Professor Pavlo Pylyavskyy named 2025 Simons Fellow in Mathematics
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (4/23/2025) – School of Mathematics Professor Pavlo Pylyavskyy has been named a 2025 Simons Fellow in Mathematics. The competitive Simons Fellows program provides financial support for faculty to take an academic research leave to provide strong intellectual stimulation and lead to increased creativity and productivity in theoretical research.
Pylyavskyy, who joined the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities faculty in 2010, is primarily interested in algebraic combinatorics. Mathematicians who study algebraic combinatorics associate algebraic objects – like rings and groups – with combinatorial methods to spark new ideas about object structure and patterns. The outcomes of algebraic combinatorics research not only deepen our theoretical understanding in a variety of areas in pure mathematics, but also drive applications in fields like physics, statistics, computing, and data science. Pylyavskyy’s most recent work lies at the intersection of geometry, representation theory, and combinatorics, with collaborative publications on the topics of geometric configurations, geometric crystals, schur positivity, and solitons.
Over the course of his fifteen years at the University of Minnesota, Pylyavskyy has authored more than 40 research papers and has mentored fourteen graduate students and postdoctoral associates. He also serves the Minnesota mathematics community as a mentor for the Algebra and Combinatorics REU program and an instructor for the RMC Academy “Art of Sciences” Summer Camp. His dedication to mathematics research and community was previously recognized with the Sloan Fellowship in 2013 and a NSF CAREER Award in 2014.
Pylyavskyy is the twelfth School of Mathematics professor to earn a Simons Fellowship since the program’s founding in 2012. The Simons Foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing the frontiers of basic science through grantmaking, in-house research and public engagement. Understanding the transformative power of scientific inquiry, Jim and Marilyn Simons established the foundation in 1994 to propel scientific progress.