Math | Penn Today

tony pantev standing in front of the David Rittenhouse Laboratory building

Q&A with mathematician Tony Pantev

Penn Today interviewed the math department’s incoming chair to learn about his longtime passion for geometry and his hopes for the future of contemporary math research.

three people sitting at a table inside a library

Mathematicians help train the next generation of positive thinkers

A trio of researchers paves the way for future progress in an up-and-coming field that unites geometry and number theory in powerful new ways.

Stories of Penn scientists: David Rittenhouse

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of his observations of the 1769 transit of Venus, a glimpse into the story of the man whose name became synonymous with astronomy and mathematics.

a person sitting on a stack of open magazines and newspapers working on a laptop

A course that showcases the prevalence, and power, of math

The Mathematics in the Media course helps students understand how to use fundamental mathematical approaches to solve real-world problems in a data-driven world.

Sophomore Chloe Cho and juniors Lauren Duhamel, Srinivas Mandyam and Abigail Poteshman.

Four Penn undergraduates receive Goldwater Scholarships

Four Penn undergraduates have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. Sophomore Chloe Cho and juniors Lauren Duhamel, Srinivas Mandyam and Abigail Poteshman.

Two figures have heated discussion as a third in the middle observes

Empathy and cooperation go hand in hand

Taking a game theory approach to study cooperation, School of Arts and Sciences evolutionary biologists find that empathy can help cooperative behavior ‘win out’ over selfishness.

a silhouette of a woman with a cape standing on top of a hill

STEM legacies: Five researchers reflect on the women who inspire them

For Women’s History Month, Penn faculty share their perspectives on enterprising women in STEM who have been sources of inspiration in a field with a large gender imbalance.

Nader Engheta, center, and two researchers who worked on the metamaterial project

‘A Swiss cheese-like material’ that can solve equations

Engineering professor Nader Engheta and his team have demonstrated a metamaterial device that can function as an analog computer, validating an earlier theory.

a close-up of a basketball play drawn on a chalkboard

Q&A

The math behind March Madness

A Q&A with statistician Shane Jensen, who discusses the math behind sports team rankings, why March Madness has so many underdog victories, and how technology might change how analysts study sports teams in the future.

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