Rate My Professor Jayadev Athreya

Jayadev S. Athreya is a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington, where he also serves as a professor in the Department of Comparative History of Ideas. He specializes in ergodic theory and dynamical systems within mathematics, exploring connections to geometry, Teichmüller dynamics, translation surfaces, billiards, and number theory. Athreya earned his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Iowa State University with honors and distinction in 2000, M.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago in 2001, and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago in 2006 under advisor Alex Eskin. His academic career includes lecturer and Gibbs Instructor at Yale University (2006-2010), instructor at Princeton University (2007-2008), assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010-2015), and since 2015 at the University of Washington, promoted to full professor in 2020. He founded and directed the Illinois Geometry Lab (2011-2015) and the Washington Experimental Mathematics Lab, and holds leadership roles as Co-Director (International) of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) since 2022 and former Interim Director (2021-2022).

Athreya's influential publications include 'Lattice Point Asymptotics and Volume Growth on Teichmüller Space' with Alexander Bufetov, Alex Eskin, and Maryam Mirzakhani (Duke Mathematical Journal, 2012), 'Right-angled Billiards and Volumes of the Moduli Spaces of Quadratic Differentials on CP¹' with Alex Eskin and Anton Zorich (Annales Scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure, 2016), and a book co-authored with Howard Masur on translation surfaces (2024). His research has garnered over 1,100 citations according to Google Scholar. Awards and honors include election as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2024), Jean Morlet Chair at the Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (2024), NSF CAREER Award (2014-2019), multiple NSF grants totaling over $1 million, N. Tenney Peck Teaching Award (2012), and NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006-2009). Athreya has delivered numerous invited lectures and contributed to committee service, enhancing the impact of mathematics through experimental labs and inclusive initiatives.