Last updated in . Get the latest version at johndcobb.github.io/cv/.
Print

John D. Cobb
jdcobb3@gmail.com https://github.com/johndcobb johndcobb
Research Interests: Algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, and their applications.

Employment

2024–2027

Auburn University
nsf postdoctoral research fellow

Auburn, AL

Sponsor: Hal Schenck.

Education

2019–2024

University of Wisconsin-Madison
ph.d. mathematics

Madison, WI

Advisors: Daniel Erman, Michael Kemeny.

2015–2019

Honors College of Charleston
b.s. mathematics, b.a. chemistry, minor data science

Charleston, SC

Invited Visits

Jan–Apr 2027

ICERM (long-term visitor)
semester program in metric ag

Providence, RI

May 2026

ICERM (short-term visitor)
collaborate@icerm: ag in spectral theory

Providence, RI

May 2025

Fields Institute (short-term visitor)
semester program in ag and combinatorics

Toronto, Canada

Awards & Grants

Grants

2025 NSF conference grant DMS-2504328 ($20,767)
Link
Awarded to fund MAAG 2025 in Auburn.
2024 NSF conference grant DMS-2408333 ($16,255)
Link
Awarded to fund US participation in the 31st edition of GAeL.
2024 NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship DMS-2402199 ($190,000)
Link
2023 NSF conference grant DMS-2309424 ($15,833)
Link
Awarded to fund US participation in the 30th edition of GAeL.

Awards

2023 Exceptional Service Award, UW Madison Mathematics Department
Awarded to 3/120 Math Department Teaching Assistants.
2021 First Place for Early Stage ($3,500), Transcend Madison Competition
Article
For a prototype website for making academic preprints on arXiv more accessible and searchable.
2019 Alternate Candidate, Fulbright
2019 Outstanding Student in Computational Chemistry, American Chemical Society
To one graduating senior in the Chemistry Department.
2019 Ewa Wojcicka Mathematics Award, Math Department, College of Charleston
College of Charlestons math departments top award.
2019 Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship ($8,500)
2019 NDSEG Fellowship ($130,000), Air Force Office of Scientific Research
2018 Gadsden Scholarship, Math Department, College of Charleston
2018 Horatio Hughes Scholarship in Mathematics, Math Department, College of Charleston
2018 Brewer Scholarship, Chemistry Department, College of Charleston
2018 Scott Ward Award, Math Department, College of Charleston
Article
2017 Goldwater Scholarship, Barry Goldwater Scholarship Foundation
Article
The premier undergraduate award in STEM.

Papers [Interactive Version]

Journal

J5

Semigroup Graded Stillman's Conjecture

John Cobb, Nathaniel Gallup, John Spoerl. Journal of Algebra, 2025.
J4

Syzygies of Curves in Products of Projective Spaces

John Cobb. Mathematische Zeitschrift, 2023.
J3

Virtual Criterion for Generalized Eagon-Northcott Complexes

Caitlyn Booms, John Cobb. Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, 2021.
J2

Quarternion-Valued Breather Soliton, Rational, and Periodic QKdV Solutions

John Cobb, Alex Kasman, Albert Serna, Monique Sparkman. Journal of Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, 2020.
J1

Aggregate Dispersions to Enhance the Intrachain Order in Surfactant-Stabilized Aqueous Colloids of Poly(3-hexylthiophene)

McKenna Andrews, Anna Smirnova, Devin Sharp, Sarah Taylor, John Cobb, David Boucher. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2019.

Preprint

P5

Inverse Eigenvalue Problems, Floquet Isospectrality and the Hilbert-Chow Morphism

John Cobb, Matthew Faust, Andreas Kretschmer. Submitted, 2026.
P4

Elimination Without Eliminating: Computing Complements of Real Hypersurfaces Using Pseudo-Witness Sets

Paul Breiding, John Cobb, Aviva K. Englander, Nayda J. Farnsworth, Jonathon D. Hauenstein, Oskar Henriksson, David K. Johnson, Jordy Lopez Garcia, Deepak Mundayur. Submitted, 2026.
P3

LikelihoodGeometry: Macaulay2 package

David Barnhill, John Cobb, Matthew Faust. Submitted, 2024.
P2

Feature Propagation on Knowledge Graphs Using Cellular Sheaves

John Cobb, Thomas Gebhart. Submitted, 2024.
P1

Likelihood Correspondence of Toric Statistical Models

David Barnhill, John Cobb, Matthew Faust. Submitted, 2023.

