Department of Mathematics, The University of Mississippi, Hume Hall 305 , University, MS 38677 � leth@olemiss.edu http://home.olemiss.edu/¯leth
Employment
2021–present 2015–2021 2014–2015 Associate professor, University of Mississippi, University, MS Assistant professor, University of Mississippi, University, MS Sophie Germain postdoctoral fellow, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France 2011–2014   Bing Instructor, University of Texas at Austin, TX 2010–2011   Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Research Interests Number Theory, Combinatorics Education 2005–2010 University of California, Los Angeles, CA, PhD in Mathematics Advisor: Prof. Terence Tao. Thesis title: Topics in Arithmetic Combinatorics in Function Fields. 2004–2005 University of Paris 6 (Pierre and Marie Curie), Paris, France M.S. in Mathematics (M2 Algèbre et Géométrie). 2002–2004 Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France B.S. in Mathematics. Grants and Awards 2023–2028 2023–2026 2021 2017–2021 2017–2018 2016-present 2013   Faculty travel award, UT Austin AMS-Simons travel grant 2012–2014 2009–2010  Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA 2005–2006 & 2008–2009 Pauley Fellowship, UCLA 2002–2005 Scholarship of Ecole Polytechnique, France 1998–1999   International Mathematical Olympiad, Bronze medal 1998, Gold medal 1999 Asian-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad, Gold medal 1999
Publications
○ (with J. Champagne, Y.-R. Liu and T. D. Wooley) Well-distribution modulo one and the primes, preprint. ○ (with P.-Y. Bienvenu, J. T. Griesmer and A. Lê), Intersective sets for sparse sets of integers, to appear in Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems. Travel Support for Mathematicians , Simons Foundation Grant DMS-2246921 , National Science Foundation Dr. Mike L. Edmonds New Scholar Award, University of Mississippi, Research award for untenured, tenure-track faculty of College of Liberal Arts Grant DMS-1702296 , National Science Foundation Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, One of 37 nationwide awards across multiple disciplines Summer research grants (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020), College of Liberal Arts, University of Mississippi ○ (with C. Qiu ( high school student )) On the order of additive bases in finite abelian groups, to appear in Involve. ○ (with Y.-R. Liu and T. D. Wooley) Equidistribution of polynomial sequences in function fields, with applications, preprint. ् (with J. T. Griesmer and A. Lê), Bohr sets in sumsets II: countable abelian groups, Forum Math. Sigma 11 (2023), paper no. e57. (with A. Lê), Bohr sets in sumsets I: compact abelian groups, to appear in Discrete Analysis.の(with P.-Y. Bienvenu and B. Girard). On additive bases in infinite abelian semigroups. Journal of Combinatorial Algebra 7 (2023), no. 1, 1–44.️(with A. Lê), Multidimensional configurations in the primes with shifted prime steps, Acta Math. Hungar. 164 (2021), no. 1, 1–14. (with Z. Ge), Essential components in vector spaces over finite fields, Mosc. J. Comb. Number Theory 10 (2021), no. 2, 149–166. (with Z. Ge), On theorems of Wirsing and Sanders, Acta Arithmetica 189 (2019), no. 4, 381–390. ○ (with P.-Y. Bienvenu), Linear and quadratic uniformity of the Möbius function over F α [ ℓ ], Mathematika 65 (2019), Issue 3, 505–529. ○ (with P.-Y. Bienvenu), A bilinear Bogolyubov theorem, European Journal of Combinatorics 77, March 2019, 102–113. ○ (with A. Bhowmick and Y.-R. Liu) A note on character sums in finite fields, Finite Fields Appl. 46 (2017), 247–254. 0 (with M. Kelly) Van der Corput sets with respect to compact groups, Archiv der Mathematik 110 (2018), no. 4, 343–349. ○ (with V. Lambert and A. Plagne) Additive bases in groups, Israel J. Math., 217 (2017), no. 1, 383–411. (with A. Bhowmick) On primitive elements in finite fields of low characteristic, Finite Fields Appl. 35 (2015) 64–77. ○ (with A. Bhowmick, A. Gabizon and D. Zuckerman) Deterministic extractors for additive sources, ITCS (Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science) 2015. (with J. D. Vaaler) Multiplicatively badly approximable matrices in fields of power series, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 143 (2015), no. 9, 3791–3800. ○ (with C. V. Spencer) Intersective polynomials and Diophantine approximation, II, Monatsh. Math. 177 (2015), no. 1, 79–99. (with J. D. Vaaler) Sums of products of fractional parts, Proc. London Math. Soc. (3) 111 (2015), no. 3, 561–590. (with J. Wolf) Polynomial configurations in the primes, Int. Math. Res. Not. (2014) 2014 (23): 6448–6473. (with M. Kelly) Uniform dilations in higher dimensions, J. London Math. Soc. (2013) 88 (3): 925–940. 