Texas A&M University mathematicians Kenneth J. Dykema and Matthew A. Papanikolas have earned selection to the 2020 class of American Mathematical Society (AMS) Fellows in recognition of their international excellence in mathematical science and service.
Dykema and Papanikolas are among 52 mathematical scientists worldwide honored with selection to this year’s class — announced November 1 by the society — in the program’s eighth year.
Dykema was cited “for contributions to the study of free probability and operator algebras.”
Papanikolas was cited “for contributions to transcendence theory over function fields and service to the mathematical community.”
The prestigious designation recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics. The AMS Fellows Program seeks to create an enlarged class of mathematicians recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the profession and to honor excellence.
“It is a great pleasure to offer my sincere congratulations to the new AMS Fellows, honored for their notable contributions to mathematics and to the profession,” said AMS President Jill Pipher. “We are grateful to the nominators and the members of the selection committee for helping the AMS recognize the achievements of their esteemed colleagues through this fellowship.”
Dykema joined the Texas A&M Department of Mathematics faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor, earning promotion to associate professor in 2001 and then full professor in 2003. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993 as a Hertz Foundation Fellow after earning a bachelor of arts in mathematics with first-class honors in 1987 from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar (1985-1987). He spent three years as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Berkeley (1993-1995) and as a Fields Institute Research Fellow at the University of Waterloo (1994-1995) prior to beginning his independent academic career as a member of the mathematics faculty at Odense University in Denmark (1996-1999). Dykema’s research focuses on operator algebras and free probability theory and has been funded by the NSF through sole investigator grants for the past two decades. In addition to more than 100 peer-reviewed papers — including a handful in chemistry and physics journals — he has co-authored a book, Free Random Variables, and delivered hundreds of plenary talks, invited research lectures and short courses throughout the world. A six-year editorial advisory board member for the Bulletin, Journal and Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (2013-2018), Dykema has served since 2011 as a cooperating editor for the Journal of Operator Theory. He also is one of three co-editors of a special issue honoring Dan Voiculescu on his 70th birthday in 2019-2020. He was a Simons-CRM Professor at the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques in Montreal (March 2019) and a Simons Visiting Professor at Oberwolfach and the University of Saarbrücken (March 2017). In addition, he has been either a visiting or invited professor at various international institutions, including the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Austria and both the University of Münster and University of Göttingen in Germany, the latter two partially funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Papanikolas joined the Texas A&M Mathematics faculty in 2003 as an assistant professor, earning promotion to associate professor in 2006 and then full professor in 2010. He received his doctorate from Brown University in 1998 and was a visiting assistant professor at Penn State University (1998-2000) and Tamarkin Assistant Professor at Brown (2000-2003) prior to coming to Texas A&M, where his research focuses on number theory and arithmetic geometry. Earlier this fall, Papanikolas was appointed associate head for undergraduate programs in Texas A&M Mathematics, where he also has served since 2016 as director of the Honors Program and Honors Advisor. In addition to elliptic curves and Drinfeld modules, Papanikolas studies special values of analytic functions, including L-series, modular forms and hypergeometric functions and their connections with periods and logarithms. His current research is sponsored by the Qatar National Research Fund along with the NSF, which has consistently funded his work since 2003. That same year, he also was honored with a National Security Agency Young Investigator Grant. In 2017, Papanikolas was recognized with the International Consortium of Chinese Mathematicians Best Paper Award Silver Medal. Since 2011, he has served as a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews. Currently, he is managing editor for Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, and he was a guest editor of a Journal of Number Theory special issue honoring David R. Hayes in 2013. He also is a member of the advisory board for the Southwest Center for Arithmetic Geometry’s Arizona Winter School, held each March. A popular speaker across the nation and world, Papanikolas has organized myriad conferences and symposia during the past two decades. In addition, he has been an invited professor at Université Jean Monnet in France (2013) as well as an invited visiting researcher at the National Center for Theoretical Sciences in Taiwan (2009 and 2004) and the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Austria.
Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member AMS fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life.
Dykema and Papanikolas join 20 other Texas A&M Mathematics faculty who have achieved AMS Fellow distinction. Harold P. Boas, Ronald A. DeVore, Ronald G. Douglas, Rostislav Grigorchuk, William B. Johnson, Peter Kuchment, Gilles Pisier, Frank Sottile, Emil J. Straube, Clarence Wilkerson and Guoliang Yu each were among the inaugural class named in 2013; followed by David Larson in 2015; Thomas Schlumprecht in 2016; Yalchin Efendiev and Joseph Landsberg in 2017; Roger Smith, Sarah Witherspoon and Catherine Yan in 2018; and Alexei Poltoratski and J. Maurice Rojas in 2019.
For more on the AMS Fellows Program and a complete list of 2020 honorees, visit http://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/new-fellows.
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Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@science.tamu.edu or Dr. Sarah J. Witherspoon, (979) 845-9424 or head@math.tamu.edu
