Alisa Sedunova joins the faculty for the Department of Mathematics at Purdue University
11-22-2024
The Department of Mathematics at Purdue University welcomes a new faculty member for the spring of 2024, Alisa Sedunova. She teaches MA301 and MA351 and her research area is analytic number theory.
“Analytic number theory is an area of mathematics that uses applies from analysis and other fields to study properties of integers with a particular focus on prime numbers, i.e. those integers that can only be divided by themselves and 1 without remainders,” she says. “This area is particularly focused on understanding patterns and relationships among prime numbers and some variations of prime numbers.”
Originally from Chelyabinsk, an industrial city close to Ural Mountains. This area outside of Russia is famous for having a meteor that dropped in the city in 2013. Although her hometown is quite a bit different than West Lafayette, some things are still reminiscent of places she used to live.
“West Lafayette often reminds me of Dolgoprudny, the college town of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” she says. “I like college towns and in general I feel like working in a university that is located in fairly small town is quite convenient and pleasant in your daily life. I also like our analytic number theory group in the department, which I think is one of the most important things for a researcher.”
Her journey to the Midwest United States has included quite a bit of world travel. As a high school she had two years of boarding school in Kolmogorov, which is a part of Moscow State University. After that she entered Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology where she received her bachelor’s degree in 2011 and master’s in 2013. She was admitted to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology where she received her bachelor’s degree in 2011 and master’s in 2013.
“A master’s degree takes two years to get in Russia and for some grant related reasons my master’s thesis had to be completed in the first year, so I had the second year sort of free applied and was admitted for Master’s program in Ecology Polytechnique in Paris, France,” she says, “After that I got a PhD position in University Paris Sud (now Paris Saclay), where I defended my PhD thesis in June 2017. The last year of my PhD I spent as a research assistant in Goettingen University in Germany. After my PhD I did a 2 year postdoctoral studies in Max Plank Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany. Then I joined Saint Petersburg State University as an associate professor in September 2019. I left Saint Petersburg State in 2022 and spent one year as Simon’s scholar (research visitor) in the University of Montreal, Canada. I was also a research visitor in Warwick University, UK for a short time before joining Purdue in January 2024.”
When not analyzing the numbers, she enjoys reading, taking long walks in good weather and travelling She’s also a self-described animal lover.
“I have a fearless love for animals, fearless for myself, but fearful for everyone around me when I see a wild animal,” she says. “Apparently, now I also enjoy finding different bird species in Lafayette/West Lafayette!”