People | √mathroots @ MIT

Pavel Etingof

Faculty Advisor

Pavel Etingof is Professor of Mathematics in the Mathematics Department at MIT. Pavel received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University. Pavel’s research interests are noncommutative algebra, representation theory, and mathematical physics. Pavel led mathematics research programs for high school students at the Clay Mathematics Research Academy, the Research Science Institute (RSI), and SPUR at MIT. He co-founded MIT PRIMES program and has served as its Chief Research Advisor since 2010. Pavel’s students have won multiple top awards at national science competitions for high school students.

When Pavel isn’t doing math, he enjoys mycology and can be found identifying, collecting, and cooking mushrooms for fun(gi).

Slava Gerovitch

Academic Director

Slava Gerovitch is the Director of Research and Reading Programs in the Mathematics Department at MIT. He co-founded MIT PRIMES program in 2010 and directed RSI and SPUR programs since 2012, and DRP and UROP+ programs since 2014. His research interests include social and cultural history of mathematics, cybernetics, astronautics, and computing. His current research project is on the culture of abstract algebra in the second half of the twentieth century. Slava holds two doctoral degrees, in history and social study of science and technology from MIT and in philosophy of science from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He has taught at MIT since 1999, but when nobody is watching, writes poetry!

Tanya Khovanova

Menezes Challenge Lecturer

Tanya Khovanova is a Lecturer at MIT and a freelance mathematician. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Moscow State University. Her current interests lie in recreational mathematics including puzzles, magic tricks, combinatorics, number theory, geometry, and probability theory. Her website is located at tanyakhovanova.com, her highly popular math blog at blog.tanyakhovanova.com and her Number Gossip website at numbergossip.com.

Tanya works with gifted children in a variety of settings. At the AMSA Charter School in Massachusetts, she coaches the math competition team. She also mentors and supervises high school students who want to do research in mathematics. She works with the two most successful programs that focus on helping kids do research: RSI and MIT PRIMES.

When Tanya is not thinking about mathematics or puzzles, she enjoys dancing. Actually, sometimes she thinks about math while dancing – and about dancing while solving problems.

Serina Hu

Program Director

Serina Hu is a Ph.D. student at MIT. She received her B.A. from Harvard University. Her research is in representation theory. She has been a PRIMES mentor, teaching assistant, and Mathroots residential counselor.

Outside of math, she enjoys story-driven video games and playing the piano.

Enrico Colón

Assistant Director

Enrico is a Ph.D. student in the Harvard mathematics department interested in geometric topology. Before beginning graduate study, Enrico received an S.B. in mathematics from MIT.

Enrico has been a residential counselor at √mathroots 2022 and 2023, and participated in the program in 2018.

Outside of mathematics, Enrico can usually be found playing puzzle and city-building games or making/consuming music.

John Urschel

Academic Coordinator

John Urschel is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. John received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT. His research interests include graph theory, numerical analysis, and theoretical computer science. John has a passion for teaching and mentoring students, having supervised a number of research projects and directed reading programs for MIT undergraduates.

When John is not doing math, he likes to spend time with his two small children, play board games, play the guitar, and exercise occasionally.

Vijay Srinivasan

Head Mentor

Vijay Srinivasan is a Ph.D. student in the math department at MIT. Previously, he was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. His research is in number theory. In the past, he has been a counselor at the PROMYS program and an academic mentor for Mathroots.

In his spare time, Vijay likes to play the piano, go for a walk outside, or exercise.