Polly Yu

Polly Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She holds additional campus affiliations within the Mathematics department and is associated with the Differential Equations and Applied Mathematics (DEAM) research group. Her work focuses on uncovering general principles in biology through the lens of network structure-dynamics relationships, particularly in biochemical and ecological systems modeled via interaction networks.

Dr. Yu completed her PhD in Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Gheorghe Craciun, followed by an NSF-Simons QBio postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Her educational background includes a BSc in Combined Honours Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of British Columbia and an MMath in Pure Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

Her research emphasizes graph-theoretic analysis of reaction networks, exploring how network topology influences system behaviors such as stability, oscillations, and steady states. Key areas include weak reversibility, deficiency zero realizations, and complex-balanced systems. She collaborates on interdisciplinary projects linking algebraic methods (e.g., toric geometry) with dynamical systems theory, with applications in systems biology and synthetic biology.

Dr. Yu’s teaching includes courses like Math 416 (Abstract Linear Algebra). She actively organizes seminars such as the Formal Kinetics Seminar and UIUC Math Biology Seminar. Her work has been published in top journals including SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Biosciences, with recent contributions focusing on nonmonotonic dose-response modeling, algorithmic network realizations, and intermolecular interaction analysis via microscopy data.