Research
Grant Awards
Professors Catherine Beneteau and Dmitry Khavinson received a $42,500 conference grant from the National Science Foundation to support U.S. participation in the conference “Harmonic and Complex Analysis: Modern and Classical” to be held in Israel, June 18-22, 2023, at Bar Ilan University. The conference will be jointly organized by a group of scientists from Bar-Ilan University, Holon Institute of Technology, ORT Braude College, Tel Aviv University, and the University of South Florida in the US. This event follows in the footsteps of a series of conferences on Complex Analysis, Harmonic Analysis, and Dynamical Systems that have been held in Israel for the last couple of decades and have become popular meeting places for analysts from all over the world. The topics chosen for the conference are exciting and currently emerging themes on the borderline between mathematics and physics. Areas of research of the plenary speakers include: (1) Study of localization of eigen modes of elliptic operators, which unites deep results in geometric measure theory and harmonic analysis with modern applications to quantum physics, noise abatement walls, LEDs, and optical devices; (2) Research in harmonic analysis that has well-developed connections to medical imaging; (3) Exciting recent work in stochastic algebraic geometry and gravitational lensing; (4) Classical harmonic analysis with applications to probability theory; (5) Classical complex analysis and function theory, with new lines of attack on some of the well-known problems in mathematical physics, such as Hele-Shaw flows, Laplacian growth, and investigation of Coloumb gas.
Professor Nataša Jonoska from our department and Professor Francesca Storici from the Georgia Institute of Technology received a highly prestigious $1,000,000 research award from the W. M. Keck Foundation for research directed toward decrypting the hidden message of ribonucleotide incorporation in human nuclear DNA.
Based in Los Angeles, the W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W. M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research and science and engineering. The Foundation also supports undergraduate education and maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support for the Los Angeles community, with a special emphasis on children and youth. For more information, visit www.wmkeck.org.
Professors Giacomo Micheli (PI) and Jean-Francois Biasse (Co-PI) were awarded a $500,000 research grant “SaTC: CORE: Small: Applications of Galois Theory to the Search for Non-Linear Functions” from the National Science Foundation.
This project supports research on the construction of Almost Perfect Nonlinear functions that impact the design of the next generation of ciphers which will need to operate in constraint environments (lightweight cryptography), and feature large keys to offer high levels of bit security against quantum adversaries.
Professor Joel Rosenfeld has been awarded a $450,000 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigators Program (YIP) titled "Hilbert Spaces from Occupation Kernels and Learning in Nonlinear and Nonlocal Dynamical Systems". (Dates to be determined)
Professor Mohamed Elhamdadi has been awarded a $36,000 Simons Foundation grant titled "Algebraic Structures in Knot Theory" for the period from 9/1/2020 to 8/31/2025. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department.
Professor Joel Rosenfeld become co-PI on $688,856 NSF Collaborative Research grant with Rushikesh Kamalapurkar at Oklahoma State University and Taylor T. Johnson at Vanderbilt University titled "Operator theoretic methods for identification and verification of dynamical systems". A total of $229,350 is awarded directly to support research activities at USF for the period from 8/15/2020 to 7/31/2023.
Professor Joel Rosenfeld become Co-PI on a $455,222 grant with Rushikesh Kamalapurkar of Oklahoma State University titled "Operator Theoretic Methods for Data-Driven Control Synthesis". A total of $221,468 is awarded directly to support research activities at USF for the period from 6/1/2020 to 5/31/2023.
Professor Jean-François Biasse has been awarded a $450,000 NSF CAREER grant titled "Algebraic Methods for the Computation of Approximate Short Vectors in Ideal Lattices" for the period from 6/1/2019 to 5/31/2024.
He will be supported to work on the search for short vectors in ideal lattices. This mathematical problem is important to post-quantum cryptography because its hardness would guarantee the security of the most promising proposals for quantum resistant public-key schemes. This project investigates the potential weaknesses induced by the algebraic structure surrounding ideal lattices. This award also contains a strong outreach component, with the support for a Cybersecurity Summer camp for K-12 students in partnership with the USF Whitehatter Computer Security Club.
