Johnny Rivera

Why did you choose the Mathematics Department at Virginia Tech?

I chose the VT Math Department because I knew that the staff and faculty fostered success in their admitted students, and that type of environment was highly important to me when deciding where to attend graduate school.

What is your research area?

My current area of research is in algebraic combinatorics under the supervision of my advisor Dr. Daniel Orr. As I am only in the first year of my graduate studies, I do not have a specific thesis project/dissertation; however, we have currently been exploring the combinatorics of Macdonald polynomials.

Congratulations on being accepted to an SLMath Summer Graduate School! Where are you heading this summer?

I have been accepted to participate in the summer graduate school: Séminaire de Mathématiques Supérieures 2025: An Introduction to Recent Trends in Commutative Algebra! I will be spending the first two weeks of June at the Fields Institute in Toronto, Canada, where I will have the opportunity to study combinatorial methods, homological methods, computational methods, and characteristic p-methods as well as engage with cutting-edge research in commutative algebra.

What advice do you have for math grad students?

The best advice I can give to math grad students is to work together. In graduate school, you find yourself surrounded by who share similar goals with you, which is not something you will find in many places. It is my firm belief that collaborating to ensure a collective success is infinitely more valuable than isolating to ensure one's own success.

What do you enjoy doing in Blacksburg?

My favorite thing to do around Blacksburg is visit the farmer's market on a Saturday morning and then head to Lighthouse coffee to do some work.

What is a fun fact that most might not know about you?

I used to be a member of an acapella group!

Do you have a favorite quote?

He believed that if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things! - Uncle Ben, The Amazing Spider-Man