Curriculum Vitae
Frank Sottile

Professor
Department of Mathematics
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX   77843
USA
Email: sottile@math.tamu.edu

1401 Post Oak Circle 
College Station, TX   77840
USA
http://www.math.tamu.edu/~sottile
Citizenship: USA

Research Interests: Algebraic Geometry (MR 14) and Algebraic Combinatorics (MR 05)

Education
Ph.D. in Mathematics, August 1994, University of Chicago.
Supervisor: William Fulton
Dissertation title: Enumerative Geometry of Real Grassmannian Varieties
M.S., Mathematical Tripos, Part III (with distinction), Cambridge University.
Honors B.S., Physics, summa cum laude, Michigan State University.
Awards and Fellowships
  • Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, November 2012.
  • TAMU Mathematics Department award for service, December 2009.
  • Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences' Japanese-American Frontiers of Science Symposium, 1–3 December 2007, Kanagawa, Japan.
  • Clay Mathematical Institute Research Scholar January 1–June 15, 2004. Report on Activities.
  • NSF CAREER Award, "Computation, Combinatorics, and Reality in Algebraic Geometry, with Applications" 1 August 2002–31 July 2007.
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
  • Winston Churchill Foundation Graduate Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1985–1986.
  • Employment
  • May 2014 — April 2018     Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo.
  • September 2006 —     Professor of Mathematics, Texas A&M University.
  • August 2004 – August 2006     Associate Professor of Mathematics, Texas A&M University.
  • November – December 2005, Professeur invité, Institute Henri Poincaré, Paris.
  • September 1999 – July 2004 Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
        On leave September 1999 – August 2000.
        Paternity Leave Autumn 2001. One reason.
  • June 2001. Maître de Conférence invité, IRMAR, Université de Rennes, France.
  • juin/juillet 1999.Visitor, Université de Genève, Suisse.
  • May/June 1999. Maître de Conférence invité, IRMA, Université de Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.
  • January 1999–May 2000, van Vleck Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  • August – December 1998, Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.
  • August 1996 – June 1997, Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.
  • July 1994 – July 1998, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto. (Leave of absence August 1996–July 1997)
  • Research Grants
  • National Science Foundation Standard Grant Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry for Spectral Theory and Galois Groups, 1 August 2022 – 31 July 2025. $303,805. DMS-2201005.
  • Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant for Mathematics Applicable and Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry, 1 September 2019 – 31 August 2024. $42,000. Award Number 636314.
  • T3 grant Philosophical Foundations of Probability and Mathematical Reasoning, Co-PIs: Jeffrey Kuan (Mathematics) and Kenny Easwaran (Philosophy). January 2019–December 2021. $30,000.
  • NSF individual research grant Combinatorial and Real Algebraic Geometry, 1 June 2015 – 31 May 2018. $347,360. DMS-1501370. proposal.
  • NSF individual research grant Applications and Combinatorics in Algebraic Geometry, 1 August 2010 – 31 July 2014. $235,395. DMS-1001615. proposal.
  • NSF equipment SCREMS grant, Cluster computing in the mathematical sciences at TAMU, Co-PI with Wolfgang Bangerth, Raymond Carrell, and Zach Teitler. 30 August 2009 – 29 August 2010, DMS-0922866.
  • NSF individual research grant Numerical Real Algebraic Geometry, 1 August 2009 – 31 July 2012. DMS-0915211.
  • Co-PI with Professor Luis Garcia-Puente of Sam Houston State University on a Texas Advanced Research Projects grant 010366-0054-2007, Algebraic Geometry in Algebraic Statistics and Geometric Modeling, 15 May 2008 – 14 May 2010. Proposal.
  • IRTAG travel grant, "Bounds for real solutions to polynomial equations", April 14–May 9 2008. Proposal.
  • NSF Individual Research grant, 1 September 2007 – 31 August 2010. "Applicable Algebraic Geometry: Real Solutions, Applications, and Combinatorics" DMS-0701050 Proposal.
  • NSF CAREER Award, "Computation, Combinatorics, and Reality in Algebraic Geometry, with Applications" 1 August 2002 – 31 July 2007. DMS-0134860 and DMS-0538734.
  • Co-PI on U Mass SCREMS grant, 1 September 2000 – 31 August 2003. DMS-0079536. Proposal.
