Asaf Ferber
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics
Biography
Asaf Ferber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine, where he has been a faculty member since 2019. He completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Tel Aviv University in 2014, following his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Mathematics from the same institution. Before joining UCI, Ferber held positions as an instructor in Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a Gibbs Assistant Professor at Yale University. His academic career also includes postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich and brief positions at Yale University and Tel Aviv University.
Ferber's research interests encompass quantum algorithms on graphs, extremal and probabilistic combinatorics, and random graphs and hypergraphs, among other topics. He has published extensively, with numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Random Structures & Algorithms, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, and Advances in Mathematics. His work has received significant funding, including an Air Force grant for quantum algorithms on complex networks and multiple NSF grants. In recognition of his contributions, Ferber was awarded a Sloan Fellowship in 2022 and the Distinguished Early Career Researcher Award at UCI for the 2022-2023 academic year.
At UCI, Ferber teaches courses in probability, combinatorics, number theory, and linear algebra. He has also been involved in guiding reading courses and mentoring students in advanced topics in discrete mathematics. In addition to his teaching duties, Ferber contributes to the academic community by organizing symposiums, such as the Southern California Discrete Math Symposium in 2021, and serving as a referee for several prestigious journals, including the Journal of Combinatorial Theory and the Duke Mathematical Journal.
Return to topEducation
- PhD in Mathematics, Tel Aviv University, 2014
- M.Sc in Mathematics, Tel Aviv University, 2009
- B.Sc. in Mathematics, Tel Aviv University, 2006
Distinctions
- Distinguished early career researcher award, UCI, 2022-2023
- Sloan’s fellowship, 2022
- NSF CAREER award DMS-2146406, 2022
- NSF grant DMS-1953799, 2020
- NSF travel award for participating in an Oberwolfach workshop, 2017
- Excellent teacher, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 2013
- Best teacher, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, 2013
- Excellent PhD student’s scholarship, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 2012
- Prize for excellence in PhD studies, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 2011
Areas of Expertise
- Combinatorics
- Quantum Algorithms on Graphs
- Random Graphs and Hypergraphs
- Additive Combinatorics
- Probabilistic Combinatorics
- Random Discrete Matrices
- Theoretical Computer Science
- Graph Theory
- Hamiltonian Cycles
- Discrete Mathematics
Recent Publications
- Asaf Ferber, Ashwin Sah, Mehtaab Sawhney, Yizhe Zhu, “Sparse recovery properties of discrete random matrices”, Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 316–325, 2023.
- Asaf Ferber, Liam Hardiman, Adva Mond, “The number of -hamiltonian cycles in dense hypergraphs”, Combinatorica, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 665–680, 2023.
- Ferber A., Hardiman L., Krivelevich M., “On subgraphs with degrees of prescribed residues in the random graph”, Random Structures and Algorithms, vol. 63, pp. 192-214, 2023.
- Ferber A., Kwan M., Sah A., Sawhney M., “SINGULARITY OF THE k-CORE OF A RANDOM GRAPH”, Duke Mathematical Journal, vol. 172, pp. 1293-1332, 2023.
- Asaf Ferber, Matthew Kwan, Lisa Sauermann, “Singularity of sparse random matrices: simple proofs”, Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–28, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Vishesh Jain, Yufei Zhao, “On the number of Hadamard matrices via anti-concentration”, Combinatorics, Probability, and Computing, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 455–477, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Matthew Kwan, Lisa Sauermann, “List-decodability with large radius for Reed–Solomon codes”, 2022. Presented at FOCS 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Matthew Kwan, Lisa Sauermann, “List-decodability with large radius for Reed–Solomon codes”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 68, no. 6, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Matthew Kwan, “Dirac-type theorems in random hypergraphs”, JCTB, vol. 155, pp. 318-357, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Vishesh Jain, Ashwin Sah, Mehtaab Sawhney, “Random symmetric matrices: rank distribution and irreducibility of the characteristic polynomial”, Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–14, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Michael Krivelevich, “Every graph contains a linearly sized induced subgraph with all degrees odd”, Advances in Mathematics, vol. 406, pp. 108534, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Matthew Kwan, Bhargav Narayanan, Ashwin Sah, Mehtaab Sawhney, “Friendly bisections of random graphs”, Communications of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 380–416, 2022.
- Asaf Ferber, Vishesh Jain, Kyle Luh, Wojtek Samotij, “On the counting problem in inverse Littlewood-Offord theory”, Journal of the London Mathematical Society, vol. 103, no. 4, pp. 1333–1362, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Asaf Ferber, Vishesh Jain, “Singularity of random symmetric matrices—- a combinatorial approach to improved bounds”, Forum of Mathematics, Sigma, vol. 7, pp. E22, 2019.
- Asaf Ferber, Dan Hefetz, “Weak and strong k-connectivity games”, European Journal of Combinatorics, pp. 169–183, 2014.
- Sonny Ben-Shimon, Asaf Ferber, Dan Hefetz, Michael Krivelevich, “Hitting time results for Maker-Breaker games”, Random Structures and Algorithms, vol. 41, pp. 23–46, 2012.
- Asaf Ferber, Dan Hefetz, “Winning strong games through fast strategies for weak games”, The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. P144, 2011.
- David Conlon, Asaf Ferber, “Lower bounds for multicolor Ramsey numbers”, Advances in Mathematics, vol. 378, pp. 107528, 2020.
- Dennis Clemens, Asaf Ferber, Michael Krivelevich, Anita Liebenau, “Fast winning strategies in Maker-Breaker games on sparse random boards”, Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, vol. 21, pp. 897–915, 2012.
- Asaf Ferber, Gweneth McKinley, Wojtek Samotij, “Supersaturated sparse graphs and hypergraphs”, International Mathematics Research Notices, no. 2, pp. 378–402, 2020.
- Asaf Ferber, Gal Kronenberg, Kyle Luh, “Optimal Threshold for a Random Graph to be 2-Universal”, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 372, no. 6, pp. 4239–4262, 2019.
- Asaf Ferber, Choongbum Lee, Frank Mousset, “Packing bounded-degree spanning graphs from separable families”, Israel Journal of Mathematics, vol. 219, no. 2, pp. 959–982, 2017.
- Jacob Fox, Asaf Ferber, Vishesh Jain, “On the linear arboricity of graphs”, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, vol. 142, pp. 56–79, 2020.
Contact Information
Website: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/asaff/
Email: asaff@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-5500
Address: University of California, Irvine Department of Mathematics 410K Rowland Hall Irvine, CA 92697-3875
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Last updated on 2/14/2025.