Luis Casian
Department of Mathematics
The Ohio State University
231 W 18th Avenue
Columbus Ohio 43210
Tel: 614-486-8946
Cell: 614-824-0275
Born in Mexico; US citizen.
Education
80-83 PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), May 1983
78-80 Master of Science, Centro de Investigacion del Instituto Politecnico, Mexico City.
74-78 B.S. in Mathematics, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico
City.
Employment
2014- Reappointed as Chair Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
10-14 Chair, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
05-10 Vice Chair Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
04-14 Professor Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
90-04 Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
88-90 Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
86-88 Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, M.I.T.
85-86 Instructor, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah
84-85 Member, IAS, School of Mathematics, Princeton
83-84 Visiting Scholar, Department of Mathematics, M.I.T.
Honors and Awards
90-94 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
Administrative Activities
10-** Chair, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
Responsibilities:
• Responsible for 80 tenured and tenure-track faculty (60 in Columbus, 20 at four
Regional Campuses), 30 staff members, 30 temporary faculty, 130 graduate
students, 900 undergraduate majors.
• Oversight of 92,000 credit hours of instruction per year, about 22,000 students
taking Math courses per year.
• Budget oversight (18 million dollars in the departmental budget plus about 6
million dollars in grants)
• Oversight of tenure-track Math faculty at five campuses: the main campus in
Columbus and four regional campuses of The Ohio State University (faculty
hiring, promotion and tenure, salary process jointly with deans of regional
campuses).
1
2
• Oversight of the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center.
• Oversight of the Mathematics Research Institute (MRI).
• Oversight of Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) jointly with the College.
Accomplishments:
Partnerships with other institutions and new outreach programs:
• In collaboration with Paula Compton of the Ohio Board of Regents organized
the University System of Ohio (USO) Mathematics Chairs Network. This has
resulted in several agreements on educational matters and the formation of 5
committees to work on different issues that were identified.
• Established a partnership with the Mathematics Department at the University
of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. This partnership resulted in:
(a) A new four-week summer program for under-represented minorities in
Mathematics (about 20 undergraduate students from different minority
serving institutions). This program (SAMMS) has already run for the
fourth time, with participation of faculty from UPR-Mayagüez, UPRHumacao, Ohio State and 5 graduate students from UPR-Mayagüez.
The goal of this program is to inspire qualified students from underrepresented minorities to attend graduate school in STEM fields.
(b) Participation of a faculty member from UPR as co-PI in a yearly NSFfunded summer conference focusing on undergraduate research (Young
Mathematicians Conference, YMC).
(c) Participation of two faculty members from UPR attending and helping
run the YMC.
• Established a partnership with the Mathematics Department at the University
of Sao Paulo, Brazil, involving undergraduate students and faculty exchanges.
This includes:
(a) A couple of undergraduates from Sao Paulo spent 4 weeks at OSU participating in summer activities (from mid-July 2013 to mid August 2013).
(b) Faculty exchange : two faculty members from OSU taught graduate
mini-courses at the University of Sao Paulo and two faculty members
from the University of Sao Paulo taught graduate mini-courses at OSU.
(c) Funding was secured (20K) for faculty exchanges from both OSU and
FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation).
(d) First meeting of Mathematicians from Ohio State and University of Sao
Paulo with funding from FAPESP and Ohio State. See http://www.
ime.usp.br/~cortiz/homepage/Math_Joint_Meeting_OHIO-USP.html
• Established a partnership with the Mathematics Department at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, Mexico, for the participation of
three undergraduate students in summer programs at OSU.
• Established an agreement with the Mathematics Departments in Zhejiang University, China, involving undergraduate students attending OSU for two years.
Establishment of new programs and reorganization of existing programs:
3
• Reorganized the Mathematics Research Institute (MRI) at the Ohio State
University to increase its visibility:
(a) Appointed a member of the National Academy of Sciences as MRI director.
(b) Introduced new programs such as a Distinguished Visitor Program.
(c) Introduced a faculty stimulus program which was extended to faculty at
the regional campuses.
(d) Doubled the MRI budget from $ 150,000 to $ 300,000.
(e) Hired a Fields medalist (Alain Connes) 10% FTE as Distinguished Professor of Mathematics for five years to participate in activities of the
MRI once a year for two weeks.
• Reorganized the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center (budget of $500,000)
into a center that, in addition to tutoring, develops Math online courses. This
eventually led to the development of a calculus MOOC (Spring 2013).
• Oversaw the development of the first MOOC (Calculus One) at OSU with
87,000 registered students. This MOOC was considered very successful by OSU
and two more MOOCS including “Calculus Two”have now been developed.
• Oversaw the introduction of a new masters programs in Mathematics Computation and one more masters program, in Quantitative Risk Management, is
already in the final stages of approval at OSU.
• Established a new faculty mentoring program which includes mentoring of
associate professors.
• Introduced changes to departmental guidelines for promotion to the rank of
Professor, allowing an alternative path to promotion. This was successfully
used in 2013-14 and one Associate Professor was promoted to the rank of
Professor using this alternative path that takes into account (documentable)
extraordinary service in addition to continuing scholarship.