  • NSF Individual Research Grant, 1 June 2000 – 31 July 2002. DMS-0070494. Real and Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry.   Proposal.
  • NSERC Individual Research Grant # OGP0170279. April 1995 – July 1998. A Geometric Approach to the Combinatorics of Schubert Polynomials.   Proposal.
  • Conference Grants
  • NSF Conference grant "Texas Algebraic Geometry Symposium 2018–2020", DMS-1758574. PI: Gregory Pearlstein and Co-PI: Frank Sottile. March 2018 – February 2021.
  • CIMPA Research School, Ibadan, Nigeria, June 2017.
  • NSF Conference grant "Texas Algebraic Geometry Symposium (TAGS) 2015", DMS-1450510, PI: Gregory Pearlstein and Co-PIs: Laura Matusevich, Colleen Robles, Anne Shiu, and Frank Sottile. March 2015 – February 2016.
  • NSF Conference Grant, co-PI, "Tutorial in the Mountains", Pingree Park, Colorado, 1–2 August 2013.
  • MSRI Math Circles Seed Grant "Texas A&M University Math Circle" PIs: Frank Sottile, Alex Sprintson and Phil Yasskin. 2012–13 academic year.
  • NSF Conference grant "Texas Algebraic Geometry Seminar (TAGS) 2012", DMS-1203175, PI: Laura Matusevich, and Co-PIs: Paulo Lima-Filho, Joseph Landsberg, Maurice Rojas, and Frank Sottile.
  • CIMPA Research School, Sokoto, Nigeria, June 2013. The School Has been Cancelled by the CIMPA due to Security Concerns!
  • NSF Conference grant "Texas Algebraic Geometry Seminar (TAGS) 2009", DMS-0915235, PI: Maurice Rojas, and Co-PIs: Laura Matusevich, Paulo Lima-Filho, Joseph Landsberg, Frank Sottile.
  • NSA conference grant, "Combinatorial, Enumerative, and Toric Geometry", to support workshop at MSRI in March 2009. Co-PI with Linda Chen and Sandor Kovacs).
  • NSF conference grant, "Enumeration and bounds in real algebraic geometry", April 21–25 2008, Bernoulli centre, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. DMS-0800253. Proposal.
  • NSF grant to fund additional participation in the 2007 IMA PI Summer Graduate Prgram on Applicable Algebraic Geometry at Texas A&M University, 23 July – 11 August 2007. Co-PI Prof. Laura Matusevich. DMS-0704355
  • NSA conference grant to fund US participation at the Coloquio Latinamericano di Álgebra in Colonia, Uruguay, 1–12 August, 2005. Co-PIs: Prof. S. Montgomery, University of Southern California, and J. Wolf, University of California at Berkeley.
  • Texas A&M University grant for ``Year of the International Student'', to help fund participantion of two graduate students at the Coloquio Latinamericano di \'Algebra in Colonia, Uruguay, 1–12 August, 2005. Co-PIs: Professors Marcelo Aguiar, Hal Schenck, and Sarah Witherspoon.
  • NSA Conference Support, Algorithmic, Combinatorial, and Applicable Real Algebraic Geometry 12 – 16 April 2004, MSRI.
  • NSF Conference Support, MSRI Workshop on Real Algebraic Geometry and Geometric Modeling, April 3–4, 2004, MSRI, Berkeley. CCF-0412858
  • NSA Conference Support, Discrete Mathematics in New England, 1 September 2002 – 31 August 2004.
  • Five Colleges Lecture Fund to support first Valley Discrete Math Day, 12 October 2001.
  • University of Toronto Connaught Fund Committee for International Symposia Grant (for Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics, 1998). March 1997.   Proposal.
  • Advising
  • Chris Strader, Senior Honors Thesis, University of Massachusetts, 2003. Singular Algorithms for Wu's Method  
  • Yuval Sivan, Undergraduate Research, Summer and Autumn 2003. Joint paper: Experimentation and conjectures in the real Schubert calculus for flag manifolds, James Ruffo, Yuval Sivan, Evgenia Soprunova, Frank Sottile, Experimental Mathematics, 15, No. 2 (2006), 199--221.
  • Andy Howard, Undergraduate Research, Summer 2008.
  • Christopher Brooks, Undergraduate Research, Autumn 2009—Summer 2012. Joint Paper: Galois groups of Schubert problems of lines are at least alternating Christopher J. Brooks, Abraham Martín del Campo-Sanchez, and Frank Sottile. arXiV.org/1207.4280, 26 pages. Transactions of the AMS, to appear.
  • Prachi Pendse, Undergraduate Research, Autumn 2012—Summer 2013.
  • Aaron Moore, Undergraduate Research, Summer 2012—Autumn 2014.
  • Zack Maril, Undergraduate Research, Winter 2013—Autumn 2014.
  • James Woodcock, Undergraduate Research, May 2020 — May 2022.
    Joint paper: Euclidean Distance Degree via Mixed Volume, with Paul Breiding and James Woodcock. 20 pages 2020. arXiv:2012.06350
  • Jackson West, Undergraduate Research, Summer 2021
  • Paisios Woodcock, Undergraduate Research, Summer
  • Jonah Robinson, Undergraduate Research, May 2022 – December 2022.

