The Seminar on Stochastic Processes 2026 will take place Thursday, March 26 — Saturday, March 28, 2026 (Saturday is a half day), with tutorial lectures delivered on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, on the historic campus of Union College in Schenectady, NY.
The Seminar on Stochastic Processes is a series of annual conferences devoted to stochastic analysis, Markov processes, and other topics of current interest in probability theory. Every conference features five invited speakers, offers tutorial lectures, and provides opportunity for poster presentations of recent results and open problems. Additional background and historical information may be found on seminar's permanent website.
Invited Speakers: Main Conference (Thursday, March 26 — Saturday, March 28, 2026)
- Saraí Hernández-Torres (Instituto de Matemáticas, UNAM)
- Davar Khoshnevisan (University of Utah) — Founders Lecture
- Mateusz Kwaśnicki (Wrocław University of Science and Technology)
- Miklós Rácz (Northwestern University)
- Simon Tavaré (Columbia University)
Tutorial Lectures (Wednesday, March 25, 2026)
- Timo Seppäläinen (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Local Organizing Committee:
- Roger Hoerl (Union College)
- Phanuel Mariano (Union College)
- Hyunchul Park (SUNY New Paltz)
- Junqing Qian (Union College)
- Fanhui Xu (Amherst College)
Members of the Scientific Committee
Louigi Addario-Berry (McGill University)
Amarjit Budhiraja (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
René Carmona (Princeton)
Sandra Cerrai (University of Maryland)
Steve Evans (University of California, Berkeley)
Adrián González-Casanova (Arizona State University)
Lea Popovic (Concordia University)
Amber Puha (California State University, San Marcos)
Kavita Ramanan (Brown University)
Frederi Viens (Rice University; moderator)
Support for the SSP 2026 is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant , a generous gift by David ’74 and Jeanette Wagner, Rice University and Union College. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the planning committee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Conference Photos
Registration
To register for the conference please fill out this form: Click Here To Register
We are no longer accepting funding or registration requests.
For travel planning purposes, Thursday March 26 - Friday March 27 are full days while Saturday March 28 is a half day. The tutorial will be held on Wednesday March 25 in the afternoon.
Schedule and Abstracts
General Schedule
- Click here for the Overall Conference Schedule, Title/Abstracts and WIFI information
- Click here for the Poster Title/Abstracts
- Click here for Lightning Talk Schedule
- Click here for map to Conference Buildings
- Restaurant List
- Campus parking: If you are parking at the conference, you can park at the Nott-Seward Parking lot and walk to Olin 115.
Main Location for all talks: Olin 115
Thursday/Friday Lunch: Hale House
Group Picture: The Nott Memorial
Poster Session: ISEC Atrium (walk through Wold, follow signs into ISEC)
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
- 12:45–2:20pm: Check-in (outside Olin 115)
- 2:20–2:30pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks
- 2:30–4:00pm: Tutorial Lecture I — Timo Seppäläinen: Limit shape, Busemann functions, and the geometry of planar random growth Notes and Slides
- 4:00–4:30pm: Coffee Break
- 4:30–6:00pm: Tutorial Lecture II — Timo Seppäläinen: Limit shape, Busemann functions, and the geometry of planar random growth Notes and Slides
Thursday, March 26, 2026
- 8:30–9:20am: Check-in / Breakfast
- 9:20–9:30am: Opening Remarks
- 9:30–10:30am: Invited Lecture — Saraí Hernández-Torres: The Geometry of the Uniform Spanning Tree in Three Dimensions
- 10:30–11:00am: Discussion
- 11:00am–12:30pm: Lightning Talks I
- 12:30–12:40am: Group Photo (on the way to lunch)
- 12:40–2:00pm: Lunch
- 2:00–3:30pm: Panel Discussion for Early Career Researchers
- 3:30–4:00pm: Coffee Break
- 4:00–5:30pm: Open Problems Session
Friday, March 27, 2026
- 8:30–9:30am: Check-in / Breakfast
- 9:30–10:30am: Invited Lecture — Mateusz Kwaśnicki: Boundary traces of planar diffusions
- 10:30–10:45am: Discussion
- 10:45–11:15am: Coffee Break
- 11:15am–12:30pm: Lightning Talks II
- 12:30–2:30pm: Lunch
- 2:30–3:30pm: Invited Lecture — Miklós Rácz: Graph Matching Meets Network Archaeology
- 3:30–4:00pm: Discussion
- 4:00–4:30pm: Coffee Break
- 4:30–6:00pm: Poster Session
Saturday, March 28, 2026
- 8:30–9:30am: Check-in / Breakfast
- 9:30–10:30am: Founders Lecture — Davar Khoshnevisan: On the ergodic theory of parabolic SPDEs
- 10:30–11:00am: Discussion
- 11:00–11:30am: Coffee Break