0 (with C. V. Spencer) Intersective polynomials and Diophantine approximation, Int. Math. Res. Not. (2014) 2014 (5): 1153–1173.️Partition regularity and the primes, C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris 350 (2012), no. 9–10, 439–441.️Problems and results on intersective sets, Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory: CANT 2011 and 2012, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics 101, Springer 2014.́(with Y.-R. Liu) On sets of polynomials whose difference set contains no squares, Acta Arith. 161 (2013), 127–143. ○ (with C. V. Spencer) Difference sets and the irreducibles in function fields, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 43 (2011), no. 2, 347–358.️Intersective polynomials and the primes, Journal of Number Theory 130 (2010), Issue 8, 1705–1717. ্ Green-Tao theorem in function fields, Acta Arith. 147 (2011), 129–152. (with J. Cilleruelo) On a question of Sárközy on gaps of product sequences, Israel J. Math. 179 (2010), 285–295.
Teaching Experience
2015–present  Instructor, Mathematics Department, University of Mississippi ○ Unified Calculus & Analytic Geometry I (Math 261, Spring 2016, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2022) ○ Unified Calculus & Analytic Geometry II (Math 262, Spring 2017, Spring 2019) ○ Unified Calculus & Analytic Geometry III (Math 263, Fall 2015 (2 sections), Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018) ○ Unified Calculus & Analytic Geometry IV (Math 264, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022) Advanced Calculus I (Math 555, Spring 2016, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022) ○ Advanced Calculus II (Math 556, Fall 2016, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023) ○ Modern Algebra I (Math 625, graduate course, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024) ○ Modern Algebra II (Math 626, graduate course, Spring 2023, Spring 2024) ○ Topics in modern mathematics: Fourier analysis meets number theory (Math 647, graduate course, Fall 2018)️Topics in modern mathematics: Topics in additive combinatorics (Math 647, graduate course, Spring 2024) ○ Graduate reading courses: Travis Dirle (Spring 2016), Zhenchao Ge (Spring 2016–Spring 2020), Awatef Almuteri (Fall 2018, Spring 2019), Apoorva Mate (Spring 2020, Fall 2020), Zeyuan Zhang (Spring 2021), Gauree Wathodkar (Summer 2021-present) 2011–2014  Instructor, Mathematics Department , UT Austin ○ Complex Analysis (M361, Spring 2013)️Differential Calculus (M408K, Spring 2013) ○ Arithmetic Combinatorics (M390C, graduate course, Fall 2012) ○ Introduction to Number Theory (M328K, Summer 2012, Spring 2014)️Probability I (M362K, Spring 2012, Fall 2013) ○ Discrete Mathematics (M325K, Fall 2011, Summer 2014) ○ Sequences, Series, and Multivariable Calculus (M408D, Fall 2011, Spring 2014) ○ Conference course (Aadil Sarfani, Fall 2013)
Advising and mentoring
Postdoc️Chao Liu, 2022–2024, University of Mississippi. Current position: Instructional Assistant Professor, University of Mississippi. Graduate students ○ Zhenao Ge (co-advised with Micah Milinovich), Ph.D. 2020, University of Mississippi. Thesis title: Topics in Analytic and Combinatorial Number Theory. Current position: Fields Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Waterloo. ○ Gauree Wathodkar, Ph.D. expected 2025, University of Mississippi. ○ Awatef Almuteri, M.S. 2019, University of Mississippi. Thesis title: Quadratic Reciprocity: Proofs and Applications. High school students ○ Since 2018, I have mentored 11 high school students from across the US, on reading courses and research projects. In particular, this resulted in one published paper (see Publications).