Professor Jean-François Biasse has been awarded a $220,000 NSF EAGER grant titled "Quantum-Safe Cryptosystems Based on Isogenies" for the period from 8/1/2018 to 7/31/2021. This award will support Dr. Biasse’s research into the security of a new family of cryptosystems based on a mathematical structure called isogenies of elliptic curves. The research will also include the development of new isogeny-based protocols, analysis of the hardness of the task of finding isogenies and identification of an appropriate size for keys that keep users out of the reach of quantum attacks.
Professors Nataša Jonoska (PI) and Masahico Saito (co-PI) have received a three-year $1.1M collaborative research grant from NSF for a project titled “Collaborative Research: Discrete and Topological Models for Template-Guided Genome Rearrangements”. The total of $529,683 is awarded directly to support research activities at USF for the period from 7/1/2018 to 6/30/2023.
This project, a collaboration between Columbia University in New York and University of South Florida, seeks to advance our understanding of template-guided genome rearrangement. Through use of high-throughput experimental tools and novel mathematical concepts based on knot theory and discrete mathematics, the project will gain temporal and structural insight into the process of programmed genome reorganization. The project will impact postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate education in mathematics, biology, and chemistry at the partner institutions.
Professor Nataša Jonoska became a Co-PI for the $10M NSF–Simons Research Center for the Mathematics of Computational Biological Systems headquartered at Georgia Tech. A total of $540,000 is awarded directly to support research activities at USF for the period from 8/1/2018 to 7/31/2021.
The goal of the center is to enable innovative collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections between these two disciplines, and to promote interdisciplinary education and workforce training. The center is one of four NSF–Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems. The other three are based at Harvard University, at the University of California, Irvine, and at Northwestern University. Congratulations, Nataša, on this major interdisciplinary grant!
Professor Theodore Molla has been awarded a $115,000 NSF grant titled "Factors in Graphs and Related Combinatorial Structures" for the period from 8/1/2018 to 7/31/2021. This project's main focus is on optimizing local conditions that force a specific global structure in graphs, directed graphs, and hypergraphs. This work has a significant intersection with computer science and will explore novel algorithmic approaches using probabilistic absorbing techniques and regularity methods. Dr. Molla joined our department in Fall 2017.
Professor Brendan Nagle has been awarded a $150,000 NSF grant titled "Applications and Theory of the Algorithmic Hypertrophy Regularity method" for the period from 9/1/2017 to 8/31/2021. The goal of the project is to investigate and develop constructive methods to solve packings, colorings and property testing of hypergraphs problems based on regularity lemma. This is a continuation of the previous NSF grant.
Professor Arthur Danielyan has been awarded a $36,000 Simons Foundation grant titled "Some Approximation Problems of Complex Analysis and Related Questions" for the period from 9/1/2017 to 8/31/2022. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department.
Professor Dmitry Khavinson has been awarded a $36,000 Simons Foundation grant titled "Problems in Complex Analysis and Applications" for the period from 9/1/2017 to 8/31/2022. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department.
Professor Jean-François Biasse has been awarded a $500,000 NIST grant titled "Tools for Standardization of Post-Quantum Cryptography" for the period from 6/1/2017 to 5/31/2021.
Professor Kaiqi Xiong has been awarded a $150,000 NSF US Ignite Track 1 Collaborative Research grant titled "A Distributed Multi-loop Networked System for Wide-Area Control of Large Power Grids" for the period from 9/1/2016 to 8/31/2021.
Professor Kaiqi Xiong has been awarded a $150,000 NSF IUSE Collaborative Project grant titled "Engaged Student learning: Design and Development, Level 1: Broadening the Path the STEM Profession Through Cybersecurity" for the period from 9/1/2016 to 8/31/2021.
Professor Jean-François Biasse has been awarded a $30,000 Simons Foundation grant titled "Algorithms in Number Theory, Quantum Information and Cryptography" for the period from 8/28/2016 to 8/31/2021. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department.
Professor Dmytro Savchuk has been awarded a $30,000 Simons Foundation grant titled "Algorithmic Questions of Self-Similar and L-Presented Group" for the period from 9/1/2014 to 8/31/2021. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department. This grant also provides additional funds to support the department.