Ivan Z. Feng

Welcome to my homepage! (Click here to enjoy the background music I chose for this page, sung by me.) My name is Ivan Feng, where Ivan is pronounced as “AI-vn,” and Feng is pronounced as “FENG.” My nom de plume is Ivan Mathman. I am currently a fourth-year math Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Mathematics.

In the Fall 2025 semester, I’m serving as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Math 555a (PDE) and 540a (Algebraic Topology). For 4 years as a TA, I am proud to have contributed to my department’s reputation among my students with my passion for education. I excitedly display all my amazing students’ overwhelmingly positive teaching evaluations here. For fellow TAs and teaching enthusiasts — this paper I published captures the essence of what made my math teaching super easy to understand, and this article reflects my experience of what made me a memorable and impactful TA. Any thoughts and insights are welcome!

In this academic year, I’m serving as the President of Math DRP (Directed Reading Program). In the past two academic years (2023~2025), I also served as the Digital Director of MGSA (Mathematics Graduate Student Association), responsible for its website design and improvement; I held 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. As a math researcher, I’m committed to leaving my own mark upon modern math and propelling its development to the best of my ability.

I am also an enthusiast in math education. Here are my Educator Statement and “Teaching” page on this website. I consider math education 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. As a math educator, I’m committed to making math attractive and super easy to understand for the public.

Speaking of artistic expression, I’m an amateur actor, voice actor, and singer, and I’m building my presence as a distinctive and emotionally driven performer. I love it. I’m also a magician who’s been performing since I was 7; I know the fundamentals of magic, enjoy collecting professional magic props, and can perform hundreds of tricks. In addition, I’m a writer and poet passionate about literature and about reading and writing poetry. 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.