Dear colleagues, I am looking to recruit several Ph.D. students and postdocs to start in Fall 2027 at Vanderbilt University. Some of the positions will be held in the Department of Mathematics, while others in the newly-formed College of Connected Computing. Vanderbilt is currently investing a lot in mathematics and computing, making it an exciting place to be. The stipends and salaries are highly competitive, while Nashville remains an affordable city experiencing a lot of growth. It has great restaurants and cultural scene, and easy access to hiking and climbing areas. (Plus the winters are way milder compared to, I don’t know, Canada...) Specific areas of interest include: - applied and computational topology, - applied category theory, including to biology, - abstract and discrete homotopy theory, - formal verification, and - machine learning and artificial intelligence. We already have an active group working across these areas, with the following positions still available: 1-2 Ph.D. students in Computer Science. Applicants should select “Machine Learning” as their preferred research area to ensure that their application reaches me. The positions are primarily supported by research assistantships. The application deadline for these positions is December 1 (with fee waiver) or December 15, 2026. https://computing.vanderbilt.edu/csphd/ 1-2 Ph.D. students in Mathematics. Admissions to this program are done at the program level, but it might be a good idea to mention my name in your statement of purpose to make sure that the application reaches me. The positions are primarily supported by teaching assistantships. The application deadline for these positions is December 1, 2026. https://as.vanderbilt.edu/math/graduate-admissions/ 1 (or more) postdoctoral fellow in Mathematics. This is a standard MathJobs.org application (cover letter, CV, research + teaching statement, teaching evaluations, and 4 reference letters) with the deadline of November 1, 2026. https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/list/28980 I appreciate your sharing this message with potential applicants. I’d be happy to answer any questions by email <k.kapulkin@vanderbilt.edu <mailto:k.kapulkin@vanderbilt.edu>>. Personal note to applicants: when preparing your materials, I would strongly advise that you either don’t use LLMs or use them for feedback, rather than writing. You want your file to stand out and it’s hard to do it when you sound exactly the same as every other LLM user. In my opinion, it sounds even worse than the personal statements that talk about "math being the universal language" or "the applicant having been fascinated by numbers and logic since kindergarten." There are legitimate uses of LLMs; this is not one of them. Best, Chris