• Introduced a new staff Executive Committee with membership elected by the
staff. This small committee meets with the Chair to discuss departmental
operational isues including important staff issues.
• Introduced the practice of having a standing faculty budget committee appointed by the Math Advisory Committee.
• A new one-credit hour seminar was introduced which exposes Math majors to
the different tracks offered, and which exposes math majors to faculty research.
• Introduced a new faculty teaching load policy that emphasizes faculty participation in graduate and undergraduate programs, in addition to research
productivity.
• Worked with faculty to draft a document containing guidelines for departmental interaction emphasizing a positive work and social atmosphere. This
document was approved by an overwhelmingly positive faculty vote and has
been a model for other departments at OSU to follow.
• Negotiated the establishment of three joint faculty positions: one joint with
the Department of Statistics and two joint with the Computer Science and
Engineering Department (CSE). This required drafting a strategic initiative in
computation involving three departments.
4
• Participated in a successful proposal at OSU in Data Analytics with three
departments in the College of Engineering and the Department of Statistics.
This resulted in three faculty positions in this area.
• Hired three joint tenure-track faculty Math + CSE (two) and Math + Statistics
(one).
• During the time I have been Chair, two junior faculty members received Sloan
Fellowships and three received NSF CAREER awards (2010-2015).
• Successful oversight of the conversion from quarters to semesters in Math instruction.
• Was successful in hiring three new Hispanic tenure-track faculty members in
2013 & 2014, increasing (4 ×) the number of Hispanic faculty in the department. This brought the percentage of Hispanic faculty members in the
Mathematics Department (Columbus) to about 7%. Overall the percentage of
ftenure-track faculty fro underrepresented minorities grew to about 8%.
• Was successful in convincing the OSU administration and the Math faculty
to hire, as a tenure-track faculty member, an instructor who developed the
Calculus One MOOC at OSU receiving national and international exposure.
His new position is a faculty position oriented towards Mathematics Education. This allowed the department to retain this instructor at OSU. This
hire has now been featured in Forbes in an article appearing in September 2014: http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/09/10/forget-catphotos-this-prof-is-making-calculus-go-viral/
• Was successful in arranging partner accommodations to help (1) hire a female
tenure-track faculty member in the College of Engineering,(2) hire a female
clinical faculty member in the department of Pediatrics (3) to help hire a
female faculty member at a nearby regional campus (4) to retain an African
American faculty member in my department (5) Hire a female faculty member
in Statistics (6) hire a Hispanic female faculty member in Math. This involved
arranging the funding for suitable postdoctoral or tenure track positions in the
Math Department and in other departments.
• Development:
Most development activities are handled by the Arts and Sciences College and
my role as Chair is usually limited to supporting their development efforts.
However there have been opportunities for direct contact with donors and for
participation in the process of securing private funds.
(a) Have worked several times with the director of our Actuarial Science
Program to help secure scholarships and internships from several insurance companies for actuarial majors. This has involved meeting several
times with executives of these companies and listening to what they
would like to see happen at OSU.
(b) Helped establish a travel fund for undergraduates receiving funds from
an endowment established by an alumnus of the Mathematics Department.
5
(c) Have had discussions with a donor to establish a graduate competition
in Algebra. This involved establishing an endowment that will produce
about 10K per year for this purpose.
(d) I hosted the visit to the Mathematics Department of a family that donated about two million dollars for graduate fellowships in computation.
I was involved in writing a proposal for the use of those funds which was
accepted and which is now a source of graduate fellowships.
(e) The Mathematics Department is organizing a fundraising activity for
the Ross Program aiming to raise a million dollars from Ross Program
alumni in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Ross Program. A
newsletter sent to alumni of this program was created. Very early on
this effort has produced 200K in donations.
04-10 Administrative Vice Chair, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
Responsibilities:
• Oversight of budget of Mathematics Department (18 million dollars plus about
6 million dollars in research grants per year.)
• Oversight of about 30 staff members.
• Oversight of the promotion and tenure process in the Mathematics Department.
Accomplishments:
• Negotiated with the College and solved a budgetary problem inherited from
an NSF-VIGRE program that was not renewed and had left the Mathematics
Department with financial committments but with no resources to meet these
commitments.
• Negotiated with the College during a time of fiscal instability at the College
in which the College was imposing 15% budget cuts and there was a faculty
hiring freeze. As a result of these successful negotiations the Math Department avoided these cuts and was allowed to resume faculty hiring while other
departments in the College continued with a hiring freeze.
• As a member of a small departmental ad hoc committee, and connected with
budget negotiations with the College, drafted a new Strategic Plan in 2008
which included:
(a) The development of four new masters programs
(b) A reduction of the size of the PhD program which would aim to have
higher quality (higher graduation rate and shorter time to degree)
(c) More faculty attention paid to undergraduate math majors e.g. classes
taught by tenure-track faculty members
• Negotiated with the Dean’s office to carve out a part of the budget ($200,000)
to give selected graduate students in Math a semester free of teaching. This is
the Mathematics SGA program (Special Graduate Assignment).
