Laura Schaposnik
Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford and Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago

After receiving my degree of Licenciada en Matemáticas from the University of La Plata (here is a travel guide to La Plata I wrote), I obtained my DPhil from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Nigel Hitchin. I was then a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg in Anna Wiennhard’s group, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in Steve Bradlow’s group. I moved to Chicago to take up a faculty position at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2015, where I am a Professor in Mathematics. I live with my Family in downtown Chicago.
My research focuses on the study of the geometry and topology of the moduli spaces of decorated bundles, especially Higgs bundles and Hitchin systems, and geometric structures they parametrize. Research on the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles has yielded connections between fundamental areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, blending ideas from algebraic and differential geometry, Lie theory, representation theory, and string theory. My work has appeared in the Journal of Differential Geometry, Transactions of the AMS, Communications in Mathematical Physics, Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, among other journals.
During the Spring 2023 I am a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford , and a visiting member of the Mathematical Institute, at the University of Oxford.
I am on the editorial board of Geometriae Dedicata, and together with Lara B. Anderson we edited a special volume of SIGMA on Hitchin systems.
My research at UIC has been supported by the following: [NSF FRG Award DMS- 2152107](PI), 2022-2025;
Simons Fellowship (PI), 2022-2023;
NSF CAREER Award DMS 1749013 (PI), 2018-2023;
NSF Award DMS 1749013 (PI), 2019;
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (PI), 2017-2019;
NSF Award DMS 1611835 (PI), 2015-2019;
news
Jan 13, 2023 | The paper with my student Grace Wang and Dr. Paula Bergero titled ” Correlations Between COVID-19 and Dengue” has been accepted for publication in Nature Scientific Reports. |
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Oct 14, 2022 | We are hiring post-docs at UIC! Here are our department’s open positions and a more specific call for my group . Please reach out if you have any questions. |
Aug 8, 2022 | The paper with my student Sheryl Hsu and my brother Fidel I. Schaposnik Massolo titled “The Power of Many: A Physarum Swarm Steiner Tree Algorithm” has been accepted for publication in Nature Scientific Reports. |
Jul 1, 2022 | I have been awarded an NSF FRG grant together with Motohico Mulase , Justin Sawon and Olivia Dumitrescu . Updates from our FRG activities will appear in the FRG Website . |
Mar 7, 2022 | The paper with my student Sheryl Hsu titled “Cell fusion through slime mold network dynamics” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. |