I’ve just accepted a postdoc job offer from the University of Georgia! I’ll be working with Dan Nakano and Nate Harman for the next 2-3 years. It’s extremely exciting - personally, I feel that UGA was one of the best departments I could go into as a postdoc, as I can continue to grow as a representation theorist and as a tensor-triangular geometer (something I’ve been branching more into in the past year - I’m hoping to have my first paper up on the arXiv soon). UGA has a rich history of modern representation theory - Jon Carlson, Dave Benson, and Nadia Mazza have all had tenures there. I’m deeply thankful for their consideration, it’s quite an honor.

It’s a strange, somewhat bittersweet feeling to know that I’ll be leaving California and the West Coast for the first time in 12 years (other than brief stints over the summer in Ely, Minnesota, and last summer when I spent two months gallivanting around Europe attending conferences and doing research). I’m from Evanston (a suburb of Chicago, where Northwestern University is), but I left to attend Harvey Mudd College, and have lived in various parts of the greater Los Angeles area and SF Bay area since (calling Santa Cruz a part of the Bay Area is a bit of a stretch, but it is only 30 minutes away from San Jose with no traffic). While I am excited to be somewhere new, it’s also quite sad to leave. Despite its quirks, jaw-dropping cost of living, semi-frequent natural disasters, ongoing drought, and dystopic displays of wealth inequality, it’s a place I love, one that feels more like home to me than the place I grew up.

So I wanted to reflect on some of the experiences I’ve been fortunate to have while I’ve been in Santa Cruz. My time here has been wonderful overall - Santa Cruz has been unquestionably my favorite place to live. I’ve also been blessed to have a number of my close friends live close by up in the Bay, whose couches I could crash on for a night or a weekend. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows; over these past six years, I lived through a pandemic, three(!) strikes, wildfires, and floods, along with the predictable mental struggles of being a graduate student. But also, I (on the non-math side of things)…

  • Became a Twitch DJ briefly during the pandemic (before burning out on that). Some weekends, our bubble would coordinate Twitch home festivals, passing off streams live from one to the other on a schedule. While this was fun, doing it week after week started to tire me out (literally, as these streams would run late into the night). I also played a few warehouse raves hosted by my friends, the energy and freedom at those parties is always so liberating.
  • Joined a band! (well, two, including a jazz combo too) Some of the members of the UCSC mathematics graduate community are talented musicians - one was a touring musician before he started his Ph.D. even! We’re called Partial Disorder (find us on insta), and play vaguely indie rock, though I play tenor saxophone so I’m not sure what to make of that. You can find a short video of me playing at our first live show somewhere on this website. Prior to this, I’d occasionally played at funk jams up in Berkland and Santa Cruz, but nothing regular. Contrast that to playing in jazz groups all through undergrad - it’s so nice to make music regularly again.
  • Formed a chess club! This started out of happenstance when a few of us started playing chess at a dive bar, and we realized that we should do this more. We’d meet most Tuesdays and some weekends at varying breweries and play. There was also a rafting trip up in north NorCal at some point, I miss that crew…
  • Went down my first double diamonds on a snowboard! The past few years I somehow managed to eke out a few snowboarding trips up at Tahoe and in Alaska, where my brother and his family lives. I made a considerable effort to improve my boarding, and now am at the point where I feel pretty at ease going down black diamond runs in Tahoe (at least if the conditions are good). I’m going to miss living driving distance away from peaks like those…
  • Got climbing outdoors more! I’ve been climbing on and off since late high school, but my climbing really picked up while in Santa Cruz. I sent my first indoor V6s (at my home gym) and V7 (at a different gym), and sent my first outdoor V4 up in Castle Rock. I also made it out to Bishop last spring to climb, which was heavenly. Much love to Pacific Edge, a gym that’s about as old as I am, and whose setters continue to humble me.
  • Travelled around the world to do math! I’ve been to Mexico, Argentina, England (like 4 times now), Italy, and Germany, along with plenty of spots within the U.S. Summer 2024, I even spent 2 months in Europe gallivanting around, going to conferences, doing short visits, and generally just taking in the liberating experience of being somewhere else, with different culture and history. I’m deeply grateful for the travel budget at UC Santa Cruz!
  • Formed an abnormal/aberrant movie club with friends. Two recent highlights for me were Mind Game and Night is Short, Walk on Girl both directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Some other great ones were Hundreds of Beavers and Julie Taymor’s adaptation of Titus Andronicus.
  • Did plenty of backpacking trips in the Sierras (and one in the Bighorns in Wyoming), and even did my first multi-night solo trip in Yosemite, a 4 night, 80 mile jaunt.
  • Ate a lot of burritos (I still like L.A. style a bit more).
  • Somehow managed to live in Santa Cruz for over 5 years without ever trying surfing (yet).

I wanted to get down some of these random happenings somewhere, and I figured they’re worth sharing publically (for anyone who cares). I had a magnificent time in Santa Cruz, and couldn’t think of a better place to spend my time as a graduate student. But I’m also looking quite forward living somewhere novel and for what’s to come.

  • sam