UW-Milwaukee Mathematical Sciences

UW-Milwaukee Mathematical Sciences Official page of the UW-Milwaukee Department of Mathematical Sciences.

The Department Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is home to an active community of teachers, scholars, undergraduates, and graduate students. In addition to most traditional areas of Pure and Applied Mathematics, the department contains all UWM programs in Actuarial Science and Atmospheric Science. The department offers Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral studies in all

of these areas, in addition to several interdisciplinary programs. Established in 1963, the PhD in Mathematics is the original doctoral program at UWM.

Mastered it! 🎓
05/22/2026

Mastered it! 🎓

Here are a few photos from the award ceremony! Photo cred: Hayley Nathan & Samuel StraubmullerMorris & Miriam Marden Awa...
05/22/2026

Here are a few photos from the award ceremony!
Photo cred: Hayley Nathan & Samuel Straubmuller

Morris & Miriam Marden Award
[pictured from left to right]
Lilly Carillo, Kayla Picasso, Joakim Jakovleski, Harrison Piehowski, Matt McClinton, Jonathan Walker-Moses, Kushlam Srivastava, Melissa Beerbower

Mathematical Sciences Graduate Teaching Award
[pictured from left to right]
Dr. Lei Wang (award committee member), John Museus, Olivia Bouthot, Rexford Cudjoe

Teply Award
[pictured from left to right]
Dr. Dexuan Xie (award committee member), Megan Whitehead, Matt McClinton, Kushlam Srivastava

Bruce & Janice Mielke Math Scholarship
[pictured from left to right]
Kayla Picasso, Dr. Gabriella Pinter

Congratulations to all of our Mathematical Sciences Spring 2026 Scholarship recipients! These awards are evidence of you...
05/22/2026

Congratulations to all of our Mathematical Sciences Spring 2026 Scholarship recipients! These awards are evidence of your hard work and commitment!

Melissa Beerbower attended the Great Plains Combinatorics Conference at University of Kansas, and presented their poster...
05/13/2026

Melissa Beerbower attended the Great Plains Combinatorics Conference at University of Kansas, and presented their poster: “Counting ℓ-Interval Fubini Rankings."
Way to go, Melissa!

Congratulations to Katie Scharenbroch, a student in Math 175/176/275, on being awarded the 2026 Sister Mary Petronia Van...
05/11/2026

Congratulations to Katie Scharenbroch, a student in Math 175/176/275, on being awarded the 2026 Sister Mary Petronia Van Straten Scholarship. This honor was presented by the Wisconsin Mathematics Council in recognition of her outstanding potential and dedication to the field of mathematics education.

From her own high-level mathematics work to her incredible impact as a UWM tutor for Math 175 and 176, Katie defines excellence. But what truly sets her apart isn't just her sharp problem-solving skills—it’s her heart for teaching.

Her fellow students say it best: "Katie is the reason I have learned to love math and finally feel comfortable expressing my ideas."
"She is extremely present... and will adjust her teaching if we ever need something explained differently."

Whether she's greeting students with a smile or baking fresh cookies for exam review sessions, Katie goes above and beyond to build confidence in others. We are so proud of the leader, tutor, and future educator you are, Katie! You are a true rising star in education!

Join us next Friday, May 15th, at 2:00pm in EMS E495 for Jerianne Bonaguidi's MS Thesis Defense!Title: Proving a Softbal...
05/08/2026

Join us next Friday, May 15th, at 2:00pm in EMS E495 for Jerianne Bonaguidi's MS Thesis Defense!

Title:
Proving a Softball Pitch Can Rise Under 60mph Through Mathematical Modeling

Abstract:
Many softball coaches claim that a pitcher cannot actually throw a rise ball under 60mph; they claim it is just a “high fastball.” This project tests that theory with a live pitcher, calculus, and physics equations. The major claim is that if a pitcher has a high enough spin rate, the ball can still rise throughout its whole entire trajectory, even if thrown under 60mph.

We’re proud to recognize two outstanding PhD students in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee ...
05/04/2026

We’re proud to recognize two outstanding PhD students in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee who have been selected for the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI) Student Scholars Program!

The NMDSI Student Scholars program supports and accelerates student engagement in data science and interdisciplinary research, helping bridge the gap between theory and real-world applications across diverse fields.

