department of mathematics commencement
congratulations, class of 2021!
This year, our department has partnered with the UCLA College of Letters and Sciences and StageClip to host virtual commencement ceremonies for our graduate and undergraduate students. There are three ceremonies total – one for graduate students and two for undergraduates (ordered alphabetically). Along with the virtual ceremonies, each student can download their own individual student clip with their name, degree, and a personalized message to share online with family and friends!
The ceremonies will go live on Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 9:00AM PST. At that time, you may search the ceremony and/or student name at the link below.
2021 commencement speaker:
UCLA MATH ALUMNA
Davida Milo
Davida has over 20 years’ experience delivering technology solutions for businesses. For 13 years, Davida served as Senior Vice President at Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), an investment management firm with over two trillion dollars in assets under management. At PIMCO, she focused on software systems to support PIMCO’s client facing business, including leading oversight of PIMCO’s global CRM platform with over 1,600 users across the Americas, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2001, Davida was a Senior Manager at Accenture, where she worked with clients in the high tech, financial services, and public utilities industries. Davida holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics with a Specialization in Computing from UCLA. She is the chair of the UCLA Physical Sciences Board of Advisors and a member of the UCLA Mathematics and Statistics Chairs’ Council. She is married to a fellow Bruin, and together they have a daughter and son in college and high school, respectively.
Featured in Virtual commencement ceremonies:
Department Chair
Mario Bonk
Vice Graduate Chair
Wilfrid Gangbo
Vice Undergraduate Chair
Don Blasius
Vice Undergraduate Chair
Mike Hill
Graduate Advisor
Martha Contreras
Graduate Advisor
Brenda Buenrosto
Undergraduate Advisor
Connie Jung
Undergraduate Advisor
Vaneh Hartoonian
Undergraduate Advisor
Yoni Anderson
department awards
The following awards are typically presented during the in-person commencement ceremony. Please join us in congratulating each award recipient for their academic achievements!
Girsky Undergraduate Award (For High Achievement in Mathematics)
Anshul Adve
Major: Mathematics
Graduation Year: 2021
GPA: 3.97
Research: I have done research in algebraic combinatorics with Professor Alexander Yong at UIUC and in optimal transport with Professor Alpár Mészáros at UCLA (papers available on arXiv). Professors Tim Austin, Michael Hitrik, and Inwon Kim have also been generous in sharing their time with me for non-research projects and questions, and I am grateful for their mentorship. Currently, I am interested both in applications of analysis to discrete problems and in partial differential equations.
Clubs/Organizations: I co-founded the Undergraduate Mathematics Colloquium with Alex Pascadi. I am also on the UCLA chess team.
Future Plans: I will be joining the Ph.D. program in math at Princeton in the fall. I hope to eventually become a professor of mathematics.
Outstanding Actuarial Science Student Award
Erik H Chen
Major: Financial Actuarial Mathematics, Specialization in Computing
Graduation Year: 06/2021
GPA: 3.99
Clubs: Director of Internal Outreach for Bruin Actuarial Society, Data Journalist for Bruin Sports Analytics
Future Plans: Pursue a career in the actuarial field, continue finishing my actuarial exams, and obtain credentials as a Fellow for the Society of Actuaries.
Daus Prize
Zheyuan (Kevin) Cui
Major: Economics and Applied Mathematics with a Specialization in Computing
Graduation year: 03/2021
GPA: My overall GPA is 3.976. My applied mathematics major GPA is 4.0/4.0, my economics major GPA is 4.0/4.0, and my Master of (Applied) Mathematics GPA is 4.0/4.0.
I simultaneously received a Master’s degree in (Applied) Mathematics through the departmental scholar program. I attended two REUs under the UCLA Mathematics department during the last two summers. In addition to those, I had four different research projects in economics, covering the topics of machine learning applied to game theory, econometrics, and decision theory.
Future Plans: Starting this fall, I will be pursuing my Ph.D. degree in economics at Princeton University.
Sherwood Prize
Joshua Enwright
Major: Mathematics
Graduating year: 06/2021
GPA: 3.978
Future plan: Beginning a PhD in Math at UCLA this Fall 2021, and my interests include Homotopy Theory and Algebraic Geometry.
Sherwood Prize
Samanda Hu
Major: Mathematics
Graduation year: 2021
GPA: 3.796
Research: No research yet, but did a lot of DRP and reading courses in algebraic number theory
Clubs/Organisations: Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle, Game Music Ensemble (keyboardist)
Future plans: Going to UChicago for graduate school in mathematics
Outstanding Math/Econ Student Award
Jack Krupinski
Major: Mathematics/Economics
Minor: Statistics
Graduation Year: 2021
Research: Worked as research assistant in Economics Department
Clubs: Club tennis, Bruin Apiary
GPA: 3.98
Future Plans: Working as an actuary
Daus Prize
Yin Lei
Major: Applied Mathematics
Graduation Year: 2021
GPA: overall GPA 3.385, Major GPA 3.618, Upper GPA 3.98
Research, clubs/organizations involved in: I was a member of UCLA one-to-one tutoring club.
