Preston Wake

Preston Wake is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Michigan State University. His research focuses on algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry, utilizing methods from modular forms and Galois deformation theory to study special values of L-functions and Iwasawa theory. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago (2015), and has held postdoctoral positions at UCLA as an NSF Fellow and at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). His work is supported by an NSF CAREER grant (DMS-2337830).

Research interests include computational aspects of number theory, patterns in modular forms, and applications of deformation theory to Eisenstein ideals and Hida families. His collaborations include work with Carl Wang-Erickson, Jaclyn Lang, and Kenneth Ribet.

Publications span topics like Eisenstein ideals at various levels, Iwasawa invariants, and modular constructions of unramified extensions. Notable contributions include resolving questions about Mazur's Eisenstein ideal and exploring non-Gorenstein phenomena in Hecke algebras.

Awards: NSF CAREER Grant (2023). Grants include active funding from the National Science Foundation. No formal advisees are listed in available materials. Collaborative work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches between algebraic geometry and number theory.