Doron Puder

Doron Puder is an Israeli mathematician and full professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Tel Aviv University. He competed for Israel at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1997 and 1998 (bronze medals both years) and completed a PhD in mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2014 under Nathan (Nati) Linial, with a dissertation on word maps and their combinatorial and algebraic aspects. His research centers on combinatorial, geometric and probabilistic group theory, representation theory and random matrices, and the spectral theory of random graphs and Cayley/Schreier graphs; he leads an ERC project on word measures in groups and random Cayley graphs. He has held a long IAS Princeton affiliation (member 2014-2016 and 2024-2026, von Neumann Fellow 2024-2025) and collected a run of Israeli mathematics prizes including the Erdos Prize (2020), Levitzki Prize (2019) and Nessyahu Prize (2015).

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• Identity bridge: the Israeli olympiad-winners database entry 'Doron Puder' explicitly links the IMO 1997/1998 record to math genealogy ID 190975 and to the Erdos, Levitzki and Nessyahu prizes on the same profile, tying the olympiad contestant to the mathematician (competition-database bridge, not a self-authored career statement).2020
• Quant employment verification: UNRESOLVED. The only employment evidence is a LinkedIn index/aggregator record for 'Doron Puder' reporting a Quantitative Analyst role at Tower Research Capital dated 2008-2010; this is index-only and was not corroborated on any live primary page (no TAU CV, personal site, press or company page found stating the role). The identity behind the record is supported (rare name, Israel, Hebrew University PhD, 'Algorithms'/'Quantitative Finance' skills all match the mathematician confirmed via TAU faculty page, math genealogy ID 190975 and the olympiad-winners bridge), and Tower Research Capital is independently a quantitative high-frequency market-making trading firm ('a leading quantitative trading firm'; Wikipedia: 'an American quantitative trading firm. High-frequency trading'), so the employer classification is sound; but the role/existence of this employment is unverified, so it is not CONFIRMED. No other quantitative-finance role, internship, or student program was located.
• Faculty member of the School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University; the TAU mathematics Facebook page congratulated him on promotion to full professor (פרופסור מן המניין).2023
• PhD in Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2014; dissertation 'Word Maps and Their Combinatorial and Algebraic Aspects', advisor Nathan (Nati) Linial.2014
• Member of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2024-2026, and von Neumann Fellow there 2024-2025; earlier an IAS member 2014-2016, the postdoctoral period between the HUJI PhD and the TAU faculty position.2024
• Prizes and fellowships: Erdos Prize (2020), Levitzki Prize (2019), Haim Nessyahu Prize for an excellent dissertation (2015), Adams Fellowship of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2011-2014), Rothschild Fellowship (2014, 2015), Klein Prize (2010) and Zochovitzky Prize (2012).2020
• Represented Israel at the International Mathematical Olympiad in both 1997 (bronze medal, 22 points, rank 131) and 1998 (bronze medal, 15 points, rank 183), listed under ISR on the official IMO results.Jul 1998
• Leads the ERC project 'Word Measures in Groups and Random Cayley Graphs', with current preprints on Aldous-type spectral gaps in symmetric and unitary groups, stable invariants of words from random matrices, and random covers of hyperbolic surfaces.2026
• Public contact: office email [contact omitted] and personal doronpuder (at) gmail, office phone +972-3-640-8235, Schreiber building room 235, Tel Aviv University.
• Research spans combinatorial/geometric/probabilistic group theory, representation theory and random matrices, and spectral gaps/statistics of random Schreier and Cayley graphs and random manifolds.2026
• Co-authors include Michael Magee, Ramon Van Handel, Niv Levhari, Gil Alon, Yotam Shomroni, Danielle Ernst-West, Matan Seidel, Conan Wu and Ori Parzanchevski, an active free-group/random-matrix collaboration network.
• Recorded lectures and talks are publicly posted on YouTube (e.g. 'Random Covers of Hyperbolic Surfaces' lecture series; 'Random Matrices From GLn(q) Sampled by Words'), a public-talk footprint.