Jose Israel Rodriguez

Jose Israel Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with additional affiliations in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Institute for Foundations of Data Science. He joined UW Madison in Fall 2020 after completing postdoctoral positions at the University of Chicago (with Lek-Heng Lim) and Notre Dame (with Jonathan Hauenstein). Rodriguez earned his PhD in 2014 from UC Berkeley under the supervision of Bernd Sturmfels.

His research focuses on applied algebraic geometry and algebraic methods for statistics, with particular interests in nonlinear algebra and nonlinear eigenvalue problems, algebraic statistics and nearest point problems, and applications of monodromy and Galois groups. Rodriguez has made significant contributions to numerical algebraic geometry, particularly in solving polynomial systems, maximum likelihood estimation, and Euclidean distance degree calculations. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical computational methods.

Rodriguez's recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward developing numerical methods for solving complex algebraic problems with applications in statistics, optimization, and engineering. His research shows increasing sophistication in handling decomposable systems, multiparameter eigenvalue problems, and braid group computations, often implementing these methods in software tools like Macaulay2. His work connects abstract algebraic geometry with concrete computational approaches.

• NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
• Provost's Postdoctoral Scholar

Rodriguez currently advises PhD students Julia Lindberg (expected graduation May 2022, joint with B. Lesieutre) and Zinan Wang. He has organized numerous seminars and conferences including SIAM_SAGA, Algebra in Statistics and Computation Seminar, and Applied Algebra Seminar. His research has been supported by various grants that enable his work in numerical algebraic geometry and its applications.

Rodriguez is actively involved in the algebraic geometry and statistics communities, organizing several seminars and minisymposia at major conferences. He has developed several software tools including implementations for decomposable sparse polynomial systems, multiregeneration, algebraic optimization, Galois groups, and maximum likelihood obstruction functions. His work connects theoretical mathematics with practical computational applications across various domains.