Math Faculty Named Simons Fellows

The Department of Mathematics is pleased to announce that two professors in the department, Professor Yekaterina Epshteyn and Distinguished Professor Mladen Bestvina, have been named Simons Fellows in Mathematics by the Simons Foundation. The Simons Fellow Awards provide funds to faculty that allow them to take a full year of sabbatical leave. This leave enables researchers to take a break from teaching and administrative obligations and focus on their research.

Professor Yekaterina Epshteyn

“This is a highly competitive fellowship program,” said Epshteyn, who joined the Department of Mathematics in 2010. “I feel fortunate and honored to be recognized among the 2025 Simons Fellows in Mathematics. I am also very grateful for all my mentors, collaborators, colleagues, and students with whom I have had the privilege to work.”

Epshteyn’s research is interdisciplinary, and spans the fields of Computational and Applied Mathematics, with two prominent directions in recent years. One area of her research centers on theory development for microstructure evolution in polycrystalline materials. Polycrystalline microstructures are found in most technologically useful materials.  Another area of her research focuses on the design of structure-preserving models and algorithms for hyperbolic balance laws and related systems with uncertainty.

She is very excited and looking forward to the opportunity to focus on her research project, visit her collaborators, and explore new perspectives and opportunities for research and collaborations, which she sees as the essential goals of the sabbatical.

Outside of research, Epshteyn enjoys spending time with family and friends, exploring the outdoors, reading, watching films, and listening to music.

Distinguished Professor Mladen Bestvina

“I am very grateful to the Simons Foundation for this award,” says Bestvina. He joined the Department of Mathematics in 1994, and his research lies in Geometric Group Theory, where he studies groups using tools from geometry and topology.

Bestvina plans to spend a month at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge and then a semester at Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute(SLMath, formerly MSRI).

He is looking forward to learning new things and developing new research. In his time outside of research, Bestvina enjoys biking, hiking, and playing chess.

A full list of 2025 Simons Fellows can be found on the Simons Foundation website:Simons Fellows in Mathematics 2025.

By Izabella Bourland