Noah Giansiracusa

  • Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences
  • Ph.D. Brown University

Teaching Interests

Data science and mathematics

Research Interests

Pure Math (algebraic geometry, tropical geometry, matroids), Data Science (topological data analysis, multidimensional scaling, machine learning), Interdisciplinary (empirical legal studies, phylogenetics, misinformation)

Bio

Noah Giansiracusa (PhD in math from Brown University) is an assistant professor of mathematics and data science at Bentley University, a business school near Boston. His research interests range from algebraic geometry to machine learning to empirical legal studies. After publishing the book How Algorithms Create and Prevent Fake News in July 2021, Noah has gotten more involved in public writing/speaking and policy discussions concerning data-driven algorithms and their role in society. He's appeared on cable TV and BBC radio, written op-eds for Scientific American, TIME, Barron's, Boston Globe, Wired, Slate, and Fast Company, and been quoted in a range of newspapers. Noah is currently working on a second book, a popular math book forthcoming with Riverhead Books (an imprint of Penguin).

Professional Links

Awards and Honors

  • 2023, Outstanding Scholarly Contribution, Bentley University
  • 2020, Innovation in Teaching Award, Bentley University
  • 2018, PI Research Grant ($165k), NSF
  • 2016, Young Investigator Grant ($40k), NSA
  • 2015, Co-PI Conference Grant ($28k), NSF
  • 2015, Collaboration Grant ($35k), Simons Foundation
  • 2012, Postdoctoral Fellowship ($150k), NSF
  • Publications

    Journal Articles


  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). The mathematics of misinformation. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, (69) 10 (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Giansiracusa, J. (2022). The universal tropicalization and the Berkovich analytification. Kybernetika, (58) 5 790-815. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). Branching on the bench: Quantifying division in the Supreme Court with trees. Constitutional Political Economy. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). An evolutionary view of the U.S. Supreme Court. Mathematical and Computational Applications, (26) 2 31. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Caminata, A., Moon, H., Schaffler, L. (2021). Point configurations, phylogenetic trees, and dissimilarity vectors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), (118) 12 10. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). Trust your instincts when opportunity arises. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, (68) 3 372-375. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). Fibonacci, golden ratio, and vector bundles. Mathematics, (9) 4 5. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Manaker, J. (2020). Matroidal representations of groups. Advances in Mathematics, (366) 23. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Mundinger, J., Crowley, C. (2020). A module-theoretic approach to matroids. Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, (224) 2 894-916. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2020). Finding, and sharing, mathematical beauty in the world. Wisaarkhu, (Special Volume 1) Topic 2 (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Vasilyeva, A. (2020). From Poland to "Petersburg": The Banach-Tarski Paradox in Bely's Modernist Novel. Annals of Language and Literature, (4) 3 1-8. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Ricciardi, C. (2019). Computational geometry and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mathematical Social Sciences, (98) 1-9. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Giansiracusa, J. H. (2018). A Grassmann algebra for matroids. Manuscripta Mathematica, (156) 1 187-213. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Caminata, A., Moon, H., Schaffler, L. (2018). Equations for point configurations to lie on a rational normal curve. Advances in Mathematics, (340) 653-683. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Ricciardi, C. (2018). Geometry in the courtroom. American Mathematical Monthly, (125) 10 867-877. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Vasilyeva, A. (2018). Mathematical symbolism in a Russian literary masterpiece. Mathematical Intelligencer, (40) 3 2-11. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Gallardo, P. (2018). Modular interpretation of a non-reductive Chow quotient. Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, (61) 2 457-477. (Link)
  • Moon, C., Giansiracusa, N., Lazar, N. (2018). Persistence terrace for topological inference of point cloud data. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, (27) 3 576-586. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Doran, B., Jensen, D. (2017). A simplicial approach to effective divisors in M_{0,n}. International Mathematics Research Notices. 2 529-565. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2016). Teaching the quandary of statistical jurisprudence: a review-essay on Math on Trial. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, (6) 2 207-224. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2016). The dual complex of M_{0,n} via phylogenetics. Arkiv for Matematik, (106) 6 525-529. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Giansiracusa, J. H. (2016). Equations of tropical varieties. Duke Mathematics Journal, (165) 18 3379-3433. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Bolognesi, M. (2015). Factorization of point configurations, cyclic covers and conformal blocks. Journal of the European Mathematical Society, (17) 2453-2471. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Gillam, W. D. (2014). On Kapranov's description of M_{0,n} as a Chow quotient. Turkish Journal of Mathematics, (38) 625-648. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2013). Conformal blocks and rational normal curves. Journal of Algebraic Geometry, (22) 773-793. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Jensen, D., Moon, H. (2013). GIT compactifications of M_{0,n} and flips. Advances in Mathematics, (248) 242-278. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Gibney, A. (2012). The cone of type A, level one conformal blocks divisors. Advances in Mathematics, (231) 798-814. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Simpson, M. (2011). GIT compactifications of M_{0,n} from conics. International Mathematical Research Notices. 14 3315-3334. (Link)
  • Cohn, H., Ballinger, B., Blekherman, G., Giansiracusa, N., Kelly, E., Schuermann, A. (2009). Experimental study of energy-minimizing point configurations on spheres. Experimental Mathematics, (18) 3 257-283. (Link)

    Books


  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). How Algorithms Create and Prevent Fake News. 248. New York City, NY: Apress (a division of Springer Nature) (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (). Robin Hood Math: How to Fight Back When the World Treats You Like a Number. Penguin Press Forthcoming.

