Two professors in the Department of Mathematics were recently named fellows in the American Mathematical Society.
Xin Zhou and Slawomir Solecki, both associate professors of mathematics, were recently elected as fellows, an honor given to members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics.
“The selection to be an AMS fellow is a great recognition of my research works,” Zhou said. “I will contribute, along with other AMS fellows, to promote the development and impact of mathematics in the states.”
Zhou’s research explores the closed surfaces of three-dimensional shapes. These surfaces are used for mathematical models for things such as soap films, soap bubbles, capillary surfaces and certain types of black hole boundaries.
“A noteworthy achievement in my recent research was our research showing that in any generic closed curved 3-dimensional space without holes, there are at least four closed minimal surfaces, each without any holes," he said.
Solecki’s focus is on topology and mathematical logic, specifically on sets and model theory. He researches probability and the algebra of topology.
