New Brin Endowed Professors Uri Bader and Ron Peled bring a wealth of experience and research to the department.

New Brin Endowed Professors Uri Bader and Ron Peled bring a wealth of experience and research to the UMD Department of Mathematics.

Two internationally recognized mathematicians joined the University of Maryland in fall 2024. Uri Bader and Ron Peled—who hold Brin Endowed Professorships in Mathematics—bring significant research experience to the department, according to  Mathematics Chair Doron Levy.

“Ron Peled is an international leader in the fields of probability, mathematical physics and statistics mechanics. Hiring Professor Peled brought to the department one of the best probabilists in the world,” Levy noted. “Uri Bader is an extraordinary mathematician who works in an area of mathematics related to geometry, number theory, group theory, dynamical systems and functional analysis. This is a remarkably broad area of expertise for a mathematician. Professors Peled and Bader will both provide exceptional research opportunities to our students.”

The new Brin Endowed Professorships in Mathematics were established with a generous gift from UMD Mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael Brin and his wife Eugenia for $2 million, which was fully matched by the Maryland Department of Commerce. The match was made through the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative (MEI), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities. 

With these new endowed professorships, UMD’s Department of Mathematics gained a significant edge in attracting top mathematicians to its next-level mathematics programs.

“Hiring Uri Bader and Ron Peled required Maryland to compete with many top math departments,” Levy said. “The newly established Brin Professorships were instrumental in our ability to attract both of them to Maryland.”

Uri Bader: Finding new territories in mathematics

Bader’s mathematical research is all about exploring connections.

“I like seeing the connections between mathematical objects. Sometimes people describe mathematics as different lands—there is algebra, there is geometry, there is number theory, but I see it as one continent, with no clear borders in between,” Bader explained. “I’m hoping to be an explorer—I’m looking to find new territories in mathematics to explore and this is what keeps me going.”

Known as one of the deepest and most active experts in the area of mathematics that comes from the Furstenberg/Margulis school of ergodic theory and discrete subgroups of Lie groups, Bader studies geometric group theory, dynamical systems, operator algebras, complex geometry and more.

“I’m working at the crossroads of geometry, algebra and number theory and I’m studying group theory, which is the study of symmetry,” Bader said. “Group theory by itself is an interplay of two theories—geometry and algebra. Geometry because you have these geometric objects that you study symmetries of and algebra because you describe symmetries by algebraic means. In my research, I apply these tools to describe number theory.”

Bader grew up in Israel, earning his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and later becoming an L.E. Dickson Instructor at the University of Chicago and a lecturer and professor of mathematics at the Technion before joining the Weizmann Institute in 2015 as a professor of mathematics.  

For Bader, his position at UMD opens up a host of new opportunities.

“I have some fantastic colleagues here at UMD and I’m looking forward to collaborations with them, students and visitors,” Bader said. “The wonderful Brin Mathematics Research Center brings many top-notch researchers to UMD and offers an opportunity to invite other scholars to study mathematics together. I can benefit, and I think I can bring a lot, including a new point of view.”

As he advances his research at UMD, Bader hopes his broad experience in mathematics can continue to make an impact—and a difference.

“Every time I’m studying a new mathematical theory, I have this feeling that things are falling into the right place. It’s fantastic and I get excited all over again. I get a kick out of being able to describe mathematical theory so others can get excited about it too,” Bader explained. “What makes me most proud is the people around me and what they do and their success. My mission is not just to be a researcher, but also to be part of the success of my students.” 

Ron Peled: ‘Fired up’ by mathematics

Peled has been inspired by the challenges of math for as long as he can remember.

“I have always been excited about mathematics,” Peled explained. “What fires me up is curiosity. I’m always curious that a simple question is out there, we don’t know the answer and it seems like it’s something I can think about. And if I think hard enough, I can make progress and perhaps I can solve it. Just that fact has always fascinated me.”

With a strong foundation in statistical physics and probability theory, Peled has also made significant contributions in related areas including combinatorics, discrete mathematics and analysis.

“I study phase transition, which is a branch at the interface of probability theory, a mathematical subject that I specialize in, and statistical physics—and this now has some tradition in mathematics,” Peled said. “From a physical perspective, this discipline is about how the properties of materials emerge from the interactions of the microscopic particles that make up these materials. For instance, you boil water and at 100 degrees Celsius it becomes gas. But what happens to it on the microscopic level? This is an example of a phase transition.”

Born and raised in Israel, Peled earned his undergraduate degree from the Open University of Israel, going on to receive his master’s in mathematics from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. in statistics from UC Berkeley, where his dissertation received the Herbert Alexander Prize and Citation in Probability. After a Clay Liftoff Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin and a two-year fellowship at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, Peled returned to Tel Aviv University in 2010 to become a professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences. The author of dozens of scientific papers, Peled spent the last two years at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study.

“I’m very excited about the opportunities that the University of Maryland is giving me and I’m very grateful to the Brin family for providing the support for this position. It will certainly allow me to focus more on my research and provide the best conditions for it,” Peled noted. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the other professors, students, and postdocs here and developing a group studying statistical physics and probability theory.”

Peled also sees an exciting future for the Brin Mathematics Research Center at UMD, which was launched to expand the university’s mathematics and statistics research and education programs and support visiting scholars, workshops and symposia, and summer programs.

“They opened the Brin Center here and there are workshops and summer schools all year round, and we think that this will propel the mathematics department here even further,” Peled said. “If one looks at the rankings, Maryland is in the top 20 now and it looks to be strongly improving toward the top 10.”

Written by Leslie Miller