Today at Brown

XY = Z2

That’s an example of a polynomial equation. Granted, it’s a highly simplified example, but it opens a window into the world of Danny Gillam, an incoming assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics.

More broadly, Gillam works in algebraic geometry, the study of the geometric properties of solutions to polynomial equations, including solutions in dimensions beyond three.

Recently, algebraic geometry and physics have drawn closer, as researchers search for models that can explain precisely what they observe in nature. One such field of study is the Gromov-Witten Theory, which is intimately connected with string theory — a hot topic in physics because it could unify all the laws in the known universe.

String theory holds that all matter and forces are made of tiny strands of energy that vibrate in different patterns. But the physical predictions that result from the curves and spheres created by those vibrating strings in space are often difficult to formulate and prove mathematically. Gromov-Witten and other theories are trying to do just that.

Gillam said he has been drawn to math since middle school. Part of it was because the subject came to him naturally, he said. It didn’t hurt that his parents, who are actuaries, each have master’s degrees in math. Gillam also likes the fact that math holds few ambiguities.

“It’s very non-subjective,” he said. “When you have something right, you know it. There’s no debate.”

Gillam, 27, received his bachelor’s degree in math from Wesleyan University and earned a master’s degree from Wesleyan and two master’s degrees from Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia, where he also taught pre-calculus and calculus to undergraduate students.

Gillam will not teach during his first year at Brown. Instead, he’s in the final year of a postdoctoral research fellowship he won from the National Science Foundation, in which he’s studying “pure math.”

He sympathizes with those who find math difficult, because, he said, he did, too. “I still think it’s hard,” Gillam said. “But once you understand it, you know it, and you never forget it.”