We celebrated in Spring 2023 the 75th anniversary of the creation of our PhD program. This milestone was celebrated with two special colloquia talks given by Carl Pomerance and Andrew Granville, both distinguished researchers and former UGA faculty, and many former alumni returning to the department. In many ways the graduate program is the heart and soul of the math department at UGA, driving our research activities through students' pursuit of original PhD results on the one hand, and underpinning our undergraduate education through students' intimate involvement with the teaching of entry-level math classes. Bridging these two sides of the mathematical life, many of our PhD students have mentored high level undergraduate research and learning activities through our Directed Reading Program, which culminated in both the fall and spring semesters with a wonderful evening of undergraduate presentations on advanced research topics moderated by graduate students Paco Adajar and Tyler Genao. Supported by David Gay's research grant from the National Science Foundation, our PhD student Alex Tepper has been working this semester with a small group of undergraduates from both math and art backgrounds, on an exciting mathematical illustration project. The goal is to design and create a "Pop-Up Museum of Topology", a collection of objects, both physical and digital, that can form a small exhibit for display in settings ranging from public libraries to local art galleries to academic environments. A central organizing idea as they develop their products has been the incredibly rich set of ideas that flow from the misleading simplicity of the Mobius strip. Make a Mobius strip (maybe you've done this before, if you haven't you REALLY should), cut it down the middle (maybe you've done this too, but you REALLY REALLY should do this again anyway) and ... here's the real challenge: tape it back together after cutting it. Easier said than done. Let us know what you figure out, and most of all, have fun! Two of our graduating PhD students, Tyler Genao and Frederick Saia, were recognized with departmental research awards for their stellar work under the supervision of Pete L. Clark, which has resulted in a combined total of 12 research papers to date. Fourth year PhD student Daniel Hartman's work has been recognized with a prestigious Dissertation Completion Award to support him in his upcoming fifth and final year. At the other end of the timeline, we are eagerly anticipating the arrival this fall of ten new PhD students from across the country and around the world, and we look forward to learning and growing with this incredibly supportive community of students for many years to come.
