geodesic Currents” under the supervision of Eugenia Sapir. Her research explores the geometry of geodesic currents, an infinite-dimensional space that encodes information about surfaces.

During her time at Binghamton, Jyothis was known for her clear lectures and dedication to students. “I truly cherish the community I had in Binghamton,” she writes. “I also feel very lucky to have had Jenya as my advisor!”

Meenakshy's website

Peter Hilton Memorial Lecture: Martin Bridson

2026-03-23T17:22:03-04:00

Peter Hilton Memorial Lecture: Martin Bridson

Details

On March 13, 2026, Martin R. Bridson FRS (Whitehead Professor of Pure Mathematics, University of Oxford, and President of the Clay Mathematics Institute) delivered the Peter Hilton Memorial Lecture at Binghamton University. Professor Bridson was introduced by Cary Malkiewich.

His talk, “Chasing finite shadows of infinite groups through geometry,” explored the deep connections between geometry and the study of infinite groups through their finite quotients.

The lecture was followed by a lively reception, where Department Chair Xingye Qiao spoke about the importance of mathematics in the modern world. Professor Bridson engaged warmly with faculty and students throughout the event.

Video recording of the lecture

John Abou-Rached paper accepted in Journal of the European Mathematical Society

2026-03-20T00:56:33-04:00

John Abou-Rached paper accepted in Journal of the European Mathematical Society

Details

John Abou-Rached (Robert Riley Visiting Assistant Professor) has had a paper accepted in the Journal of the European Mathematical Society (JEMS), one of the leading journals in mathematics.

The paper, “The boundary of a totally geodesic subvariety of moduli space,” is joint work with Frederik Benirschke (University of Chicago) and Benjamin Dozier (Cornell University).

The paper studies moduli spaces, which parametrize the possible shapes of surfaces. The authors prove that certain geometrically special subsets — called totally geodesic subvarieties — retain their special properties even at the boundary of moduli space, where surfaces degenerate.

arXiv preprint

Integration Bee 2026

2026-03-28T11:42:49-04:00

Integration Bee 2026

Details

On March 25, 2026, the Binghamton Math Club held its annual Integration Bee, organized by Alif Miah, who also prepared the integrals for the competition. The event drew a packed room of students and faculty eager to test their integration skills.

After a challenging qualifying round, five finalists — Levi, Paciencia, Sean, Ryan, and Jesse — advanced to the finals, where they competed head-to-head at the chalkboard, solving integrals under time pressure. Levi Axelrod took first place in a lively and well-attended competition.

Chris Schroeder and Stefan Viola win 2026 Excellence Awards

2026-03-28T22:03:12-04:00

Chris Schroeder and Stefan Viola win 2026 Excellence Awards

Details

Chris Schroeder and Stefan Viola received 2026 Graduate Student Excellence Awards at a ceremony in the Mandela Room.

Schroeder was recognized with two awards: Excellence in Research and Excellence in Teaching. After earning a PhD in physics, he is now pursuing a second PhD in mathematics, producing three papers that bridge mathematics and physics. He also translated a classic 833-page German mathematical text into English.

Viola received the Excellence in Teaching award. One student wrote: “There were multiple times when you explained something in lecture and it changed my math world forever.”

Award citations