The Department of Mathematics' rise to prominence in recent years is the focus of an article in the Fall edition of Vanderbilt's Arts and Science magazine.

John Rafter, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, is the recipient of the 2011 Harriet S. Gilliam Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Lecturers and Senior Lecturers.

Vaughan Jones has accepted a faculty position as Distinguished Professor with the Department of Mathematics beginning in the fall of 2011. A preeminent mathematician from UC Berkeley, Jones will be a tremendous addition to the department’s already strong research group in operator algebras.

The Department of Mathematics hosted a two-day Shanks Workshop on “Conformal Field Theory and Von Neumann Algebras” October 29-30, 2011. The workshop explored the deep connections between CFT and the theory of subfactors and planar algebras.