SFI External Professor Mason A. Porter (UCLA) has received the 2025 George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for “his outstanding exposition of the mathematical sciences to audiences at all levels and interests.” Awarded every two years, the prize is given to an individual or group responsible “for a specific work or for the cumulative impact of multiple expository works that communicate mathematics effectively.”
Porter’s research explores theory and applications of nonlinear and complex systems in diverse areas, including social networks, opinion dynamics, spatial systems, granular systems, and many others. He is an award-winning mentor of junior researchers, including more than 30 past and current Ph.D. students, more than 15 postdoctoral scholars, and more than 150 Master’s and undergraduate students on research projects.
Porter was recognized by SIAM as a prolific communicator in mathematics. His writings span the deeply technical — including scholarly articles on multilayer networks, dynamical processes on networks, community structure in networks, and network analysis of granular materials — to the more accessible, with publications in venues such as Physics Today, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, and Frontiers for Young Minds, a journal for teens and preteens taking their first steps into STEM. He also blogs (at Quantum Chaotic Thoughts) and posts on social media about topics such as mathematics, education, and baseball.
“The award means a lot to me because I take painstaking care in my writing,” says Porter, who has authored more than 250 scholarly works. “I am notorious for doing this, so it's particularly meaningful to be recognized for it.”