- 11:30am–12:30pm: Invited Lecture — Simon Tavaré: New uses for old stochastic processes: calling copy numbers from single-cell DNA sequencing data
- 12:30–1:00pm: Discussion
Accommodations and Local Information
Hotel room blocks are reserved at a special conference rate at some of the hotels below. Please use the links below (if any).Lodging: Room blocks have been held at two hotels close to campus:
- DoubleTree by Hilton (< 15 minute walk, 0.7 mile)
100 Nott Terrace, Schenectady NY 12308
518-393-4141
Group name: Union College Math D; $123/night for 2 double beds and $140/night for King (plus tax) rate(use this link for special conference rate. This link expires Feb 27, 2026. After that date, you can call the hotel directly and ask for either Collin Brown or Elizabeth Murrary, and they will honor the group rate if there is availability. ); - Hampton Inn (15-20 minute walk, 1.1 mile)
450 State St, Schenectady NY 12305
518-377-4500
Group name: Union College Math. $149/night for 2 Queen beds and $149/night for King (plus tax) rate. includes breakfast. ( Use this link for special conference rate. ) This link expires March 9, 2026.
Note: There is construction happening at this hotel from 8:00am-6:00pm every week day.
Local restaurants (click for list)
Directions
Union College is centrally located in New York's Capital District about 10 miles from the Albany International Airport, easily accessible by train from NYC, and just 3 to 4 hours by car from NYC, Boston, and Montreal. Here is a campus map/directions webpage, which indicates several parking lots, accessible building entrances and more.
- By car:
From the north, south, and east: From New York State Thruway exit 24, take the Northway (I-87) north to exit 6 (marked "Route 7 west"). Follow Route 7 west for 6.5 miles and bear right onto Union Street. Continue on Union Street for 2.7 miles and make a sharp right at the stoplight onto Union Avenue. After about 1000 feet, turn left through the gate to enter Union's campus, onto Alexander Lane. Continue straight for parking on the right next to the baseball field. (See the campus map for additional parking. Visitors may park in any lot.) Registration and the conference sessions are in Olin Rotunda.
From the west: From Thruway exit 26, take I-890 east to exit 4 (Erie Boulevard). Follow Erie Boulevard north to Union Street (second light after the Amtrak station), turn right onto Union Street, and follow for one mile, and make a slight left at the stoplight onto Union Avenue. After about 1000 feet, turn left through the gate to enter Union's campus, onto Alexander Lane. Continue straight for parking on the right next to the baseball field. (See the campus map for additional parking. Visitors may park in any lot.) Registration and the conference sessions are in Olin Rotunda. - By air:
The Albany Airport is a 20 minute drive from campus and is served by most major airlines, including United, American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest.
There is regular taxi service between the airport and Schenectady. Cabs are available outside the baggage claim area. Uber and Lyft are active in the Capital Region. - By train:
The Schenectady Amtrak station is a ten minute walk or short taxi ride from campus. The Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station is a 30 minute taxi ride from campus, but has more frequent service from NYC and points south than the Schenectady station.
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The College’s Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, Bias, and Retaliation in Employment, the Student Code of Conduct, and the Gender-based Misconduct Policy have jurisdiction over all defined misconduct that effects or is a part of a Union College educational program or activity both on and away from campus. As such, matters of discrimination, harassment, or bias occurring off-campus involving parties associated with the College’s programs or activities will be ripe for adjudication within the College’s procedures.
Allegations of misconduct by non-members will be adjudicated through the College’s Rule of Public Order and/or through the referral of matters to the non-member’s institution for adjudication within the institution’s community standards or other applicable misconduct policies.
Conference participants can report incidents of gender-based misconduct including sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking.
Conference participants can report incidents of bias by students.
Conference participants can report incidents of discrimination, harassment, bias, or retaliation by community members or non-members.
To learn more, please see our Title IX website.
