Two SwissMAP Master's scholarship students tell us about their experiences

3 Jun 2024

Two SwissMAP Master's scholarship students share their experiences of studying in Geneva and about their next steps.


Anfisa Gurenkova About my work: My Master's thesis title is: "Multiple Horn's problem" The classical Horn's problem studies the relation between the spectra of hermitian natrices X, Y, and X+Y. I studied a generalisation of this problem to more matrices using ideas from tropical geometry. An interesting connection with geometric crystals appeared during the study. My experience at the UNIGE Section of Mathematics: I loved: • welcoming, respectful and relaxed atmosphere, • great library, • furnishing which lets you study comfortably — from chalk to fridge, • a lot of visiting mathematicians, • research station in Les Diablerets. I lacked scientific activities for students such as advanced reading seminars.


		Iuliia Popova About my work: My thesis was written under the active guidance of David Cimasoni. Together, we explored a particular link invariant called the multivariable signature. Our results include proving several properties for the extended version of the signature, namely concordance invariance and the formula for evaluation on diagonals. Moreover, we demonstrated that the extended signature is a more powerful invariant than the non-extended one. My experience at the UNIGE Section of Mathematics: was both enriching and exciting. The Section of Mathematics offers various courses in many areas of mathematics, such as geometry, algebraic topology, general topology, probability theory, representation theory, algebraic geometry, and others. Since my principal interest lies in geometry and algebraic topology, I especially enjoyed the courses "Chosen Chapters of Geometry" and "Knot Theory." All the professors are very welcoming and always ready to answer questions. What I like most about their teaching style is that they provide very structured and detailed courses, offering both a general perspective on the subject and important technical details. Overall, the friendly atmosphere of the Section of Mathematics helped me find my place in mathematics and laid the foundation for pursuing my future academic career in a PhD.

Program(s)

Phase III direction(s)

MAP Young Faculty Meeting (Bern, 6/09)

Martí Perarnau-Llobet has taken up a Ramón y Cajal fellowship