Talks [Interactive Version]

Conference

AMS Special Session on Recent Advances in CA and AG, Boston, MA
AMS Special Session on Recent Trends in Applied Algebra and Geometry, Clemson, SC
TX-LA SIAM Mini-Symposium on Nonlinear Algebra in Applications, Waco, TX
AMS Special Session on Topics in CA and AG (cancelled), Savannah, GA
URiCA (Upcoming researchers in CA) 2024, Lincoln, NE
AMS Special Session on Homological Methods in CA and AG, San Francisco, CA
JMM Special Session on Recent Developments in CA, San Francisco, CA
JMM Special Session on CA and AG, San Francisco, CA
Algebra Days at ASU, Tempe, AZ
Institute of Mathematical and Statistical Innovation, Chicago, IL
AG23 SIAM Mini-Symposium on Castelnuovo-Mumford Regularity and Applications, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
AMS Special Session on Building Bridges Between CA and Nearby Areas, Salt Lake City, UT
AMS Contributed Paper Session on Partial Differential Equations, Baltimore, MD

Seminar

Chiang Mai University Colloquium, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Instituto de Matemáticas de la UNAM GATO Seminar, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico
Auburn Algebra Seminar, Auburn, AL
Fields Institute Seminar, Toronto, Canada
Auburn Algebra Seminar, Auburn, AL
Georgia Tech Algebra Seminar, Atlanta, GA
UW Madison Algebra and AG Seminar, Madison, WI
Iowa State University Algebra and Geometry Seminar, Ames, IA
ACMD Seminar (NIST), Boulder, CO
UW Madison Graduate Applied Math Seminar, Madison, WI
Center for Computing Sciences, Bowie, MD
Center for Communications Research, Princeton, NJ
UW Madison Graduate AG Seminar, Madison, WI
University of Hawaii-Manoa Seminar, Manoa, HI
UW Madison Graduate AG Seminar, Madison, WI
Center for Computing Sciences, Bowie, MD
UW Madison Graduate AG Seminar, Madison, WI
UW Madison Graduate AG Seminar, Madison, WI
UW Madison AMS Student Chapter Seminar, Madison, WI
UW Madison Graduate AG Seminar, Madison, WI

Outreach

Auburn First Year Seminar, Auburn, AL
Madison Math Circle, Madison, WI
Delta Beer Lab, Madison, WI
Data Science Club, Charleston, SC
Data Science Club, Charleston, SC

Poster

GAeL XXIX, Orsay, France
Western AG Symposium, Riverside, CA
Western AG Symposium, Fort Collins, CO
JMM Undergraduate Poster Session, Baltimore, MD

Organizing

Conferences & Seminars

Feb 2027 Macaulay2 at Auburn, Auburn, AL
Website
May 2026 AMS Special Session on Moduli and Syzygies of Algebraic Curves, Boston, MA
Apr 2026 MAAG 2026, Clemson, SC
Website
Apr 2025 MAAG 2025, Auburn, AL
Website
Dec 2024 NZMS/AusMS/AMS Special Session on Computations and Applications of AG and CA, Auckland, NZ
Website
Jun 2024 GAeL XXXI, Turin, Italy
Website
Jul 2023 GAeL XXX, Coventry, UK
Website
Fall 2021 – Spring 2024 UW Madison Graduate Algebraic Geometry Seminar, Madison, WI
Website

Outreach

Spring 2022 UW Madison Math Meet, Coordinator, Madison, WI
Website
Wrote problems and planned a math competition for over 200 middle schoolers around Wisconsin.
Fall 2019–Fall 2023 Directed Reading Program, Organizer, Madison, WI
Website
Feb 2015–Oct 2017 The Cancer Chase, Cofounder & Board Member, Fort Mill, SC
Helped direct an annual 5k run benefiting Carolinas HealthCare System's Levine Cancer Institute.

