Zachary Porat

About Me

My name is Zachary (Zack) Porat. I am currently a PhD candidate in mathematics at Wesleyan University. My advisor is David Pollack.

My research interests lie in number theory. In particular, I study automorphic forms on congruence subgroups of SL(3, Z).

Before Wesleyan, I obtained my B.S. in Mathematics from Union College. Outside of math, I enjoy rock climbing and playing trumpet.

Here is a copy of my CV, last updated in February 2024: [PDF]

Papers

(Note that preprints may differ from the final published version.)

1. Family Sizes for Complete Multipartite Graphs (with Danielle Gregg, Thomas Mattman, and George Todd), Involve, a Journal of Mathematics 15:4 (2022), 669-686. [MR4536581]
2. PIXE Analysis of Synthetic Turf (with Sajju Chalise, Morgan Clark, Skye Conlan, Scott LaBrake, and Michael Vineyard), Environment and Ecology Research 6:1 (2018), 60-65.

Talks

• How Computers Are Shaping Math, Manhattan College Math Seminar, November 15, 2023
• Death at 20: The Story of Évariste Galois, Graduate Student Seminar, Wesleyan University, March 9, 2023
• The Search for Large Prime Numbers, Union College Math Seminar, January 12, 2023
• An Introduction to Cryptography, Graduate Student Seminar, Wesleyan University, February 10, 2022
• An Introduction to Elliptic Curves, Graduate Student Seminar, Wesleyan University, October 14, 2021

Teaching

I am not teaching in Spring 2024.

While at Wesleyan, I have taught Elementary Statistics. I have also been a Teaching Assistant for several courses and worked in the Math Workshop.

Additionally, I have run several mentorship projects as part of Wesleyan’s Directed Reading Program.

Service

I am currently the President of Wesleyan’s AMS Graduate Student Chapter. I am also one of the organizers of our Directed Reading Program.

Additionally, from Spring 2022 through Fall 2023, I was a co-organizer of the departmental Graduate Student Seminar.

Expository Notes and More

Here are some notes and code that I have put together for one reason or another. Please let me know if you find any errors.

• Computing Coset Representatives and Generators of Γ₀(3, N) (Code)
• Classification of Torsion Subgroups for Mordell Curves (My Undergraduate Honors Thesis)
• Fourier Series Computation for G_k

Miscellaneous

On My Bookshelf

• A First Course in Modular Forms (Fred Diamond and Jerry Shurman)
• Linear Algebraic Groups (Armand Borel)
• Number Fields (Daniel A. Marcus)

Helpful Resources

• J.S. Milne’s Course Notes
• Keith Conrad’s Expository Papers
• The L-functions and Modular Forms Database (LMFDB)

Useful LaTeX Links

• Tool for figuring out LaTeX code for math symbols
• Tool for creating tables in LaTeX
• Tool for creating commutative diagrams in LaTeX (TikzCD)
• (Bonus: Fun LaTeX Typesetting game)

Some (Mathematical) Friends

• Jeffrey Hatley
• Zonia Menendez