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Mathematics in communist Albania

Mathematics in Albania started mostly with the establishment of the Faculty of Sciences in Tirana, after World War II, even though there had been Albanian mathematicians trained abroad before that.

The communist government tried to establish the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tirana as a research department, however its efforts were hampered because it selected only people who were favored by the communist party and left out a large proportion of the population branded as "kulaks", "the enemy of the working class", etc. Only very few mathematicians close to the communist government were able to go abroad during the period 1960-1990. They produced very little in terms of research. The Department of Mathematics at the University of Tirana never became a research department and its efforts mostly were focused on training teachers of mathematics for middle schools and high schools.

After the fall of communism many young people went to study mathematics to Western Europe and North America. Currently there are many Albanians who hold academic positions in research universities in mathematics.

Tony Shaska

Tanush (Tony) Shaska
PhD Mathematics (2001), University of Florida

Born in Vlora (Albania) his family was sent to Kocul by the communist government when he was only a few months old. Tanush graduated from "Gjimnazi Halim Xhelo" in 1985. In high school he won the first place in the mathematical olympiad in the city of Vlora, but was not allowed to represent the city in the national olympiad because his family was considered 'kulaks' by the government. During 1988-89 he did the mandatory service in the Albanian army.

In the Fall 1990, he was allowed to attend the University of Tirana as a student of veterinary but changed to mathematics. In February 1991 he participated in the hunger strike against the communist government, but left Albania in March after the university was closed. He stayed in Italy during the period March-September and went to United States in 1991.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Michigan on December 1994. Tony received a PhD in Mathematics in Spring 2001 from the University of Florida, working under the direction of Helmut Völklein and John Thompson. He held a postdoctorate position at the University of California at Irvine (2001-2003) and a tenure track position at the University of Idaho (2003-2005), until he moved to Oakland University in 2005 where he continues to this day. Prof. Shaska founded the Albanian Journal of Mathematics in 2007.

Enkelejd Hashorva

Enkelejd Hashorva
PhD Statistics (1999)
Universität Bern

Enkelejd graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Tirana in 1992. He enrolled in the graduate program in mathematics at the University of Bern where he graduated with a PhD in 1999. Currently he is a Professor at the Department of Actuarial Sciences at the University of Lausanne.

Prof. Hashorva have many papers in the field of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences.




Giacomo Albanese
July 11, 1890 - June 8, 1948
PhD: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 1913
Advisor: E. Bertini

Giacomo Albanese was an Italian mathematician from the Albanian community in Italy. Albanese was a student of Bertini at Pisa. Albanese's research involved examining curves on algebraic surfaces and the genus of an algebraic variety.

He considered the problem of resolution of singularities, a major problem in algebraic geometry, and produced some elegant results. He pioneered investigations related to the Riemann-Roch problem and studied the rational equivalence of 0-cycles on surfaces. His name is remembered today for Albanese varieties used as a standard tool in algebraic geometry.

Fioralba Cakoni

Fioralba Cakoni
PhD Mathematics, 1996
University of Tirana

Fioralba was born and grew up in Elbasan (Albania). She graduated from University of Tirana with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 1987, and with a Master of Science degree in 1990. She received her PhD degree in 1996 under the direction of George Dassios. 

Fioralba has held academic positions at University of Delaware and Ecole Polytechnique. She is currently a Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University.


Mirela Çiperiani
PhD: Princeton University (2006)

Mirela was born in Shkodra (Albania) where she finished high school. While in high school she participated twice in the International Olympiad of Mathematics.

Mirela continued her studies in Mathematics at Smith College and then graduate school at Princeton University. She graduated in 2006 from Princeton University under the direction of Andrew Wiles.  Her thesis was on thesis was on "Solvable points on genus one curves".

During 2006-2009, Mirela held a post-doctorate position at Columbia University.  Since 2009, she has a tenured position at University of Texas. 

Gjergji Zaimi
Gjergji Zaimi
California Tech.

One of the best talents coming out of Albania in the last few decades. Gjergji Zaimi won honorable mention in the IMO 2003, Bronze Medal in IMO 2004, and Silver Medal in IMO 2005, 2006.

Gjergji studied mathematics at California Technology. His area of research is combinatorial aspects of algebraic geometry, more specifically Hilbert schemes, Del Pezzo surfaces. Gjergji has several publications.


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