Linh Tran is currently fifth year Ph.D. student in the Math department at Yale University, working under the supervision of Professor Van Vu. He went to special math classes for gifted children at the high school division of the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City. Encouraged and nurtured by his high school teachers, Tran found his passion for Math and was determined to follow this path, especially after having had little success in other subjects. Under the guidance of his advisor, Prof. Van Vu, he does research in random graph theory, particularly majority dynamics and generalizations, and random matrix theory, particularly its application in data analysis and machine learning methods. He is also interested in combinatorics problems involving the probabilistic method, applications of geometry in combinatorics, e.g., random fractals, and theoretical computer science.

Van Vu is the P. F. Smith Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Data Science at Yale University. Vu was born in Hanoi (Vietnam) in 1970. He went to special math classes for gifted children at Chu Van An and Hanoi-Amsterdam high schools. In 1987, he went to Hungary for his undergraduate studies, and obtained his M.Sc. in mathematics at Eötvös University, Budapest, in 1994. He received his Ph.D. at Yale University, in 1998 under the direction of László Lovász. His research interest includes random structures (random matrices, random graphs, random functions), probabilistic and additive combinatorics, and randomized algorithms. Recently, he has also been interested in real-life applications of data science (such as NLP and computer vision).