Seminar and conference talks
Nov 2024   Discrete Analysis seminar, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Oct 2024 AMS Fall Southeastern Sectional Meeting, special session on Number Theory and Additive Combinatorics , Georgia Southern University , Savannah, GA Geometry seminar , Université de Bordeaux , France Jun 2024 Discrete Mathematics, Coding Theory and Cryptography seminar, Université Paris 8, France Jun 2024 Apr 2024   Colloquium, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA Mar 2024 Oct 2022 May 2022 Oct 2021 May 2021 Apr 2021 Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory 2021, CUNY graduate center, online AMS Spring Central Sectional Meeting, special session on Recent Progress in Analytic Number Theory , online Mar 2021 Sep 2020 New York Number Theory seminar, online Additive Combinatorics in Marseille, Marseille, online Jun 2020   Number Theory Seminar, Kansas State University, online
Apr 2018 Mar 2018 Dynamical Systems seminar , University of Houston , TX Analysis and PDE seminar, University of California, Los Angeles, CA Mar 2018 Number Theory seminar, University of California, Irvine, CA Jan 2018 Combinatorial Number Theory seminar , University of California, Riverside, CA Jan 2018 Joint mathematics meetings, AMS special session on Diophantine Approximation and Analytic Number Theory , San Diego, CA Dec 2017 Nov 2017 Algebra and Number Theory seminar, Institute of Mathematics, Hanoi, Vietnam 5th annual Mississippi Discrete Math Workshop, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Sep 2017 Palmetto Number Theory Series XXVIII, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Apr 2017   Discrete mathematics seminar , Texas State University , San Marcos, TX Sep 2015 Combinatorics seminar, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Journées Arithmétiques 2015, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary Jul 2015 Jun 2015 Analysis seminar , University of Crete , Heraklion, Greece May 2015   Number Theory seminar, University of York, York, UK May 2015   Number Theory seminar, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK Apr 2015   Number Theory seminar, Taida Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan Mar 2015   Séminaire CAESAR de combinatoire additive, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France Nov 2014 Colloquium, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Sep 2014   Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics seminar, University of Texas at Austin, TX Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory 2014, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY May 2014 May 2014 Colloquium, Lehman College, CUNY, New York, NY Southeastern Logic Symposium 2024 , University of Florida , Gainesville, FL Trojan Math Seminar , Troy University , online Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory 2022 , CUNY graduate center, online Number Theory seminar, University of Mississippi, online Mar 2014   Colloquium, Texas State University , San Marcos, TX Jan 2014   Colloquium, Baruch College, CUNY, New York, NY
Workshop on Heights in Diophantine geometry, group theory and additive combinatorics, Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics, Vienna, Austria Sep 2013   Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics seminar, University of Texas at Austin, TX May 2013   Number Theory seminar, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory 2013 , CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY May 2013 Apr 2013  Number Theory seminar, UIUC, Urbana-Champaign, IL Mar 2013 Joint Caltech/UCLA Analysis seminar , Los Angeles, CA
AMS Southeastern Section Meeting, special session on modern methods in analytic number theory , University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Jan 2013 Combinatorics seminar, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Sep 2008 Western Number Theory Conference, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO Harmonic Analysis/Ergodic Theory/Additive Combinatorics student seminar, University of California, Berkeley, CA May 2008 Mar 2008 Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory 2008, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY Centre de Recerca Matemàtica , Bellaterra, Spain Participating Analysis seminar, UCLA, CA Apr 2007
Education and outreach activities
