Juan Carlos Martínez Mori is an Ecuadorian engineer turned mathematician. He was born and raised in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In 2017, he received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a minor in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he attended through a generous scholarship awarded by the Government of Ecuador. In 2023, he received a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University. He is a 2023 Schmidt Science Fellow (SSF); a postdoctoral fellowship program that supports ambitious interdisciplinary research. His SSF placement will be at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he will work on the mathematics of equitable public decision-making. He will also join the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath, formerly MSRI) as a postdoctoral fellow for the Fall 2023 program on Algorithms, Fairness, and Equity. 

Carlos is broadly interested in discrete mathematics, from its real-world applications to foundations in optimization and combinatorics. In one line of work, he develops mathematical models and algorithms for problems arising in real-world transportation systems (e.g., designing a “good” set of bus routes for public transit). In another line of work, he studies the combinatorics of parking functions and related objects. As a postdoctoral fellow, he will pivot into algorithmic fairness and game theory within the context of equitable public decision-making.

One of his career goals is to actively work toward improving representation in the mathematical sciences. This interest was catalyzed by his experience as a teaching assistant for two different Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs in mathematics.

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“Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate and strengthen our communities. It is a platform to recognize our achievements, and to show that ‘¡Si se puede!’”

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