Hello, I'm Nyah J. Davis
I believe that math is a powerful lens through which we can view and understand the world. My current research interests include spectral theory, combinatorics, and aperiodic order. I am specifically intrigued by the layered connections between different mathematical structures.
As a black queer woman from an economically disadvantaged background, I am dedicated to the creation of space for others with underrepresented identities in math. I will continue building communities of support and mentoring young mathematicians so that anyone who loves math feels welcome in the discipline.
Updates
June 2023
I have completed my first year of graduate school at Rice University, and will soon attend the summer graduate school, Séminaire de Mathématiques Supérieures 2023: Periodic and Ergodic Spectral Problems at Université De Montréal, funded by SLMath. Once I return, I begin serving as Treasurer for the Black Graduate Student Association at Rice, and continue preparing for my remaining qualifying exams.
This fall I will be more deeply exploring a few potential research directions. Through a combination of coursework, seminars, and conferences, I hope to discover which subfield will be my best fit.
July 2022
This summer I am a participant of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education 2022 Summer Program for women in mathematics, hosted at the University of Oxford. The intensive program will help prepare me for the beginning of my doctoral study at Rice University in the Department of Mathematics, where I will be the inaugural recipient of their Raymond L. Johnson Fellowship and further supported by the 2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
August 2021
I am a fourth year student at the University of Iowa and will be graduating with a Mathematics major and an Art minor in May 2022. I am working towards an honors thesis about General Representations of Finite-Dimensional Algebras with Dr. Ryan Kinser, supported through a RTG Undergraduate Fellowship. This year, I am serving as president of the Undergraduate Math Club and the UIowa AWM student chapter.
This summer, I conducted research through the 20th annual REU program at the University of Minnesota, and was the program's first African American participant. I will present preliminary research results from that REU on Lattice Models & Puzzles for Dual Weak Symmetric Grothendieck Polynomials at the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics in January 2022.