Reading Groups

Spring 2023 3264 and all that, Madison, WI
Website
Spring 2022 Positivity in Algebraic Geometry, Madison, WI
Website
Summer 2020 Geometry of Schemes, Madison, WI
Website
Summer 2021 The Rising Sea, Madison, WI
Website

Invited Workshops

May 2026 Future of Macaulay2, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Apr 2026 Regularity in algebra, combinatorics, and geometry, BIRS, Banff, Canada
Aug 2025 Homological Mirror Symmetry Workshop, AIM, Pasadena, CA
Jul 2025 Summer Research Institute Bootcamp, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Apr 2024 Recent Developments in Commutative Algebra, MSRI, Berkeley, CA
Jan 2024 Commutative Algebra Workshop, MSRI, Berkeley, CA
Dec 2022 Birational Complexity of Algebraic Varieties, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook, NY

Teaching

Intro to Abstract Algebra

Fall 2026 Instructor (MATH 5310) Auburn University

Calculus III

Fall 2025 Instructor (MATH 2630) Website Auburn University
Spring 2023 Teaching Assistant (MATH 234) Website UW Madison
Fall 2022 Teaching Assistant (MATH 234) Website UW Madison

Calculus II

Spring 2024 Teaching Assistant (MATH 217) Website UW Madison
Fall 2023 Head Teaching Assistant (MATH 222) Website UW Madison

Calculus I

Fall 2021 Teaching Assistant (MATH 221) Website UW Madison
Fall 2020 Teaching Assistant (MATH 221) Website UW Madison

Vector Calculus with Chemical Applications

Spring 2019 Teaching Assistant (MATH 229) College of Charleston
Fall 2018 Teaching Assistant (MATH 229) College of Charleston
Spring 2018 Teaching Assistant (MATH 229) College of Charleston
Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant (MATH 229) College of Charleston

Service & Outreach

Mentorship

Spring 2024 UW Madison Directed Reading Program Madison, WI
Led a group of students in reading Stillwell's "Mathematics and its History".
Fall 2022, Spring 2023 Madison Experimental Mathematics Lab Madison, WI
Directed advanced 4 undergraduates on a computationally focused research project concerning identifiable linear compartmental models.
Fall 2022 Madison Undergraduate Mentoring Program Madison, WI
Fall 2020, Spring 2021 First Generation Student Success Madison, WI
FGSS links first-generation college students to first generation graduate and faculty mentors for monthly meetings.

Volunteer

2024- Macaulay2 Internals Online
2021 WISCIENCE Public Service Fellow Madison, WI
Sep 2019 AMS Fall Central Sectional Madison, WI
2017-2019 Student Vice President of Phi Kappa Phi Charleston, SC
Mar 2017 AMS Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting Charleston, SC
2016-2018 College of Charleston Math Meet Charleston, SC
2015-2016 Trident Literacy Association Charleston, SC
Helped weekly to prepare nontraditional students for their GED.

Panels

Spring 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowships, Auburn's 2026 Research Symposium Auburn, AL
Spring 2024 Organizing Conferences Aimed at Graduate Students, UW Madison Madison, WI

Referee Work

Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, Advances in Applied Mathematics, Journal of Symbolic Computation

Programming

Experienced: Python, Macaulay2
Familiar: Java, MySQL, PyTorch, pandas, numpy, julia
Beginner: Scikit-learn, MATLAB, Mathematica, VHDL/Verilog, Rust

Projects

ToricStacks: Macaulay2 package for working with toric stacks via their stacky fans.
Code
LikelihoodGeometry: Macaulay2 package for computing likelihood ideals of statistical models.
Code Paper
Macaulay2 VSCode Extension: An extension in visual studio code for Macaulay2.
Code
ProjectedHypersurfaceRegions.jl: Julia package for anlayzing hypersurfaces arising from projection via pseudo-witness sets.
Paper
(more on github: johndcobb)