• Established an agreement with the Mathematics Departments at the Harbin
Institute of Technology, China, involving undergraduate students attending
OSU for two years.
• Introduced the practice of discussing staff salaries in the Executive Committee.
6
• Introduced the practice of discussing faculty committee assignments and faculty teaching loads at the Executive Committee every year.
Scholarship and creative activity
(1) External funding:
(1990-1993), NSF, $68,400, Geometry and Representations of Lie Groups and
Algebras (PI on the grant)
(1993-1996),NSF, $60,976, Cohomology of G/P, Bruhat cells, and representation theory of G, for real reductive linear groups (PI on the grant)
(2000-03), NSF, $153,598, Toda Lattices and Toric Varieties for Real Semisimple Lie Algebras
(2010-2014) NSF, $12,978,300 Mathematical Biosciences Institute (co-PI on
the grant)
(2015-2017) NSF, about $8,000,000 Mathematical Biosciences Institute (co-PI
on the grant). A final budget is currently being negotiated.
(2014-2015) OSU and FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation), $ 20,000
Geometry in Columbus and Sao Paulo
(2) Publications (all refereed)
(a) Asymptotics of matrix coefficients, perverse sheaves and Jacquet modules,
Mathematische Annalen 275, 5-23, 1986.
(b) Primitive ideals and representations, Journal of Algebra Vol. 101, 497-515,
1986.
(c) (with David Collingwood) Complex geometry and the asymptotics of HarishChandra modules II, Inventiones Mathematicae 86, 255-286, 1986.
(d) (with David Collingwood)) Complex geometry and the asymptotics of HarishChandra modules for real reductive Lie groups I, Transactions of the AMS
Vol. 300, 73-107, 1987.
(e) (with David Collingwood)) The Kazhdan-Lusztig conjecture for generalized
Verma modules, Mathematische Zeitschrift 195, 581-600, 1987.
(f) (with David Collingwood)) Complex geometry and the asymptotics of HarishChandra modules III, Journal of Algebra, Vol. 116, 415-456, August 1988.
(g) (with David Collingwood) Weight filtrations for induced representations, Advances in Mathematics, Vol. 73, number 1, 79-146, January 1989.
(h) Graded characters of induced representations I, Journal of Algebra, Vol.
123, 289-326, June 1989.
(i) Kazhdan-Lusztig multiplicity formulas for Kac-Moody algebras, C.R. Acad.
Sci. Paris, t. 310. Serie I, 333-337, 1990.
(j) Graded characters of induced representations II , Journal of Algebra Vol.
137, 369-387, March 1991.
(k) Proof of the Kazhdan-Lusztig conjecture for Kac-Moody algebras (The Characters chLωρ−ρ ), Advances in Mathematics, Vol 119, No 2, May, 207-281,
1996.
(l) (with Robert Stanton) Schubert Cells and Representation Theory,
Inventiones Mathematicae 137, 461-539, 1999.
7
(m) ( with Yuji Kodama) Topology of the iso-spectral real manifolds associated with
the generalized Toda lattices on semisimple Lie algebras, Journal of Physics
A: Mathematics and general, 34, 2353-2366, 2001.
(n) (with Yuji Kodama) Toda lattice and Toric Varieties for Real Split Semisimple
Lie algebras, Pacific Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 207, No 1, 77-124,
2002.
(o) (with Yuji Kodama) Twisted Tomei manifolds and the Toda Lattice. Contemporary Mathematics, Vol 309, 1-19, 2002.
(p) (with Yuji Kodama) Blow-ups of the Toda Lattice and their Intersection with
Bruhat Cells. Contemporary Mathematics, Vol. 301, 283-310, 2002.
(q) (withYuji Kodama), Compactification of the isospectral varieties of nilpotent
Toda lattices, RIMS proceedings (Kyoto University), Surikaisekiken
Kokyuroku, 1400, 39-87, 2004, (mathAG/0404345).
(r) (with Yuji Kodama) Toda lattice, cohomology of compact Lie groups and finite
Chevalley groups, Inventiones Mathematicae 165,163-208,2006
(s) (with Yuji Kodama) Singular structure of Toda lattices and Cohomology of certain compact Lie Groups, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 202, 56-79, 2007.
(t) (with Yuji Kodama) Cohomology of Real Grassman Manifold and KP Flow
(http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.2134).
(u) (with Kodama) On the cohomology of real Grassmann manifolds ( http://
arxiv.org/abs/1309.5520 )
Recent invited talks:
• Plenary talk VI International Symposium, HAMSYS 2010, Mexico City, Cohomology of real Grassmannians and KP flow, November 2010.
• Invited speaker, Pre-College Research Symposium, San Juan, Puerto Rico Waves
in shallow water and their hidden geometry, December 10, 2011
• Invited speaker IV Latin American Conference on Lie Groups and Geometry, CIMAT,
Guanajuato, Mexico, Cohomology of real Grassmannians and KP flow, August 2731, 2012.
• Invited speaker, Geometry Seminar, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Cohomology of real Grassmannians, May 17, 2013.