  • Nathan Melhop, Master's, August 2018–December 2018.
  • Sarah Gipson, Distance Master's, May 2018–December 2019.
  • Sean Penerya, Distance Master's, October 2018–May 2020.
  • Kate Dodgen, Distance Master's, September 2018–May 2020.
  • David Jones, Distance Master's, September 2018–December 2020.
  • Xiaoyi Zhou, Distance Master's, December 2019–December 2021.
  • Cheryl Robinson, Distance Master's, June 2020–December 2021.
  • Kelly Maluccio, Master's, April 2020–December 2021.
  • Nate Welty, Master's, April 2020–May 2022.
  • Merri Stillman, Distance Master's
  • Osman Quinteros, Distance Master's
  • A.J. Perea, Distance Master's
  • Jonah Robinson, Master's, January 2023–

  • James Ruffo, Graduate Student at U Mass and Texas A&M University. PhD August 2007.
  • Weronika Buczynska, Graduate Student at Texas A&M University, Begining January 2009. Ph.D. June 2010
  • Abraham Martin Del Campo Sanchez, Graduate Student at Texas A&M University, Beginning September 2006. Ph.D. August 2012.
  • Corey Irving, Graduate Student at Texas A&M University, Beginning August 2006. Ph.D. December 2012.
  • Nickolas Hein, Graduate Student at Texas A&M University, Beginning August 2007. Ph.D. August 2013.
  • Robert Williams, Beginning January 2014. Ph.D. August 2017.
  • Ata Firat Pir, Beginning February 2014. Ph.D. August 2018.
  • Li Ying, Beginning March 2015. Ph.D. May 2019.
  • Taylor Brysiewicz, Beginning March 2015. Ph.D. May 2020.
  • Elise Walker, Beginning November 2017. Ph.D. May 2022.
  • Thomas Yahl, Beginning January 2018. Ph.D. May 2023.

  • Matthew Faust, September 2019 –
  • C.J. Bott, November 2020 –
  • Jordy Lopez-García, March 2021 –
  • Somak Dutta, November 2023 –


  • Mariana Pereira, Graduate Student at The University of Massachusetts and Texas A&M University. 2001 – 2005 (December 2006 Ph.D. w/ Sarah Witherspoon).
  • Tina Mai, Faculty member, Da Nang University Vietnam. I advised her 2010–2012

