Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her)

I love beauty, adventure, order in chaos, & the search for understanding. Thus, I'm a mathematician. Also a soccer addict. Views my own.

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

This summer I'll be moving back to Princeton, NJ for a new job that I'm very excited about. Let me know if you're in the area & would like to catch up!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

Pierre says Happy New Year!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

I'm really fascinated right now with how sufaces, foliations, Culler-Vogtmann outer space, tropical geometry, & physics all fit together. So we have a surfaces, tropical geometry, & physics working group. Today I talked about the CP coordinates.

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

@littmath I recently decided I was going to become computer literate, learn to program, work with data, etc. A friend set me up with cursor & told me I'd never feel alone again. I was skeptical, but it really is nice to always have someone there to help & ask questions to...

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

I have a new webpage with a research image carousel: https://t.co/C5NCliZgdw . Click on an image & see what happens!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

I'm in Hawaii this week giving a minicourse! https://t.co/FE60PtYuOP

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

Something extraordinary for me about @the_IAS is the intergenerationality & inclusion of "wise elders." I will always treasure the special bond Pierre & I developed with the greatests of greats, Karen Uhlenbeck. Our many meals, math & life conversations, something very special...

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

Always wonderful to see a former student thriving & sharing that they'll be at your location! Howie Hong at IAS!

[Siu Lun Chau @Chau9991]

🚨 PhD opportunity!

I’m recruiting a PhD student with a strong background in math/stats/CS to join my group at NTU Singapore 🇸🇬
Start: Jan or Aug 2026
Topic: Foundations of Epistemic Uncertainty in ML 🧠🔍
📌 Details: https://t.co/k0lCzXNfAt

RT appreciated!

[Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) @the_IAS]

Catherine Eva Pfaff (@PfaffCatherine), Member in the School of Mathematics (2024–25), discusses the ways in which geometric group theorists and theoretical computer scientists at IAS approach mathematical constructions and learn from one another: https://t.co/CE1VRbkKlV

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

It's somehow not the most flattering video of me, but here I am talking about talking about simplicial complexes at the Institute: https://t.co/W9cvmRztJU

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

@AlexKontorovich Congratulations Alex!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

In other news posh travel news, I'm giving a mini-course in Hawaii at the end of the month: https://t.co/FE60PtXWZh

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

I'm excited that I'll be spending 2 months at l'Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques @Institut_IHES in Orsay (right outside Paris) Spring 2026!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

@viditnanda Yes, congrats Vidit!

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

@viditnanda I once had a referee claim they discovered a reference (to a paper of theirs) by some kind of in-depth search of the literature. It would've been less suspicious if they'd just named the paper. (I could tell it was them through other means.)

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

Among last week's IAS shenanigans was trying to reenact an Oppenheimer scene with Professor Flores. I chose to asssume that in reality there was actually a dog present in that moment of history,

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

Last @the_IAS Groups & Dynamics Seminar talk of the year . It's been lovely! https://t.co/s716UMwzSX

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

There was a bit of a mix-up on the IAS end, but here now is Lee's excellent talk: https://t.co/XWcReah1Lc

[Catherine PFAFF, PhD (she/her) @PfaffCatherine]

PhD advisor Lee Mosher & his current student Sarasi Jayasekara visited me at @the_IAS for Lee's talk. Really wonderful talk & day!