UCLA PhD Alumna Honored with Two Outstanding Prizes for Dissertation

UCLA Math PhD Alumna ‘23 Abigail Hickok has received two distinguished awards for her dissertation work, under the supervision of Professor Mason Porter. She is the inaugural recipient of the 2024 Ivo and Renata Babuška Thesis Prize through the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and a 2024 awardee of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Dissertation Prize.  

Dr. Hickok was awarded the inaugural Ivo and Renata Babuška Thesis Prize in recognition of her exemplary PhD thesis, “Topics in Geometric and Topological Data Analysis.” The prize will be presented at the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco. The Babuška Thesis Prize is awarded annually, starting with this inaugural prize, “to the author of an outstanding PhD thesis in mathematics, interdisciplinary in nature, possibly with applications to other fields.”

The AWM Dissertation Prize is an annual award given to outstanding PhD dissertations presented and defended by female mathematical scientists during the 24 months preceding the award committee review. Hickok is one of the two recipients for 2024. 

The short version of the Babuška Thesis Prize prize citation reads: “‘Dr. Hickok was a mathematics undergraduate with pure inclinations in the class of 2018 at Princeton, and as a graduate student at UCLA, she turned to more applied areas. This breadth of background has contributed to a thesis that is at once strongly founded theoretically, deeply involved in applications, and beautifully written.’”

Dr. Hickok is currently a NSF postdoc fellow at Columbia University. Learn more about her work here. 

Read the full press release for the inaugural 2024 Ivo and Renata Babuška Thesis Prize here. 

Read more about the AWM Dissertation Prize here. 

Professors Amit Sahai and Monica Visan named 2024 AMS Fellows

UCLA Professors Amit Sahai and Monica Visan join the Class of 2024 Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for their outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics.

“It is my pleasure to congratulate and welcome the new class of AMS Fellows, honored for their outstanding contributions to the mathematical sciences and to our profession. This year’s class was selected from a large and excellent pool of candidates, highlighting the many ways in which our profession is advanced, and I look forward to working with them in service to our community.“
— Professor Bryna Kra, President of the American Mathematical Society

To view full list of 2024 AMS Fellows and past Fellows, click here.

Professor Michael Hill named 2024 AWM Fellow

Professor Michael Hill is one of the twelve mathematicians named as the Class of 2024 Association for Women in Mathematics (AMW) Fellows. 

He received this honor due to his consistent allyship to all women and nonbinary researchers. Hill’s commitment to inclusivity in the field of mathematics stems from his own work in Spectra, La Matematica, and the AWM Mentor Network. He has put in the work to make math a more welcoming place for all underrepresented identities. The Department is proud to have Professor Hill as one of our many distinguished faculty. 

To learn more about the AWM Fellows Program, visit this website.