Şefika Kuzgun

Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Rochester
Department of Mathematics
Office: 801 Hylan Hall
E-mail: skuzgun@math.rochester.edu

• Research

• Teaching

• Other

I am currently a Postdoc at University of Rochester, Department of Mathematics. I recieved my Ph.D. in 2022 from University of Kansas in Mathematics under the supervision of David Nualart. I do research in stochastic analysis and SPDEs. Here is my curriculum vitae.

  Research

1. Convergence of densities of spatial averages of the parabolic Anderson model driven by colored noise. (Joint with D. Nualart.) Submitted. Arxiv.
2. Convergence of densities of spatial averages of stochastic heat equation. (Joint with D. Nualart.) Stochastic Processes and Applications. Arxiv.
3. Feynman-Kac formula for iterated derivatives of the parabolic Anderson model. (Joint with D. Nualart.) Potential Analysis. Arxiv.
4. Rate of convergence in the Breuer-Major theorem via chaos expansions. (Joint with D. Nualart.) Stochastic Analysis and Applications. Arxiv.

• PhD Thesis - Applications of Malliavin-Stein Method: Spatial averages of solution to stochastic heat equation and Breuer-Major theorem. Pdf.
• Master Thesis - Smoothing estimates for the periodic KdV equation. Pdf.

•    2023
  
  TBD. Speaker at Mathematics Colloquium, Niagara University.
  
  Aug 9 - Aug 11. Participant at Frontiers in Stochastic Analysis, University of Illinois, Chicago.
  
  Jul 2 - Jul 14. Participant at 51st Probability Summer School, Saint-Flour, France.
  
  Jun 28 - Jun 30. Speaker at the junior mathematicians session Turkish Mathematical Society's Meeting for Young Mathematicians, Nesin Mathematics Village, Türkiye.
  
  Jun 12 - Jun 16. Participant at International Conference on Malliavin Calculus and Related Topics, celebrating the work of David Nualart and Anton Thalmaier, University of Luxembourg.
  
  May 10 - May 24. Participant at PDEs and Randomness Summer School, Max-Planck Institute, Leipzig.
  
  Jan 3. Speaker at Math Seminars, Koç University, Türkiye.
  


•    2022
  
  Nov 8. Speaker at Penn/Temple Probability Seminar, Temple University.
  
  Oct 21 - Oct 24. Participant at Random media & large deviations conference in honor of Ofer Zeitouni's 60th birthday, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
  
  Oct 17 - Oct 21. Participant at Probabilistic Methods in Geometry and Analysis, ICERM.
  
  Sep 23. Speaker at Probability, Ergodic Theory, Mathematical Physics Seminar, University of Rochester.
  
  Jun 19 - Jul 1. Participant at PIMS- IFDS- NSF Summer School on Optimal Transport, University of Washington, Seattle.
  
  Apr 23. Speaker at Kansas Math Graduate Student Conference, Kansas State University.
  
  Apr 6 - Apr 9. Poster presenter at the AWM session of Joint Mathematics Meetings, online.
  
  Mar 17 - Mar 19. Poster presenter at Seminar on Stochastic Processes 2022, Lehigh University, hybrid.
  


•    2021
  
  Dec 3 - Dec 5. Speaker at Frontier Probability Days, University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
  
  Oct 4 - Oct 6. Speaker at the contributed talks session of Junior Female Researchers in Probability, Berlin, online.
  
  Aug 2 - Aug 6. Speaker at Gaussian Random Fields, Fractals, SPDEs, and Extremes, University of Alabama in Huntsville.
  
  Jun 16 - Jun 18. Speaker at the PhD Session of Young Researchers between Geometry and Stochastic Analysis 2021, online.
  
  Jun 11. Speaker at the Math Grad Seminars, Boğaziçi University, online.
  
  
•    2020
  
  Aug 24 - Aug 28. Speaker at the pre-recorded talk session of Bernoulli-IMS One World Symposium, online.
  
  Mar 4 - Mar 7. Poster presenter at Seminar on Stochastic Processes, Michigan State University.
  

  Teaching

•    Fall 2023
  
  Math 162 Calculus II
  Math 210 Financial Mathematics
  
  
•    Spring 2024
  
  Math 162 Calculus II
  Math 202 Stochastic Processes
  
  

In the both academic years 2020 and 2021, I was among the finalists for the Florence Black Award for Excellence in Teaching at University of Kansas. For this teaching award, finalists and the winner are chosen based on teaching evaluations and observations of classroom teaching.

I solved couple of examples for the Calculus I Gateway Exam, you can watch an example via this link.

  Other

After the major earthquake struck Türkiye in February, I cofounded a math support platform to assist college students with their coursework and alleviate the earthquake's impact on education. This platform aimed to provide academic resources and support to students who were affected by the disaster, ultimately helping them to continue their studies and succeed in their math classes.

I founded the Directed Reading Program Türkiye together with Feride Ceren Köse and Oğuz Şavk, and I was among the organizers both Summer 2021 and Summer 2022. Besides I had a unique experience of mentoring two students, Sahra Karakoç and Zeynel Uluşan. The linked videos are their presentations at the end of the program.

I am the past president of University of Kansas Student Chapter of Association for Women in Mathematics (2020-2021). In addition to hosting regular weekly seminars, I initiated the special online meetings for graduate students to socialize during Covid-19 conditions. I served on the executive board of University of Kansas Student Chapter of the American Mathematical Society for two years, first as the secretary and then as vice president. During these two years, we organized for example, a series of seminars for professional development, a mentoring program for beginning graduate students and study groups for qualifying exams.

I had been a volunteer for the April Math Awareness Month activities at the University of Kansas, where local fifth graders spend a day with graduate students playing math related games (2019-2022).

Here is a list containing helpful links:

• Directed Reading Program Türkiye
• Women in Probability
• Advice for Probability Graduate Students
• Online Research Seminars
• Malliavin-Stein Approach