This Week's Ph.D. Newsletter Includes |
- Student Spotlights: Michael Huang
- Announcements: Fall 2026 Upcoming Registration Deadlines, Dean's Dissertation Completion Fellowship, MGSA Mentorship Program
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Upcoming Events: Beyond the PhD & Postdoctoral Career Conference, Mathematics Department Seminars, Mathematics Tea, Dornsife PhD Academy
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Archived newsletters can be found here.
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Michael Huang is a third-year PhD student working in the geometry and topology group. He recently finished a new paper Convex Hypersurfaces And Robust Heteroclinic Cycles jointly with his advisor Professor Julian Chaidez, which contributes several fundamental new results to higher dimensional contact topology and convex hypersurface theory. Over the summer, Michael attended the famous Park City Math Institute (PCMI) in Park City, Utah. He was also a graduate student mentor for the RTG Mathematics Summer Research Program, where he led a group of two USC undergraduates in studying recent developments in 4-manifold theory and diffeomorphism groups.
This semester, Michael is running a learning seminar on symplectic field theory and planning a visit to the Institute for Advanced Study for the Workshop on Recent Developments in Symplectic Dynamics, where a talk will be delivered on his work.
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Dean's Dissertation Completion Fellowships Spring 2027 |
Semester-long dissertation completion fellowships will again be available in spring 2027 for PhD students who are making good progress toward the degree and who can provide a compelling statement about their research completion timeline. The stipend for the spring semester will be $21,218 distributed from January 2027 – May 2027. Preference will be given to students in the later stages of their careers, and funds will only be available to students with no remaining fellowship support. Students who receive a Dissertation Completion Fellowship will be expected to defend their dissertation within a year of receiving the fellowship.
Students will not apply to the Graduate School directly, but are expected to submit application materials to Alexis Teodoro, PhD Student Services Advisor, at ateodoro@usc.edu no later than Friday, October 2nd at 11:59pm. Please note that programs may only nominate one candidate per program.
The application for the fellowship includes the following:
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A description of the student’s dissertation, which should demonstrate the project’s contribution to the field and its grounding in relevant scholarship and methodology. The proposal should make a compelling statement about the planned work and be accessible to scholars in a broad range of fields. The research area/dissertation description submitted by the candidate to the PhD program should be in 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced with 1” margins, numbered pages, and a header on every page that includes the student’s name and title of the dissertation 500-1,000 words).
- A curriculum vitae
- Summary of progress and plans for degree completion, including dates of screening, qualifying exams and anticipated dissertation defense, listed in a table format
- Brief summary of funding to date. For example, dates of internal and external fellowships, RA and/or TA appointments, listed in a table format
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USC unofficial transcript or STARs report (scanned documents are acceptable).
- Signature page signed by the student’s dissertation advisor, department chair, and Dean or Dean’s proxy affirming that the student is making satisfactory progress to the degree.
- One letter of recommendation provided by a faculty member in the student’s home program uploaded as a PDF document by the program’s designated nominator
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Mathematics Graduate Student Association (MGSA) |
Dornsife PhD Academy will be hosting their next academic event, designed specifically for advanced Ph.D. students preparing for the faculty job market.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
MCB 101 + Zoom
5:30-7:00pm
Hear from recently hired Dornsife faculty as they reflect on their job-search experiences and share practical strategies for delivering an effective job talk, engaging diverse audiences, and responding confidently to questions and feedback.
Please note that this event is targeted at academia. A separate event focused on industry and non-academic careers will be held in the spring.
Refreshments and dinner (pizza) will be served. Please register to confirm your attendance.
For those who plan to join on Zoom, please join the Zoom link below by 6:00pm.
Zoom Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 931 1883 2413
Passcode: 579412
P.S. This event counts towards attendance for the Ph.D. Academy Scholarship and Research Fund.
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