The UB Department of Mathematics is pleased to announce that Professor Vasudevan Srinivas, PhD, has been named UB Distinguished Professor, 2026.  Srinivas's research Interests include: algebraic geometry; commutative algebra; homological algebra; algebraic K-theory. The award, created by the Office of the Provost, honors full professors who have achieved national or international recognition as experts in their fields of study, with a demonstrated record of excellence in artistic or scholarly contributions. See listing of all awardees via UB Faculty Affairs.

Harvard's First Proof Project is testing and benchmarking the ability of artificial intelligence to solve genuine, unpublished research-level mathematics. The international effort challenges the notions of AI supremacy. The Project includes work by UB Math Professor Adam S. Sikora. Reflecting on the work, Sikora states, "The AI revolution is certainly disruptive to mathematics. It forces us to rethink the nature of mathematical research, how we train PhD students, how authorship and intellectual credit should work, and even how publishing and peer review can function if producing mathematical results becomes much faster. [...] I think we are in a process of developing a new and very powerful culture of mathematical research in which humans continue to play the leading role — choosing important questions, developing concepts, judging significance and seeking understanding — while being greatly empowered by AI. If we manage that transition well, the result could be an extraordinary acceleration of mathematical discovery and, ultimately, substantial benefits for science and society.” 

Professor Adam Sikora is helping advance and popularize the growing field of quantum topology, which connects topology and geometry with quantum physics through surprising cross-fertilization of ideas. Sikora co-organized three international conferences and a summer school devoted to this area. The first three NSF-supported events were held at Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics and at the Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM) in Marseille, France, in summer 2025. Another meeting, exploring connections with Number Theory, will take place at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in Germany.

New research by University at Buffalo and University of Colorado Boulder mathematicians has uncovered and characterized novel two-dimensional wave patterns — waves that propagate along two directions — whether they are in water or other settings like plasmas and condensed matter. The new study, published Aug. 5 in Physical Review Letters, uses numerical simulations to obtain solutions in two dimensions, describing what gives rise to patterns like the matrix tide.

Published by Nature Communications, the study "Switch-like gene expression modulates disease" is the first systematic analysis of switch-like genes across multiple tissues. The study is co-authored by UB faculty and students in Mathematics and Biological Sciences.

In celebration of pi (Greek letter π), the mathematical constant and infinite number whose first three digits are 3.14, UBNow features a special Q&A with Daniel Sage, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics.