{"id":200,"date":"2023-06-14T17:25:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T00:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-usc-dornsife.pantheonsite.io\/samihassaf\/?page_id=200"},"modified":"2025-09-06T19:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:44:33","slug":"advising","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/samihassaf\/advising\/","title":{"rendered":"Advising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Graduate student advising\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Most of my advisees are Ph.D. students at USC, though I occasionally advise Masters students (including students in the Progressive Degree Program) and undergraduates.<\/p>\n

If you are a Ph.D. student interested in working with me, you should do the following (items 2 and 3 below may be permuted, but item 1 should come first and item 4 last):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Read this web page.<\/li>\n
  2. Talk with one (or more) of\u00a0my graduate students\u00a0about what it is like to work with me.<\/li>\n
  3. Glance through one (or more) of\u00a0my recent papers<\/a>\u00a0to see if they look interesting to you.<\/li>\n
  4. Stop by my office to discuss\u00a0a reading course<\/a>\u00a0sometime on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In general, I will not take on more than 4.0 students at a given time, where the student weight function is 1.0 for graduate students, 1.5 for postdocs, and 0.5 for undergraduate students or co-advised graduate students. I try to adhere to this limit to ensure that I have adequate time for all of my students while still maintaining my own research program and sanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

    \n\n \n
    \n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Past graduate students\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
    \n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Ezgi Kantarci Oguz (Ph.D. 08\/2018)<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: Advances in the Combinatorics of Shifted Tableaux<\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Ezgi studied shifted combinatorics and specializes in counter-examples. She found ways to transfer many nice combinatorial constructions that exist in type A to natural constructions in type B.<\/p>\n

    First position: Postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Nicolle Sandoval Gonzalez\u00a0(Ph.D. 05\/2019)<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: Categorical Operators and Crystal Structures on the Ring of Symmetric Functions<\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Nicolle studied Demazure modules and their connections with nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials. She also worked on problems in categorification with Professor Aaron Lauda.<\/p>\n

    First position: UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA and a Morrey Visiting Assistant Professorship at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Danjoseph Quijada\u00a0(Ph.D. 08\/2021)<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: A Pieri rule for key polynomials<\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Danjoseph studied type A Demazure characters, also called standard bases or key polynomials, from a combinatorial perspective by developing properties of Kohnert diagrams.<\/p>\n

    First position: Instructor with the Art of Problem Solving.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Peter Kagey\u00a0(Ph.D. 08\/2022)<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: Permutations, Statistics, and Switches<\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Peter explored the distribution of permutation statistics when one restricts the cycle type, developed mathematics behind the Spinning Switches puzzles, and won prize money from problems posed by Richard Arratia.<\/p>\n

    First position: Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvey Mudd College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Grant Bowling\u00a0(Ph.D. 05\/2023)\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: Characters of Flagged Schur Modules and Compatible Slides<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Grant studied characters of flagged Schur modules, most notably including Demazure characters and Schubert polynomials, with emphasis on efficient recursive constructions.<\/p>\n

    First position: Industry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Henry Ehrhard \u00a0(Ph.D. 08\/2023)\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation title: Colors, Kohnert’s Rule, and Flagged Kostka Coefficients<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Henry worked on a variety of topics within Symmetric Function Theory. He developed crystals models for Stanley’s chromatic symmetric functions and characters of flagged Schur modules, and generalized ribbons to the non-symmetric setting to study non-symmetric Kostka and inverse-Kostka coefficients.<\/p>\n

    First position: Still deciding<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
    \n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Samuel Armon (Ph.D. 08\/2025)\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    Dissertation Title:\u00a0Atoms, Kohnert’s Rule, and Science Fiction<\/em><\/p>\n

    Sam authored six papers as a graduate students, on topics in Combinatorial Representation Theory, including Garsia-Haiman modules, flagged Schur modules, crystals for Demazure atoms, and much more. He began collaborations with postdocs here at USC as well as faculty and students at other universities.<\/p>\n

    First position:\u00a0ICERM program on Categorification and Computation in Algebraic Combinatorics<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

    \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    \n\n \n
    \n \n
    \n\n \n

    \n Graduate reading courses\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
    \n\n \n

    If you are a graduate student considering working with me, then the first step is to set up a reading course. This gives us an opportunity to work together and gives you a hands-on introduction to the area in which I work. Any one of the following excellent graduate texts would be suitable for a reading course:<\/p>\n