Chongying Dong, distinguished professor of mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, is among 41 mathematical scientists around the world who were recently named to the American Mathematical Society’s class of fellows for 2025. Fellows are recognized by their peers for having made “outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics,” the organization announced on November 1.
A professor at UC Santa Cruz since 1990, Dong studies infinite-dimensional Lie algebras and their representations, vertex operator algebras and their representations, and conformal field theory. In explaining his research interests, Dong says vertex operator algebras are a new and fundamental class of algebraic structure which has recently arisen in mathematics and physics.
“This new algebra has beautiful connections with many directions in mathematics, such as the representation theory of the Virasoro algebra and affine Lie algebras, the theory of Riemann surfaces, invariants of three-dimensional manifolds, monodromy associated with differential equations, monster simple group and automorphic forms,” Dong said.
Among the goals of the society’s fellows program are to create an enlarged class of mathematicians recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the profession, and to support the advancement of more mathematicians in leadership positions in their own institutions and in the broader society.
