Elena (Xinyi) Wang

Elena (Xinyi) Wang

Postdoc Researcher

TU Graz

Biography

In Summer 2025, I am a postdoctoral researcher at TU Graz, working with Michael Kerber. Starting in October 2025, I will join the University of Fribourg as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Bastian Rieck.

I recently completed my PhD at Michigan State University, where I was advised by Liz Munch. My research lies at the intersection of topological data analysis (TDA), computational topology and geometry, and machine learning. I am particularly interested in developing new geometric and topological tools for data analysis.

In Summer 2023, I interned at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab under the mentorship of Dmitriy Morozov. In Fall 2023, I was a long-term visitor at ICERM at Brown University.

Outside of mathematics, I am a classically trained pianist and flutist, and especially enjoy playing chamber music with friends. I am also interested in musicology and music theory. I have a cat, Shosty (named after Dmitri Shostakovich), and a dog, Wolfie (named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

Download my CV .

Interests
  • Topological Data Analysis
  • Computational Geometry
  • Machine Learning
Education
  • PhD in CMSE, 2025

    Michigan State University

  • BA in Mathematics and Music, 2020

    College of the Holy Cross

Recent Publications

(2024). A Distance for Geometric Graphs via the Labeled Merge Tree Interleaving Distance.

PDF Code arXiv

(2024). Complexity and Enumeration in Models of Genome Rearrangement. Computing and Combinatorics.

Cite Publication

(2022). Taxonomy of Benchmarks in Graph Representation Learning.

PDF Code arXiv

(2022). Clairaut surfaces in Euclidean three-space. Tohoku Math. J..

Cite Publication

Contact