Payton Suh

Payton Suh

Mathematics · UCLA

Portrait of Payton Suh

I am an 18-year-old third-year mathematics student at UCLA. I began college at sixteen at Santa Monica College before transferring to UCLA, and I plan to apply to the Departmental Scholars Program for a combined B.S./M.A. I intend to pursue a PhD in mathematics.

I am highly invested in the intersection of mathematics, the physical sciences, and computer science. Within mathematics, I enjoy pure mathematics, especially analysis, algebra, and topology, along with probability, which sits between the pure and the applied.

I enjoy open-ended problems that require abstract thinking, and I train my problem solving through puzzles, competition mathematics, and algorithmic coding challenges.

Outside of coursework, I am a co-investigator on ZrC-ARC, a NASA L’SPACE–funded project on refractory coatings for hypersonic and nuclear thermal propulsion. I was its principal investigator from January to October 2026 and now lead its research and LAMMPS simulation work. I also tutor physics and chemistry, and from October 2025 to June 2026 I analyzed stellar light curves for variable stars. See Research.

I am into photography, drawn to lines that converge and forms that repeat; some of it is here. Away from the desk I climb three or more times a week (bouldering up to V7), play pool at least four times a week (8-ball and 9-ball), and cook.

Things I think about

Brownian motion. Geometric Brownian motion dS = μS dt + σS dW; terminal values pile up into a lognormal law.
Linear maps. A matrix moves the whole grid at once; dashed lines are its eigenvectors, which only stretch, and the shaded square’s area becomes det A.
Singular value decomposition. Every matrix is a rotation, a stretch along perpendicular axes, and another rotation: A = UΣVT.
Hairy ball theorem. Every continuous tangent vector field on S2 vanishes somewhere: you cannot comb a hairy ball flat.
A cone is a sphere. Round the apex and inflate: the closed cone is homeomorphic to S2. Topology forgets corners.
Monte Carlo. The fraction of random points landing in the quarter disc estimates π/4, with error shrinking like 1/√n.
The martingale bet. Double the stake after every loss. Most gamblers (blue) creep upward, a few (brown) are wiped out, and the average (burgundy) stays at the starting bankroll, as optional stopping demands.

Currently

Competition

Preparing for the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

Research

Machine-learning research, alongside leading simulation for ZrC-ARC.

Building

Personal projects in code and mathematics.

Courses

Planned: abstract algebra, analysis, complex analysis, geometric analysis, topology, probability theory, and stochastic calculus.

Reading

The rest of my shelf is on the Books page.