Svitlana Mayboroda

Scientific Director of Initiative for the Geometry of Flows. Full Professor at the ETH Department of Mathematics. Head of ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies (ETH-ITS). McKnight Presidential Professor, University of Minnesota.

Research Topic

Svitlana Mayboroda is Professor of Mathematics at ETH Zurich. Her work lies at the interface between partial differential equations, analysis, and geometric measure theory, and has enjoyed wide ranging applications in condensed matter physics, cold atoms systems, research and engineering of organic and nonorganic semiconductor materials and devices

• Partial differential equations: second and higher order elliptic differential equations and systems in non-smooth media, boundary value problems, regularity, potential theory, spectral theory, wave propagation and localization of the eigenmodes in rough domains, free boundary problems, harmonic/elliptic measure.
   
• Analysis: harmonic analysis, singular integral operators, maximal functions, function spaces, wavelet and atomic decompositions, interpolation, functional calculus of differential operators, operator theory.
   
• Geometric measure theory: geometry of rough domains, non-linear capacity, rectifiability, Analysis and PDEs on uniformly rectifiable sets, harmonic measure, regularity of free boundaries. 
   
• Physics: influence of rough geometry and/or material on properties of a physical system, localization of waves in acoustics, plate vibration, Anderson localization, quantum physics, systems of cold atoms.
   
• Engineering: analysis and design of GaN light emitting devices, the impact of disorder in nitride alloy materials on localization of carriers in quantum wells, radiative efficiency, Auger recombination, quantum droop, on performance of LEDs and lasers.
   

Biography 

Svitlana Mayboroda is a Ukrainian-American mathematician renowned for her groundbreaking work in partial differential equations, harmonic analysis, and mathematical models of wave localization. Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1981, she earned dual master’s degrees in applied mathematics and finance before completing her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri in 2005. Her academic career has spanned several leading institutions, including Purdue University and the University of Minnesota, where she became a full professor by 2015. In 2023, she joined ETH Zurich as a professor of mathematics and is set to lead the ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies from 2025. Mayboroda has received numerous prestigious honors, including the 2023 Blavatnik National Award and the 2024 Elias M. Stein Prize, recognizing her contributions to the theory of localization of waves in disordered media.

Publication and Awards

Publications

• David, Engelstein & Mayboroda. Square functions, non-tangential limits, and boundary behavior of solutions to elliptic equations. Duke Math. J. (2020)
• Mayboroda & Maz’ya. Polyharmonic capacity and the Wiener test of higher order. Inventiones Mathematicae (2018).
• Arnold et al. Effective confining potential of quantum states in disordered media. Phys. Rev. Lett. (2016)
• Filoche & Mayboroda. Universal Mechanism for Anderson and Weak Localization. PNAS (2012). 

Awards

• Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists (2023) – in Physical Sciences and Engineering
• Elias M. Stein Prize in Harmonic Analysis (2024) – for foundational work on localization landscapes
• Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2016)
• Member of the European Academy of Sciences (2024)
• Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2025)