Outreach talks I have been giving popular mathematics talks to high school and undergraduate students. I strive to communicate ideas from higher mathematics in a way that is easily accessible and stimulating to the public. Topics include Ramsey theory, the Banach-Tarski paradox, the isoperimetric inequality, and Hilbert's third problem. Apr 2024  Mathematics & Statistics Club, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA Mar 2024 Sonia Kovalevsky Day, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Jul 2023 Mar 2022 Apr 2021 High School Engineering Camp, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Admitted Student Day, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS PME society, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Research in Math club, Liberal Arts and Science Academy, Austin , TX Mar 2020 PME society, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS May 2019 PME society, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Oct 2018 Dec 2017 Tran Phu High School, Hai Phong, Vietnam Lam Son High School, Thanh Hoa, Vietnam Dec 2017 Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam Dec 2017 Dec 2017 High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam Nov 2017   PME society, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS PME society, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Mar 2017 Mathematics competitions 2017–2019 Grader and problem writer for the University of Mississippi Math Tournament, a competition for high school students which attracts many students from across Mississippi and Tennessee. Mar 2017 Served as judge for the mathematics section at the Regional Science Fair for high school students held by the University of Mississippi. Feb 2016,  Chaperoned University of Mississippi's team in the student competition at the LA/MS meeting of the Mar 2023   MAA. Other activities Jun 2018 & Jun 2019 Served as co-lead instructor for RUBI (Rebel Upward Bound Institute), a summer program targeted at underrepresented and underprivileged high school students from nearby Calhoun and Yalobusha counties in Mississippi. Our program used the inquiry-based learning approach which promotes critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork skills. Apr 2018 Represented the mathematics department at University of Mississippi's STEM Fest, which consisted of activities to promote science to the public, especially children.
Professional activities
Co-organizer of the special session on Analytic Number Theory, International Conference on Mathe- matics and Statistics (ICOMAS 2018), University of Memphis, May 7–10, 2018. Referee for mathematical journals Acta Arithmetica, Acta Mathematica Vietnamica, American Journal of Mathematics, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, Collectanea Mathematica, Compositio Mathematica, Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal, Discrete Analysis, European Journal of Combinatorics, Experimental Math- ematics, Finite Fields and Their Applications (×4), Glasnik Matematički, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, International Mathematical Research Notices, International Journal of Number Theory (×3), Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics (×2), Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A, Journal of the European Mathematical Society (×2), Journal of Number Theory, Manuscripta Mathe- matica, Mathematika, Mathematische Zeitschrift, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (×2), Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen, Real Analysis Exange, The Ramanujan Journal, Taiwanese Journal of Mathematics. Ph.D. committee of Wasin Vipismakul (UT Austin), Zeyuan Zhang (University of Mississippi), Ph.D. examination committee of Shuntaro Yamagishi (University of Waterloo), master's thesis committee of Zhenchao Ge (University of Mississippi), Mashael Alsharif (University of Mississippi), Lucas Schnubel (Sorbonne Université). Served on Grant   NSF, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, NAFOSTED (Vietnam). reviewer
Service at University of Mississippi
Member of Assessment Committee, Mathematics department (2018-present). Member of Visiting Assistant Professor hiring committee, Mathematics department (2022). Member of Assistant Professor hiring committee, Mathematics department (2023). In charge of Algebra Comprehensive Exam, Mathematics department (2023–present). Organizer of Combinatorics seminar, Mathematics department (2023–present).
Languages
Native Vietnamese, fluent English, French, good Spanish, elementary German, Italian, Latin.