Congratulations to Pamela Martey for her project: “Evaluating Fine-Tuned Sequence-to-Sequence Models for Named Entity Recognition in Facts On File Library Of World History: Encyclopedia Of World History (7 Volumes)”

And congratulations to Comfort Iroko for her project: “Robust Impulse Control Under Uncertainty: Applications in Quantitative Finance and Reinforcement Learning”

We look forward to seeing the incredible impact of their work. Congratulations again, Pamela and Comfort!

Today’s featured student is Liv Bouthot, who recently presented at Art Speaks: A Graduate Symposium Across Disciplines.H...
05/04/2026

Today’s featured student is Liv Bouthot, who recently presented at Art Speaks: A Graduate Symposium Across Disciplines.

Here’s how Liv described their experience:
"I presented on Chaos Theory and Cerberus, focusing on the visual connections between them. I started with a definition of a chaotic system, using an animation of the double pendulum to illustrate this for the audience. I then briefly explained the history of Chaos Theory's discovery (1961), and how this happened closely to the creation of Cerberus (1960). From here, I showed the connection between chaos and fractals and described the visual connection between the depiction of many fractals and this artwork. I finished with my version of Cerberus, completely made with the mathematical concepts I described.

This event was a rewarding and challenging opportunity to present mathematics in an accessible and entertaining way. I am so grateful to the Graduate School and Art Department for this opportunity, which pushed me outside of my comfort zone, and gave me the chance to share about two things I truly love- math and art. I also was able to form connections and friendships with the other graduate students who presented, who are a truly fabulous bunch of people!"

Congratulations, Liv!

Join us this Friday, May 8th, at 10:00am in EMS E416 for Hasif Ahmed's MS Thesis Defense!Title: Space Debris Oddity: Mod...
05/04/2026

Join us this Friday, May 8th, at 10:00am in EMS E416 for Hasif Ahmed's MS Thesis Defense!

Title:
Space Debris Oddity: Modeling a Crowded Sky with PDEs

Abstract:
Space debris in low Earth orbit is growing faster than it decays, making accurate prediction essential for satellite safety. In this thesis, we adapt the diffusion PDE framework of Jurkiewicz and Hinow (2023), which has the same mathematical structure underlying heat flow and population dynamics, to model debris density across orbital altitudes from 2016 to 2024. Using annual density snapshots from ESA’s DRAMA environment, which capture a richer debris population than publicly tracked objects alone, we estimate altitude-dependent diffusivity from Two-Line Element orbital data and incorporate solar-activity-driven atmospheric decay. Fitting the model to annual ESA snapshots yields one-year forecast improvements of 48%, 56%, and 64% over a naive baseline for small, medium, and large debris, respectively. Through PDE-based modeling, altitude-dependent parameterization, and optimization against observational density surfaces, the framework identifies where and when debris accumulates, separating episodic fragmentation signatures from steady altitude-specific growth driven by large constellation deployments.

Join us this Friday, May 8th, at 2:00pm in EMS E408 for Nils Nobre Wittwer's MS Thesis Defense!Title: Quantifying the Eq...
05/04/2026

Join us this Friday, May 8th, at 2:00pm in EMS E408 for Nils Nobre Wittwer's MS Thesis Defense!

Title:
Quantifying the Equifinality of Climate Models Through a Nullspace Analysis and Constrained Optimizations

Abstract:
Tuning climate model parameters is essential for improving the model's accuracy but limited by equifinality, where distinct parameter sets yield nearly identical results. This thesis quantifies equifinality at a tuned configuration (QuadTune) by analyzing the linear sensitivity nullspace via Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The objective is to identify parameter perturbations that maintain present-day (PD) performance while maximizing error in a future scenario (SST+4K), providing an estimate of the worst-case error based on equifinality.

Due to the actual model’s severe non-linearity and the local nature of an SVD, the linear nullspace approach failed to maintain PD performance during optimization. Therefore, a global constrained optimization was implemented on the non-linear model. This method successfully identified a worst-case configuration where PD predictions remain nearly identical to the tuned configuration, yet the future climate projection error increases significantly. The results show that linear nullspace analysis is insufficient for estimating non-linear equifinality.

Address

EMS Building, Room E403; 3200 N Cramer Street
Milwaukee, WI
53211

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8am - 4:30pm
Friday 7:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+14142294836

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when UW-Milwaukee Mathematical Sciences posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to UW-Milwaukee Mathematical Sciences:

Shortcuts

Share

Category