Ivan Z. Feng

Welcome to my homepage! (Click here to enjoy the background music I chose for this page!) My name is Ivan Zhanhu Feng, where Ivan is pronounced as “AI-vn,” Zhanhu is pronounced as “ZAAN-hu,” and Feng is pronounced as “FENG.” My nom de plume is Ivan Mathman or Ivan Catman.

I am currently a second-year math Ph.D. student at the Department of Mathematics. In the Spring 2024 semester, I’m serving as a teaching assistant for Math 225 (Linear Algebra and Differential Equations). In this academic year (2023~2024), I’m also serving as the digital director of MGSA (Mathematics Graduate Student Association), responsible for its website design and improvement; I hold a firm commitment to the artistic stewardship of this website, consistently reflected in the entries of my Website Update Journal on the MGSA homepage.

I am a mathematics enthusiast. My research interests can be found in the “Research” tab in the top column. I believe the future of math lies in different thinking and intuitive taste. Like many mathematicians, my first career goal is to leave my own mark upon modern math and propel its development to the best of my ability. Another very important career goal of mine is to write math textbooks that are extremely easy to understand and make math easy for the public. I hope to bring a sort of unchained and tasteful liberal arts point of view into the math field. I hope more people will no longer be afraid of math through my work.

I am also an enthusiast in math teaching. Here is my “Teaching” page on this website. I like my TA job very much. Personally, I’ve never been able to separate my work (including math research and teaching) from my life. My work and life are the same thing. I consider math teaching a form of artistic expression, a way to show my appreciation for the rest of humanity, just as a painter enjoys painting and a writer enjoys writing. I enjoy teaching.

Speaking of artistic expression, I’m also passionate about literature, especially poetry reading and writing — Here are some poems I wrote in my spare time. For example, this poem, “A Sonnet for Calc 3 Scholars,” penned in November 2023, uses mathematics as the “language” to articulate my emotional resonance and connections. Here’s the poem’s video, complemented by a voiceover from Professor Emerson.