2025 Eric Milner Scholarship and Prize Winners
The Eric Milner Scholarship is made possible through an endowment established by friends and family of the late Eric Milner. The Eric Milner Prize is funded by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Annual winners are selected by the Eric Milner Scholarship and Prize Committee, consisting of Mina Aminghafari, Claude Laflamme, Clifton Cunningham, Mark Milner, Renate Scheidler (Chair), and Robert Woodrow. The Committee is pleased to announce the 2025 Eric Milner Scholarship and Prize Winners:
- The 2025 Eric Milner Scholarship is awarded to Hang Cheung for his outstanding academic and research accomplishments as well as his commitment to sharing mathematics with others. Hang has published three papers in prestigious journals, with three more submitted and under review. Among his research presentations feature two talks at invitation-only workshops at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) in 2024. Hang served as sole instructor for our Department's introductory math finance course MATH 383 and as a Teaching Assistant for an impressive variety of math courses, which earned him three Graduate Teaching Excellence Awards. Outside the classroom, Hang has a track record of student mentorship. Hang is a PhD student in in Statistics, co-supervised by Jinniao Qiu and Alex Badescu. His research on high-dimensional dynamic optimization problems lies at the interface of control theory, partial differential equations and probability theory.
In recognition of the high quality of applicants, the Eric Milner Scholarship and Prize Committee chose to award two 2025 Eric Milner Prizes in addition to the scholarship:
- Kristaps Balodis is awarded a 2025 Eric Milner Prize for his advances in mathematical research and his truly superb accomplishments promoting and sharing mathematics. Kristaps has TA'd a wide array of math courses, tutored both high school and university students from a variety of backgrounds, served several terms as VP Academic for Calgary's Graduate University Mathematics Society (GUMS), and co-organized two editions of the Alberta Graduate Mathematics & Statistics Conference. Kristaps' exceptional outreach record includes participation in the Department's Math Circle for gifted junior high school students, creating content for the Kangaroo Math Contest, supporting prison inmates seeking to learn mathematics, and widely promoting the subject through an impressive collection of videos available at Kristaps' YouTube Channel K-Theory. A PhD student supervised by Clifton Cunningham, Kristaps conducts research on the Langlands Program, a far-reaching and highly abstract framework that seeks to build bridges between number theory, geometry and harmonic analysis.
- Jennifer Lawson is the recipient of a 2025 Eric Milner Prize for her excellent research achievements in both mathematics and mathematics education as well as her exceptional record of community engagement. Jennifer has published two research articles and presented her work in the form of talks and posters at a variety of conferences. Conducting math education research as early as her undergraduate days, Jennifer went on to write her Master's thesis on mathematical models for harvesting at U of C, and combined her passion for both areas in her current PhD work. She has served as both a sessional instructor and a TA in our Department. Her CV lists an impressive collection of research and teaching awards, and she is currently a co-investigator on a U Calgary Teaching & Learning Grant. Jennifer's outstanding service to the community incudes numerous leadership positions in student governance, organization of multiple conferences, and an impressive array of outreach activities. She is conducting an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Degree in Mathematics and Educational Research under the joint supervision of Elena Braverman and Jo Towers (Werklund School of Education).
All three winners will be invited to give colloquium talks in the Department during the 2025/26 academic years.