New Hire in YU’s Math Department, Optimism for Future of the Field

Beginning this past fall semester, a new professor named Professor Stephen Miller is teaching math courses at Wilf and Beren, both of YU’s undergraduate campuses. His addition is especially momentous for math students at Stern College, where there were previously only three regular math professors. Despite the dedication of these three professors, the Stern math department has consistently struggled to provide sufficient advanced courses to satisfy student needs, leading to relatively few math majors every year. A new hire in the department is a promising sign to math-inclined students that the university is dedicated to bulking up its math program.

Before joining YU, Miller was a distinguished professor and chair of the math department at Rutgers. He spent his undergraduate years at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Ph.D. studying number theory at Princeton University. 

In 2024, following the Oct. 7 attack and subsequent flare of antisemitism on college campuses, President Ari Berman invited university professors to apply to join YU’s faculty. Miller, who witnessed antisemitism take hold at Rutgers, found Berman’s invitation to be exciting; he applied. According to Dean Cypess, “[Miller’s] record of research and teaching spoke for themselves, and he is obviously a perfect fit for Yeshiva University in every way.” Miller was hired as a university professor, receiving the endowed professorship position that had been donated to YU by Chella Safra at the 2024 Hanukkah Dinner.

Miller is excited to join Yeshiva University. “There is something very unique about this place, and it fits me well,” Miller told The Commentator. He believes that all of the factors are here for YU to have an amazing math program; YU has a dedicated faculty, strong students and is located in New York, near some of the most vibrant math centers of the country. What’s missing is the curriculum: “We need to be offering more advanced courses,” said Miller.

This semester, Miller is leading a research seminar on the Wilf Campus, focused on the mathematics underlying artificial intelligence. He is also teaching Discrete Math on the Beren Campus, a course which — despite being a requirement for pure math majors — has only been offered as a course geared toward students with a computer science background for the past few years.

Miller feels that his contribution can be even more impactful at YU in comparison to Rutgers, given that the student population is so much smaller. But it is not only the class size that distinguishes YU from other universities. He senses that YU is uniquely invested in its students, because investment in its students is really an investment in the Jewish future. 

He expressed immense appreciation for his colleagues, who have built up the math program and are supportive of his initiatives. One of these colleagues is Professor Marian Gidea, the chair of Stern’s math department, who teaches courses on both of YU’s undergraduate campuses as well as in YU’s graduate program, The Katz School of Science and Health. Gidea has consistently advocated for hiring new math faculty. 

“The ongoing technological and AI revolution demands a new set of skills grounded in a deeper understanding of mathematics,” Gidea told The Commentator. “Having a faculty equipped to teach a broad range of topics and provide a clear vision for the future of science is crucial to the development of our students.”

Already this past summer, Miller, Gidea and Professor Miroslav Iovanov worked together in providing students with a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. The professors alternated teaching a mini course each week, Gidea on the subject of topological data analysis and Miller on the subject of cryptography, code-breaking and generating large prime numbers. While some students came into the summer with planned areas of research, the idea of the mini courses was to spark curiosity in different fields and prompt a research question.

Another initiative currently taking place is the preparation to bring a handful of YU students to the Putnam Competition, a prestigious annual competition for undergraduate math students. Iovanov teaches an online lesson every Friday introducing students to math concepts they will likely encounter on the exam, which they may not have learned in standard math courses. While it is unlikely that students will score competitively, the idea here is to spark curiosity and build a community of people who are interested in math.

This upcoming semester, spring 2026, Miller will offer a research seminar on Beren Campus similar to the one he led on Wilf this past semester. The course will be taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the only prerequisite is Linear Algebra.

Speaking to YU’s math professors, it is clear that they share a common sentiment: the future of mathematics is bright. Miller’s dream is to help make the math program at YU more robust, and that incoming students should know they will find excitement for math here if they seek it. Speaking about Stern specifically, he believes that with just a little improvement, “We’ll be one of the top sources for female Ph.D. students in mathematics.”

Gidea shares a passion for the subject and a firm belief in its continued significance. He said, “I truly believe that there will be more career opportunities for math majors than for any other field in the years to come.”

Photo Caption: A proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

Photo Credit: Elza Koslowe