  • Conference Papers


  • Giansiracusa, N., Giansiracusa, B., Moon, C. (2019). Persistent homology machine learning for fingerprint classificationProceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, IEEE ICMLA 2019. 1219-1226. (Link)
  • Giansiracusa, N., Wu, X. (). Chow quotients of Grassmannians by diagonal subtoriFacets of Algebraic Geometry in honor of William Fulton's 80th birthday. 17. (Link)

  • Presentations

  • Giansiracusa, N. (2023). Presented at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe At a crossroads: Safeguarding media freedom to protect democracy Macedonia
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2023). Presented at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Masterclass on AI and Freedom of Expression Macedonia
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2023). Presented at the American Mathematical Society Joint Math Meeting, Session on Advocacy Training
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “Blockchain as a tool to combat disinformation?” Presented at the University of Malta University of Malta blockchain seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “You are just a number in the tech giants' equations” Presented at the Maltese gov't and the UN Young People and Information Malta
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “Rethinking Social Media Algorithms” Presented at the Universität Stuttgart Trust and Disinformation Stuttgart, Germany
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “Mathematics and Misinformation” Presented at the University of Illinois, Chicago Selected Interdisciplinary Directions of Entertaining Mathematics
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “Algorithmic Aspects of Misinformation” Presented at the Copper Mountain Community College Separating Fact from Fiction Joshua Tree, CA
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “Tutorial on Deepfakes” Presented at theOpen Data Science Conference Boston
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2022). “The Mathematics of Misinformation” Presented at the Harvard University Harvard University Open Neighborhood Seminar
  • CICCHETTI, C. C., Sultan, J., Giansiracusa, N., Goodwin, F., Khumbah, N. (2021). “ACS2021” Presented at the Bentley University, State Street, Truman National Security Project ACS2021
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “What Role Does Machine Learning Play in Misinformation?” Presented at the U.S. Naval Academy Data Science Seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “Workshop on Detecting Deepfakes” Presented at theOpen Data Science Conference Virtual
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “Machine learning and misinformation” Presented at the University of Iceland Computer Science seminar Online (due to COVID)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “Intro to Machine Learning” Presented at the SUNY New Paltz Machine Learning Seminar Online (due to COVID)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “The Shape of Trees” Presented at the Bentley University Bentley University Mathematical Sciences Research Seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “Parameterizing matroids with schemes” Presented at the American Mathematical Society AMS virtual sectional meeting Online (due to COVID, formerly Georgia Tech)
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2021). “Geometry and Topology in Data” Presented at the University of Minnesota Applied Topology Online Seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2020). “Geometric Views of the U.S. Supreme Court” Presented at the University of Illinois, Chicago Selected Interdisciplinary Directions of Entertaining Mathematics Virtual
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2020). “Matroidal representations of groups” Presented at the UMASS Amherst, Department of Mathematics Valley Geometry Seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2020). “Matroidal Representations of Groups” Presented at the Boston College Number Theory/Algebraic Geometry Seminar
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2019). “Persistent homology machine learning for fingerprint classification” Presented at the IEEE 18th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications Boca Raton, Florida
  • Giansiracusa, N. (2019). “Matroidal representations of groups” Presented at the Northeastern University Geometry-Physics-Representation Theory Seminar Boston, MA
  • Service

    Department Service


  • Course Coordinator for Internship coordinator 2020 - Present
  • Committee Member for Curriculum Committee 2019 - Present
  • Committee Member for Tenure-Track Search Committee 2021 - 2022
  • Committee Member for Social Committee 2019 - 2021
  • University Service


  • Committee Member for PhD Council 2023 - 2027
  • Committee Member for Bentley-Gallup Steering Committee 2023 - 2023
  • Committee Member for Bentley University Learning and Teaching Council 2020 - 2023
  • Committee Member for Resource Stewardship, Revenue Growth and Diversification Committee 2021 - 2022
  • Professional Service


  • Committee Member for AMS JMM Program Committee 2023 - 2024
  • Conference/Workshop Session Chair for American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Special Session on Moduli Spaces - 2022
  • Conference/Workshop Session Chair for American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Special Session on Tropical Geometry - 2020