Top PhD juggles mathematical theory - and fatherhood

Dr. Manuele Santoprete sees the world in numbers. UVic's top doctoral student for 2004 divided his graduate studies in half when he was encouraged
to switch to a PhD one year after beginning his master's in mathematics in 1999.

To top it off, he also added a daughter to his family.
"It was a lot of work, juggling my thesis and welcoming a newborn," he says, "I didn't get much sleep sometimes, but it was worth it on all counts."

The Pisa, Italy, native combined his love of physics with an interest in mathematics, and wrote his thesis on the different approaches to solving problems.

Since defending his thesis in August 2003, he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. Upon graduation he was immediately offered a three-year instructorship at the University of California in Irvine, where he's currently teaching and researching. Since arriving in California, he's become a father again, this time to a son.

Santoprete's thesis focused on the mathematical study of chaotic systems, developing techniques to understand, for example, the interaction between the sun and the Earth in mathematical terms. He examined how the chaotic orbits of non-spherical objects like these can be interpreted mathematically.

In a field where experienced researchers are content to publish two articles per year, each of Santoprete's nine papers has appeared in a high-profile journal. A recent paper appeared in Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, one of the world's top mathematical journals. This paper was the first important contribution in 30 years to "Saari's conjecture," a puzzle that's been explored by the best researchers in the field.

Santoprete has already been hailed as a star in a field that counts Newton and Euler among its pupils. He looks forward to a future of research and teaching. "I'm working to develop techniques to help people understand problems in a different way," he says. "There's so much to learn."