  • Gregory Warrington, Postdoc at University of Massachusetts, 2001–2003.
  • Evgenia Soprunova, Postdoc at University of Massachusetts, 2002–2005.
  • Frédéric Bihan, Postdoc at MSRI, January–February 2004.
  • Luis García, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, January 2005 – August 2007.
  • Christopher Hillar, NSF Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2005 – August 2008.
  • Aaron Lauve, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2007 – August 2010.
  • Zach Teitler, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2007 – August 2010.
  • Jon Hauenstein, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, January 2010 – August 2012.
  • Mounir Nisse, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2010 – August 2013.
  • Jacob White, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2012 – August 2015.
  • Timo de Wolff, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2014 – May 2017.
  • Emanuele Ventura, Postdoc at Texas A&M University, September 2017 – December 2019.
  • Thesis Committees (Non-chair)
    External Examiner for Kuimars Kaveh, Ph.D., University of Toronto, May 2002.
    External Examiner for Stefan Mykytiuk, Ph.D., York University, August 2002.
    Thesis committee, Seongchun Kwon, Ph.D., Michigan State University. Spring 2003.
    Thesis committee, Moussa Seydou (Mathematiques, Université de Rennes, France), Autumn 2010.
    Thesis committee, Matthew Samuel, Ph.D., Rutgers University, Spring 2013.
    Habilitation Thesis Report for Nicolas Perrin, Université Jussieu, June 2010.
    Habilitation Thesis Committee for Mohab Safey el-Din, Université Jussieu, December 2010.
    Habilitation Thesis Committee for Xavier Goaoc, Université Nancy, December 2011.
    Ph.D. Thesis committees at Texas A&M University (Non-chair)
    Mariana Pereira, Ph.D. (2006), 2004–2006.
    Waqar Malik, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. (2007) 2006–2007.
    Walter Moreira, Ph.D. (2008) 2006–2008.
    Luke Oeding, Ph.D. (2009) 2005–2009.
    Ashraf Ibrahim, Ph.D. (2009) 2008–2009.
    Cort Spellman, M.S. 2008–2009.
    Svetlana Poznanovik, Ph.D. (2010) 2006–2010.
    Phong Sy Nguyen, Ph.D. (2012) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2007–2012.
    Ke Ye, Ph.D. (2012) 2009–2012.
    Ming Yang, 2009–2012.
    Xiaolong Tang, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2007–2013.
    Korben Rusek, 2008–2013. (Replaced for Defence).
    Yang Qi, 2009– 2013.
    Zekiye Eser, 2010–2014
    Cameron Farnsworth, 2012–2016
    Yonghui Guan, 2015–2016
    Michael Lopez (CS), 2012–2017
    Roberto Barrera, 2011–2017
    Fulvio Gesmudo, 2014–2017
    Xiaojian Du (Physics), 2015–2019.
    Ayo Adeniran, 2016– 2020

    Tolu Oke, 2017–
    David Sykes, 2017–
    Nida Obatake, 2018–
    Roshan Eapen (Aerospace), 2019–
    Arpan Pal, 2019–
    Haoshen Li, 2019–
    Lauren Snider, 2019–
    Zaifeng Lin, 2019–
    Zhaobidan Feng, 2020–
    Hannah Solomon, 2020–
    Zhanduo Tang (Physics), 2020–
    Zonglin Tian, 2020–
    Master's committees at Texas A&M University.
    Eric Wendel, 2013–2015
    Wendy Huang, 2015–2016
    Maci Kimbrough, 2017–2018
    Chris Bolognese, 2017–2018
    Lawrence Yee, 2018–2018
    Brandon Moore (Stats), 2019–2019
    Rex Riley, 2018–2019
    Jessica Tripode, 2018–2019
    John Cowan, 2018–2019
    Karian Geoghegan , 2017–2019
    Katie Brown, 2018–2019
    Lia Hoying, 2017–2020

    MS Ardash, 2018–
    Kristi Burks, 2018–
    Stefan San Miguel, 2018–
    Emily Lindsey, 2018–
    Lucas Johnson, 2019–
    Amy Zazzi , 2019–
    Teaching
    Publications and Preprints
    Invited Mathematical Talks
    Selected Talks all Research Talks (Conferences, Colloquiua, and Research Seminars)
    Outreach Activities
    Other Professional Activities
    Departmental Activities
    Conference Organization

    Editing, Refereeing, Reviewing
    Professional Societies



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    Last modified: Sat Mar 18 09:50:23 CET 2023