Algebra at USC is very broadly conceived. The expertise of the faculty covers a broad swathe of the field, including representation theory, group theory, algebraic geometry, algebraic combinatorics, algebraic K-theory, and connections to mathematical physics.

Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty

  • Asok, Aravind (algebraic geometry, algebraic K-theory, homotopy theory)
  • Assaf, Sami (algebraic combinatorics, combinatorial representation theory, algebraic geometry, probability)
  • Friedlander, Eric (algebraic geometry, algebraic K-theory, representation theory)
  • Guralnick, Robert (finite and algebraic groups, representation theory, curves, Galois theory, linear algebra)
  • Lauda, Aaron (categorification, representation theory, low-dimensional topology, quantum computation)
  • Malikov, Fedor (mathematical physics, representation theory)
  • Montgomery, Susan (non-commutative algebras, Hopf algebras, representation theory)
  • Negron, Cris (tensor categories, quantum groups, representation theory, mathematical physics)
  • Panova, Greta (algebraic combinatorics, computational complexity, statistical mechanics, probability)
  • Williams, Harold (representation theory, algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, mathematical physics)

Post-Docs

  • Daniele Garzoni (finite groups, algebraic groups, Galois theory)
  • Czenky, Agustina (tensor categories, representation theory, quantum algebra)
  • Biman Roy (algebraic geometry, homotopy theory)
  • Gagnon, Lucas (combinatorics, representation theory, geometry)

Current Graduate Students

  • Somaiya, Yash (Asok)
  • Yang, Fan (Asok)
  • Qiu, Ye (Assaf)
  • Kim Sung, Hyun (Lauda)
  • Jernej Grlj (Lauda)
  • Filippo Iulianelli (Lauda) (physics)
  • Roman, Vlad (Guralnick)
  • Sajan, Anna (Negron)
  • Zhang Qiyu, (Negron)
  • Wen, Jiayi (Panova)
  • Liu, Tianle (Williams)
  • Cetin, Baran (Williams)

Recent Ph.D.’s

  • Liu, Haoyang (2025) (Asok), “Splitting of some projective varieties in motivic stable homotopy category”
  • Armon, Samuel (2025) (Assaf), “Atoms, Kohnert’s Rule, and Science Fiction”
  • Bose, Jishnu (2025) (Williams), “Picard Group Actions on Constructible Sheaves via Contact Isotopies”
  • Peng, Tina (2025) (Williams), “Koszul-perverse sheaves and the A_2^(1) dual canonical basis”
  • Jiang, Wenhan (2024) (Asok), “Chow-Witt Rings of Toric Surfaces”
  • Uskuplu, Elif (2024) (Lauda), “Formalizing Two-Level Type Theory with Cofibrant ExoNat”
  • Zhao, Chenchen (2024) (Panova), “On the Kronecker product of Schur functions”
  • Bowling, Grant (2023) (Assaf), “Characters of Flagged Schur Modules and Compatible Slides”
  • Ehrhard, Henry (2023) (Assaf), “Colors, Kohnert’s Rule, and Flagged Kostka Coefficients”
  • Orlinsky, Kayla (2023) (Montgomery), “An Indicator Formula for a Semi-Simple Hopf Algebra”
  • Ebert, Mark (2023) (Lauda), “The Structure and Higher Representation Theory of Odd Categorified sl_2″
  • Wang, Shiyun (2023) (Panova), “Applications of Symmetric and Quasisymmetric functions”
  • Balcik, Irmak (2022), “Growth of torsion of elliptic curves over noncyclotomic imaginary quadratic fields of class number 1”
  • Kagey, Peter (2022), “Permutations, Statistics, and Switches”
  • Siegel, Max (2022) “(p,q)-adic Analysis and the Collatz Conjecture”
  • Port, Alex (2021), “Motivic Cohomology of BG_2”
  • Quijada, Danjoseph (2021) “A Pieri rule for key polynomials”
  • Eilidh McKemmie (2020)
  • Viktor Kleen (2019), `Some Stable Splittings in Motivic Homotopy Theory”
  • Nicolle Sandoval Gonzalez (2019), “Categorical operators and crystal structures on the ring of symmetric functions”
  • Donner, Matthew (2018), “Regular unipotents in finite maximal subgroups of classical groups”
  • Egilmez, Ilknur (2018) “DG Structures on Categorified Quantum Groups”
  • Oguz, Ezgi Kantarci (2018) “Advances in the Combinatorics of Shifted Tableaux”
  • Ozan Oguz, Can (2018) “Center and Trace of the Twisted Heisenberg Category”
  • Ejder, Oslem (2017) “Torsion subgroups of elliptic curves in elementary abelian 2-extensions and monodromy of Fermat surfaces.”
  • Gerhardt, Spencer (2017) “Topological generation of algebraic groups “
  • Lamberto, Lafitte (2016) “A categorified braid group action”
  • Tucker, Henry (2016) “Frobenius-Schur indicators for near-group and Haagerup-Izumi fusion categories”
  • Abram, Mike (2015) “Symmetries of categorified quantum groups”
  • Newman, Burton (2015) “Growth of torsion in quadratic extensions of quadratic cyclotomic fields”
  • Wang, Jian (2015) “On the torsion structure of elliptic curves over cubic number fields”
  • Warner, Jared (2015) “Springer isomorphisms and the variety of elementary subalgebras”

Recent Post-Docs and Visitors

  • Jay Taylor (group theory)
  • Brendan Pawlowski (algebraic combinatorics)
  • Andy Manion (low-dimensional topology, representation theory)
  • Nivedita Bhaskhar (algebraic groups)
  • Alexander Soibelman (algebraic geometry and representation theory)
  • Dominic Searles (combinatorics and algebraic geometry)
  • Appel, Andrea (representation theory, quantum groups, classical and quantum integrable systems)
  • Drew, Bradley (algebraic geometry)
  • Jincheng Dong (Hopf algebras)
  • Daniel Murfet (algebraic geometry, topological field theory)
  • Paul Sobaje (modular representations of algebraic groups)
  • Guangbin Zhuang (homological aspects of non-commutative algebra)

Retired Faculty