The UCI Math Circle Team

Alessandra Pantano [UCIMC Director] is the Director of the UCI Math Circle for High School and Middle School Students. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in 2004, and is currently a Lecturer PSOE at the UCI department of Mathematics. [website]

Li-Sheng Tseng [Community Outreach Coordinator] is an associate professor in mathematics at UC Irvine and does research in geometry/topology and physics. [website]

Thanh Tran[UCIMC Cordinator]is a fifth year PhD candidate in Mathematics. His research interests are in numerical methods and machine learning. He likes to solve his math problems in terms of computer science questions. He enjoys team sports, video games, and going to the beach.

Boris Gorodetski [Webmaster] is a sophmore at University High School.

Ishan Vannadil [UCMC Assistant] is a junior at University High School. His favorite subject is math and he especially loves number theory and Fermat’s little theorem!

Luca Valdevil [UCMC Assistant] is a junior at University High School. He is interested in mathematics, computational biology, and chemistry. In his free time he enjoys skiing, traveling, biking, and track and field.

Arvind Krishnan is a second-year PhD student in the Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology program. His research interests include mechanobiology, mathematical modeling, precision medicine, and more. In his free time, he likes to watch football, read books, and spend time with family and friends.

Caroline Cannistra is a second year grad student in mathematical biology at UCI. She has been involved in competition math and recreational math as a teacher and learner. In her work, she applies mathematical concepts to biological problems along with people with many different fields of expertise. She enjoys knitting, singing, and hanging out with her pet tortoise Henry.

Christine Pham recently graduated from her undergraduate studies at UCR. She is interested in hair follicle stem cells by using mathematical modeling to find potential reversible methods for hair loss. Christine enjoys baking beads, reading poetry, and exploring new coffee shops.

John James Palacios is a third year Mathematical and Computational Systems Biology PhD student, and recreational mathematician. John’s research interests are in applying mathematics to systems biology, using pen and paper, or computer code. He enjoys escape rooms, video games, a good book, or a good puzzle.

Luke Nathaniel Pierik is a second-year PhD student in the Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology program at UCI. His research has included topics in oncology and genetics/evolution, and he is generally interested in developing analytically-tractable math models for biology. Beyond academics, he enjoys hiking, reading classic fiction, and supporting STEM outreach.

Michael Jian is a 9th grader currently attending University High School. He is interested in Mathematics, both pure and applied. He enjoys reading and jogging in his free time. He is also a mathlete who actively participates in math competitions.

Rachel Sylvia Sousa is a fifth year PhD candidate in Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology. Her research focuses on building a mathematical model to describe how the immune system interacts with cancer and her ultimate goal is to use the model to predict optimal immunotherapy regimens. Rachel enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and painting with watercolors.

Shannon McElhenney is a candidate in the chemistry PhD program at UCI with a concentration in chemical theory and computation. Her research combines math, chemistry, physics, biology, and computer science to answer questions about protein behavior guiding drug development. In her free time, she prefers playing with her cat Junipurr, reading, video games, and hiking.

Raynah Paul I'm a senior at University High School. I'm interested in artificial intelligence, especially large language models and the ethical application of clinical AI powered tools in healthcare. I love breaking complex concepts down into systems and through math we can explore this in the most interesting ways! In my free time I like to read sci fi novels and play the piano.

Ishan Jha is a ninth grader at Troy High School in Fullerton, and this is his second year in the UCI Math Circle. He is interested in theoretical mathematics, and its applications in machine learning and neural networks. Outside of math, he enjoys hiking, reading and gardening.

Anna Ma is an assistant professor of mathematics at UC Irvine. Her search interests are in mathematical data science and numerical linear algebra. [website]

Anton Gorodetski is a professor of Mathematics at UC Irvine. He received his PhD in Mathematics from Moscow State University in 2001; his research interests include dynamical systems and fractal geometry. [website]

Chris Davis is an Associate Professor of Teaching. He is entering his ninth year teaching at UC Irvine. Some of Chris's favorite classes to teach are number theory/cryptography and introduction to programming. He has led math circles on The Academy Awards, Gambling, and Origami. Chris lived in Copenhagen, Denmark for two years as a math postdoc and spends at least a few weeks each summer there.

Connor Mooney is currently an Assistant Professor at UCI.

Isaac Goldbring is an Associate Professor Mathematics at UC Irvine. He received his Bachelors and Masters in Mathematics at UCLA in 2004 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009. His research includes applications of model theory (a branch of logic) to various areas of mathematics, including operator algebras, combinatorial number theory, and Lie theory.

Luke Smith is a Lecturer of Mathematics, who earned his PhD at UC Irvine in 2015. He has taught at UC Irvine since 2016 and teaches courses at Coastline Community College. Luke has done research in Number Theory and Algebra, but also enjoys probability, combinatorics, and any field of math with fun puzzles. To him, math is most fun when he can show students these fun puzzles for the first time. His main hobby involves drawing fractals, space transformations, and other generative art.

Paata Ivanisvili is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UC Irvine. His research interests are in Harmonic Analysis. Paata likes diving and he does magic tricks during his free time. [website]

Vladimir Baranovsky is a Professor of Mathematics at UCI.