Future plan: I attempt to participate in math-related research after graduation, and expect to enter a graduate school by 2022.
Outstanding Math/Econ Student Award
Jingyi Li
Major: Mathematics/Economics
Graduation year: 06/2021
GPA: 4.0/4.0
Future plan: I hope to enter the Sales and Trading division inside an investment bank and later move to a buy-side firm.
Outstanding Math/Econ Student Award
Claire Nelson
Major: Mathematics/Economics
Graduation year: 06/2021
GPA: 3.99
Economics Undergraduate Research Fellow, UCLA Afro-Cuban Ensemble, UCLA Symphony, External Director for the Undergraduate Economics Society, Research Assistant at the Anderson School of Management
Future Plans: Senior Research Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, PhD in Economics
Daus Prize
Alexandru Pascadi
BS Major: Mathematics of Computation
MA Specialization (DSP): Pure Mathematics
Expected graduation: Spring 2021
GPA: 4.0.
Research/interests: I’m currently mostly interested in analytic number theory and additive combinatorics, and I often use computational assistance in my work.
I’ve done most of my research so far under the kind mentorship of Professor Terence Tao. In 2019, I also attended the Emory REU in Arithmetic Geometry and Number Theory. See a list of my preprints here.
Clubs/organizations: I’ve been teaching the Junior Olympiad Group at the Olga Radko Math Circle for a couple of years. I also co-founded the UCLA Undergraduate Mathematics Colloquium with Anshul Adve.
Future plans: In October 2021, I will join the research group of Professors James Maynard and Ben Green as a DPhil student at the University of Oxford.
I further plan to become a postdoctoral researcher and ultimately a professor of Mathematics.
Daus Prize
Junhong Shen
Major: Mathematics of Computation
Graduation year: 06/2021
GPA: 4.0/4.0
Future plan: Incoming Ph.D. in Machine Learning at CMU
Daus Prize
Zhoutong (Diana) Wu
Major: Mathematics of Computation & Statistics
Graduation Year: 2021
GPA: 3.9
Research: Research assistant for Anderson school of management and UCLA Medical School. UCLA Math REU under supervision of Professor Deanna Needell.
Future plans: Work as an analyst for a year then pursue PhD.
Sherwood Prize
Shangjie Zhang
Major: Mathematics
Graduation year: 03/2021
GPA: 3.97
Future plan: Math PhD at UCSD
Sherwood Prize
Shend Zhjeqi
Major: Mathematics
Graduation year: Fall 2021
GPA: 3.9
My main interest is geometry, in particular, associating and computing structures attached to geometric objects. Last summer I participated in an algebraic geometry REU project with Prof. Gieseker and this year I will also do an REU in algebraic geometry with Prof. Suzuki and Prof. Totaro. For about two years I have been teaching at the Olga Radko Math Circle. I am also involved with the Mathematical Olympiads back at my home country Kosovo.
Future plan: I plan to continue studying and working (PhD and beyond) in pure mathematics.
If you have any further questions regarding the Mathematics Department Commencement Ceremony, please do not hesitate email us. Also please feel free to email with questions concerning:
College Commencement: http://www.college.ucla.edu/commencement/help/contact/ (via Message Center)
Undergraduate Degrees: ugrad@math.ucla.edu or Message Center
Graduate Degrees: gradapps@math.ucla.edu
- Commencement 2021 FAQ’s: https://www.commencement.ucla.edu/2021-faqs
- Covid-19 information for students: https://covid-19.ucla.edu/information-for-students/
- College of Letters & Sciences Commencement website: https://www.commencement.ucla.edu/2021-virtual-celebrations
- Graduation 2021 Checklist: https://registrar.ucla.edu/registration-classes/graduation
What’s next? The UCLA Alumni Association is proud to support more than 500,000 Bruins worldwide with engaging events, volunteer opportunities, career resources and much more. We are excited to welcome you to the UCLA alumni family.
All graduates of UCLA are automatically members of the Association. Celebrate your Association membership by exploring the programs and services the Association offers.
Pro tip:
- Be sure to update your contact information before Sept. 30. Your UCLA Alumni Association member ID card will be mailed to your updated address in the fall.
Learn more at https://alumni.ucla.edu/class-of-2021/