Olya Mandelshtam

Olya Mandelshtam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on algebraic combinatorics, particularly symmetric and quasisymmetric functions, with connections to probability and interacting particle systems.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley (2016), advised by Lauren Williams
• Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA (2016–2017)
• Tamarkin Assistant Professor and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University (2017–2021)

Research Interests: Her work bridges algebraic structures (e.g., Macdonald polynomials, Koornwinder polynomials) and probabilistic models like the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) and zero-range processes (TAZRP). She explores combinatorial bijections, multiline queues, and integrable systems to study these connections.

Recent Activities: She organizes the Combinatorics Seminar at Waterloo and participates in conferences such as ICERM workshops on Category Theory and Machine Learning, ICECA, and events on integrable systems in algebraic combinatorics.

Advising: Current graduate students include Kartik Singh, Jerónimo Valencia Porras, Guilherme Zeus Dantas e Moura, and Harper Niergarth, with past advisee William Chan. Research collaborations include work on multiline queues, non-attacking fillings, and particle system dynamics.