University of Colorado Denver Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Congratulations to Tony Tasayco, an undergraduate Education student aspiring to become a high school mathematics teacher, for serving as a plenary speaker at the 2026 Colorado OER Conference. 🎉👏

A dedicated student who has completed numerous mathematics courses and frequently worked with Dr. Diana White as a Learning Assistant and grader, Tony was selected to represent the “future” in the event’s theme: Past, Present, and Future of Open Educational Resources (OER).

We are proud to see Tony sharing his experiences and helping shape the future of education. Congratulations, Tony, on this outstanding achievement!🎉

👏Congratulations to J. Carlos Martínez Mori and his co-authors, Ari Cruz, Bruce Fang, and Pamela E. Harris, on receiving the 2026 MAA Trevor Evans Award for their article, "Parking Towards √2, One Fraction at a Time," published in Math Horizons.

The award recognized the outstanding expository mathematical writing of the article and was also praised for its engaging and accessible exploration of parking functions, guiding readers from fundamental counting ideas to a surprising connection with the continued fraction representation of √2.

Please join us in congratulating Carlos and his collaborators on this well-deserved national recognition!🎉

🎉We’re proud to share that recent CU Denver PhD graduate Kayley Smiley has been featured by the CLAS Newsroom for her innovative research using applied mathematics and spatial statistics to advance disease hotspot detection. Her work focuses on helping communities identify disease outbreaks more quickly and effectively.

Kayley’s research is a wonderful example of how mathematical and statistical sciences can be applied to solve real-world challenges and improve lives.

Congratulations, Kayley, on this well-deserved recognition! 🎉

Read the full article: https://clas.ucdenver.edu/newsroom/2026/05/26/how-cu-denver-phd-graduate-kayley-smiley-used-applied-mathematics-advance-disease

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Farhad Pourkamali on receiving tenure and being promoted to Associate Professor! 🎉

This exciting milestone was officially approved by the Board of Regents at the June 4, 2026 meeting, with the promotion becoming effective on August 10, 2026. This achievement reflects Dr. Pourkamali’s dedication to research, teaching, and service, as well as his valuable contributions to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Congratulations on this well-deserved accomplishment, and best wishes for continued success in the years ahead!🎉

Congratulations to the CU Denver Math & Statistics OER Team on receiving the 2026 Governor’s Award for Outstanding ZTC Department at the Colorado OER Conference! 🎉

Our OER Team consists of Troy Butler, Joshua French, Stephen Hartke, Daniel Klie, Yongxia Kuang, Yaning Liu, Robert Rostermundt, Adam Spiegler, and Pamela Whitten. They have been making an incredible impact through high-quality, carefully implemented zero textbook cost (ZTC) materials that help students save money while supporting their success.

After winning the Outstanding Bachelor’s Degree award last year, the team has now earned back-to-back statewide recognition with this year’s Outstanding Department award. 👏

Please join us in congratulating the team on this well-deserved honor and thanking them for their dedication to accessible, student-centered education.

Learn more here: https://cdhe.colorado.gov/news-article/governor-polis-celebrates-2026-zero-textbook-cost-challenge-award-recipients-honoring

📢 Publication Alert 📢

We are excited to share the official publication of “Iterative Data-Consistent Inversion with Multiple Push-Forward Constraints.” This work represents a major advancement in the data-consistent inversion (DCI) framework, strengthening its theoretical foundations while introducing scalable algorithms for complex, multi-source data settings.

The paper presents a novel iterative DCI (iDCI) methodology that provably converges to solutions consistent with observed datasets, while also enabling robust inversion for asynchronous, heterogeneous, and high-dimensional observations. These contributions significantly expand the computational applicability of iDCI and position it as a powerful approach for modern stochastic inverse problems.

Congratulations to the Dr. Troy Butler and co-authors on this outstanding achievement!🎉

More at: https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/52034eb04b657aea,430a9ab664b7b491,22309ac560989c09.html

Congratulations to Pamela Whitten for being promoted from Senior Instructor to Principal Instructor! Well done and well deserved. Pamela Whitten keeps on demonstrating teaching effectiveness using best pedagogy practices. She is also a leader in constantly finding ways to improve our curriculum delivery methods. Thanks to Pamela Whitten for always putting our students' learning first. Congratulations to Pamela Whitten!

From left to right: Dr. Stephen Hartnett, Director of the University of Colorado’s College-in-Prison Program, with Samuel Harris, Grace Truong, and Jacob Johns.

On the picture, Dr. Hartnett is handing out the textbooks to Samuel, Grace, and Jacob as they prepare for an exciting Summer 2026 semester teaching MATH 1010 in Colorado prisons.

Grace will be teaching at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, while Samuel and Jacob will be teaching at Sterling Correctional Facility.

Wishing them an inspiring and impactful summer as they bring learning, opportunity, and enthusiasm into the classroom and the prisons!

On Thursday, May 7, 2026, our department came together for the annual 'Spring into Summer Gathering', celebrating another successful year with faculty, staff, students, and graduate students. It was an evening filled with recognition, and celebration. 🎉

We are especially proud to recognize our outstanding students for their achievements:

🏅 Grace Truong received the Spring 2026 Department Outstanding MS in Applied Mathematics Student Award awarded by Florian Pfender.

🏅 Abigail Nix received the Spring 2026 Lynn Bateman Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence by a TA/GPTI awarded by Carlos Martínez Mori.

🏅 Alexander Semyonov received the 2026–27 Lynn Bateman Fellowship awarded by Steffen Borgwardt.

Congratulations to all of our award recipients and thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating the end of another amazing year! 🌸

Great article about Ella Addison-Taylor (BS in Mathematics, Spring 2026) on CU Denver news. Ella Addison-Taylor is staying with Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, CU Denver for her MS with the PATH-GDS program. Check the article out!

Meet Ella Addison-Taylor: How This Graduate Found Community and Purpose Through Math - CU Denver News Ella Addison-Taylor was just a toddler when she first visited CU Denver’s campus. She would come to work with her mom, Professor of English Joanne