UCSD Math Department Colloqium, 2025 - 2026.

2025 - 2026 UCSD Department of Mathematics Colloquium

Thursdays, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, AP&M 6402 (Unless Otherwise Stated)

Coordinator: Bo Li (Email: bli@math.ucsd.edu)

Fall quarter, 2025

Date

Speaker

Title & Abstract

Host

Oct. 9 Michele Benzi
(Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
An overview of localization results for functions of large matrices
Abstract
Jiawang Nie
Oct. 23 Mark Bowick
(UCSB/KITP)
Abelian and Nonabelian Topological Defects
Abstract
Vishal Patil
Nov. 20 Camillo De Lellis
(Inst. Adv. Study)
Boundary Plateau Laws
Abstract
Luca Spolaor
Dec. 4 Frank Curtis
(Lehigh University)
Almost-Sure Convergence and Active-Set Identification by Stochastic Algorithms for Constrained Optimization
Abstract
Jiawang Nie

Winter quarter, 2026

Date

Speaker

Title & Abstract

Host

Jan. 8 Qing Han
(Univ. of Notre Dame)
Global and Exterior Solutions to the Minimal Surface Equation
Abstract: A characterization of global solutions to the minimal surface equation has been known by the efforts of Bernstein (1914), De Giorgi (1965), Almgren (1966), Simons (1968), and Bombieri, De Giorgi, and Giusti (1969). In this talk, we first review relevant results. Then, we switch to exterior solutions and aim to present a complete characterization of solutions to the minimal surface equation near infinity. It is well-known that Dirichlet boundary value problems in exterior domains do not always admit solutions. We demonstrate that prescribing asymptotic behaviors forms a new type of problems leading to all solutions near infinity. The harmonic functions determining the asymptotic behaviors play the role of “free data” as the boundary values in the boundary value problems.
Ruobing Zhang
Jan. 15 Tom Hutchcroft
(Caltech)
Critical long-range percolation
Abstract
Tianyi Zheng
Jan. 22 Amos Nevo
(Technion & Univ. of Chicago)
New directions and some effective optimal results in Diophantine approximation on homogeneous spaces
Abstract
Tianyi Zheng
Feb. 5 Govind Menon
(Brown University)
Towards a geometric theory of deep learning
Abstract
Federico Pasqualotto
Feb. 12 David Penneys
(Ohio State Univ.)
Local topological quantum codes
Abstract
Hans Wenzl & Adrian Ioana
Feb. 26 Matt Kennedy
(University of Waterloo)
Noncommutative majorization
Abstract
Adrian Ioana
March 12 (Getoor Lecture) Scott Sheffield
(MIT)
Title.
Abstract.
Ruth Williams

Spring quarter, 2026

Date

Speaker

Title & Abstract

Host

April 2 Tarek Elgindi
(Duke University)
Title.
Abstract.
Federico Pasqualotto
April 30 Yanyan Li
(Rutgers University)
Title.
Abstract.
Ruobing Zhang
May 21 David Fisher
(Rice University)
Title.
Abstract.
Alireza Golsefidy
May 27 (Wednesday) Rekha R. Thomas
(Univ. Washington)
Title.
Abstract.
Jiawang Nie, Ioana Dumitriu, and Dmitriy Drusvyatskiy (HDSI)

Last updated by Bo Li on February 24, 2026.