Declan Stacy (Col class of ’25) came to UVA from New York City. He chose UVA in part because of its beautiful campus. He joined the chapter in the spring of 2023 and graduated in the spring of 2025 with a double major in math and economics.
What first pulled you into mathematics, and what part of the field excites you now?
In high school, I got swept up by an ultra-competitive math team. The constant meets and friendly trash-talk made problem solving addictive. That energy carried into college, where I zeroed in on stochastic dynamical systems, especially stochastic partial differential equations that track how randomly evolving systems behave in the long run.
Which academic projects mattered most to you, and where are you headed after UVA?
For two years, I’ve worked with Professor Juraj Földes. I picked a related question to one of his papers, cracked it, and turned the result into my first publication. I’m expanding that work into a master’s thesis now. Next stop is a PhD at EPFL [École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] with Fields Medalist Martin Hairer – solving one of his open problems during my doctorate would be a dream outcome.
How did you end up at Phi Sigma Kappa, and what did it add to your college life?
A running-club friend, David Winters (Col class of ’22, Grad class of ’23), invited me to what I thought was a casual movie night. Halfway through, I realized it was a rush event. After more hangs and “giga-lunches,” I joined Phi Sig in the spring of my second year. The house instantly broadened my social circle and packed my calendar with trips, meals, and chapter activities.
What leadership or behind-the-scenes roles have you taken on in the chapter?
- Rush planning – dreaming up low-pressure events and leading house tours.
- Member education – designing a custom puzzle night each semester (board game themed for gamers, code breaking for programming fans) so new members could collaborate and bond
Favorite fraternity traditions or memories?
- When I broke my foot prior to initiation, the brothers reran every ritual on flat ground, guided me blindfolded, and even staged a second candle ceremony so I could take part.
- Vagul Mahadevan (Col class of ’25) and I finally beating Pierson Shamaiengar (Engr class of ’23) two-on-one during Young Alumni Reunion after a semester of losses.
- Crafting new puzzles for puzzle night tailored to our new members each semester.
- Calling airlines to ask, “What’s the deal with airline food?”
- Jacob Cochran (Engr class of ’25) coating himself in peanut butter and diving into Dell Pond to clear two scavenger hunt tasks in one go.
How did fraternity life change you?
Running events and mediating budget disputes helped me to improve my empathy and conflict handling skills. This was completely different from wrestling with math problems all day.
What is the biggest lesson you’ll carry forward after graduation?
A chapter only works because people show up, whether that means rewiring the sound system before a party or rewriting a scavenger task so a brother on crutches can join. I plan to bring that same “show-up” mindset to my future research groups in Switzerland.
What fills your time when you’re not doing math?
Long runs, speed solving Rubik’s Cubes, and board games like Codenames, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Chameleon, and the co-op trick-taking gem The Crew help keep me social.
Any other fun facts you’d like to share?
I danced in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade back in middle school.
[We caught up with Declan recently for an update.]
I am living in Switzerland now for my PhD and it is very pretty here. The lake is amazing, and you can actually swim in it without getting parasites unlike the East River in NYC. I went hiking in the mountains a couple weeks ago, which was a lot of fun, except for being scared by the cows. The math department here at EPFL has a lot of people doing research similar to mine. After a couple weeks of conferences, I am excited to actually get to work on some problems.