PhD and a Bright Future Ahead for Top Mathematician

Following a stellar academic journey marked by exceptional achievement, original research and international recognition, Dr Shimon Corcos has been awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics.

Supervised by Professor Dharmanand Baboolal and Dr Cerene Rathilal, Corcos’s PhD explored cutting-edge concepts in Topology, a field he grew to love during his undergraduate years at UKZN.

Corcos first enrolled at UKZN in 2018. It didn’t take long for the Institution and his lecturers to make a profound impact on him. “Even though Mathematics was my passion since I was a child,” he said, “I didn’t know if I wanted to major in Mathematics, let alone do a master’s. But I built great relationships with all of my lecturers and colleagues.” Key among his early influences were Professors Paranjothi Pillay, Gareth Amery, Sergey Shindin and Dharmanand Baboolal whose Real Analysis, Discrete Mathematics and Algebra lectures in his undergraduate years solidified his decision to major in Mathematics.

Graduating summa cum laude for both his BSc and honours degrees, Corcos earned accolades including the 100th Anniversary Scholarship, the Lawrence and Constance Robinson Scholarship, the Townley Williams Scholarship and the Zac Yacoob Scholarship, highlighting his consistent placement among UKZN’s top-performing students. In 2021, he completed an honours research project on Point-free Topology with Baboolal before transitioning into a master’s programme.

What began as an MSc thesis on general properties of the Vietoris Topology quickly led to a significant original contribution to the field. “It seemed that no one had previously considered a study of sobriety or irreducibility in arbitrary hyperspaces,” Corcos noted. “That’s when I realised there was a gap in the literature.”

Based on his findings, and with strong feedback from examiners, his MSc was upgraded to a PhD in 2023. In the same year he was privileged to be one of 200 young researchers from across the globe to be invited to the 10th Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany where he interacted with laureates of the most prestigious mathematical prizes, including the Fields medal and the Abel prize.

His doctoral thesis, titled: ‘On Cellularity, Closure, Sobriety and Separation Axioms in the Lower Vietoris Topology’, introduced and studied four new classes of hyperspaces to explore fundamental concepts in a pathological topology. Examiners praised the thesis as a ‘watertight, well-organised body of theory’ containing ‘novel’ and ‘mathematically deep’ results that are ‘surprising and substantial’. One examiner remarked that the work demonstrated ‘a high technical acumen and mastery of general topology’.

Corcos’s research has important implications for theoretical computer science, especially in Domain Theory and models of ‘angelic’ non-determinism, which relate to optimal decision-making processes. “My research shows how these new hyperspaces provide new ways of looking at the well-known ‘sober’ and ‘cellularity’ properties in all topological spaces,” he explained, noting that this had implications for both Point-free Topology and applications in algorithmic theory.

Beyond academic excellence, Corcos has been a standout science communicator and representative of UKZN. He won first prize in the 2024 National 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, impressing a broad academic audience with a concise explanation of his complex research. He also received the UKZN 2024 Doctoral Research Scholarship and was awarded the National Research Foundation Doctoral Scholarship from August 2023 to December 2024. He presented his work at multiple national and international conferences, including ADEANS V and the South African Mathematical Society Congress, and delivered a seminar at the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS).

After submitting his PhD thesis, Corcos began a research stay at the University of Messina in Sicily, Italy, from February to July 2025, funded by the Erasmus+ Mobility Scholarship. “While I was in Messina, I celebrated my 26th birthday and I was ecstatic to receive incredible feedback on my PhD thesis,” he said. “I shared every moment with my family, 8 000km away!” During his time in Italy, Corcos also competed in FameLab, placing first runner-up in the NITheCS heat with a creative presentation featuring a chalkboard, a fresh donut and a coffee mug.

Corcos is sincerely grateful for those who supported his journey, particularly his family. “My mother Avril has been with me every step of the way. During my very long PhD presentations, I would see a stretched-out arm holding a phone … recording the entire presentation … it could only be my mother, smiling from ear to ear!”

He also thanked his supervisors: “I was honoured to have worked with Prof Baboolal, who was always a message or phone call away. Because of our great relationship and my trust in him, I decided he would be the perfect supervisor for my PhD.” He thanked Rathilal for her mentorship, conference support and guidance in academic and lecturing duties.

Now back in South Africa, Corcos is lecturing at UKZN, teaching Vector Calculus and Real Analysis in the MATH251W2 module. “It has been a joy lecturing a wonderful group of eager and dedicated students,” he said.

Outside of mathematics he enjoys family braais, watching the Springboks with his gran Marie, and jamming on guitar and piano with his siblings Chaunce and Shiloh. “My siblings are certainly more talented!” he joked.

Looking ahead, Corcos is intent on pursuing a career in academia. “My goal is to become a professor of Mathematics,” he said. “I’m applying for lecturing positions, research grants and postdoctoral fellowships. I look forward to collaborating internationally and extending my research into new areas.”

Words: Sally Frost

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini