Ryan Martin and Yiu Tung Poon, both professors of mathematics, have been recognized by the Department of Mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their research, teaching and service excellence.
Martin has received the Scott Hanna Professorship in Mathematics, and Poon has earned a Scott Hanna Faculty Fellowship. Both were formally recognized during a ceremony in spring 2023.
The Scott Hanna awards recognize outstanding math faculty who demonstrate excellence in teaching, research, and service, in addition to making meaningful contributions to the field of mathematics. This award was created after the late Scott Hanna (’77 metallurgy) bequeathed a generous donation to the Department of Mathematics. The awards enable recipients to further advance their ongoing research, math scholarship, and dedicated service to students.
Ryan Martin
Martin works in the fields of extremal poset theory, graph theory, and extremal and probabilistic combinatorics. He is the editor-in-chief of “Order: A Journal on the Theory of Ordered Sets and its Applications,” published by Springer. In 2019, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2000.
“A lot of the motivation for the stuff that we study comes from computing, computer science, and algorithms,” Martin said. “It tells you how complex your algorithm is, how efficient you can make it.”
Martin is honored to receive this award, acknowledging the support of colleagues, administrators, and Scott Hanna’s legacy. Martin has been selected to receive a Distinguished Guest Fellowship from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to return to the Rényi Institute to collaborate with mathematicians there. He plans to use the funds to support students and postdocs.
Yiu Tung Poon
Scott Hanna Faculty Fellowship recipient Yiu T Poon is a professor and nationally recognized mathematician with expertise in the areas of quantum information science, matrix analysis, operator theory, operator algebras, and mathematics education.
He joined Iowa State in 1985, and is the author of over 90 journal articles. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Poon is energized by his collaborative work with physicists and engineers on quantum computing. He feels this is a very exciting area, especially for his young students.
Poon said this award was a pleasant surprise, and he is honored by the recognition of his work. “It came at the right time. It will give me more time and more resources for my research.”