About me

I am Thanh Le (Lê Viết Lưu Thanh), a Math PhD Candiate at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (expected graduation May 2027). I completed my MS in Math at UNL in 2023, and BS in Computer Science and Math at Fairfield University in 2022. You can contact me via email: tle51[at]huskers[dot]unl[dot]edu

Research

I am fortunate to be co-advised by Dr. Xavier Pérez Giménez and Dr. Vinod Variyam. I am funded by Vinod to as a Graduate Research Assistant (since Spring 2025).

Research Interests:

Theory of deep learning: expressive power of transformers and chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning
AI safety and alignment
Probabilistic combinatorics: random graph theory
Applied AI: computer vision

Papers and Manuscripts:

Thanh Le, A. Pavan, and N. V. Vinodchandran. A Tight Hierarchy for Chain of Thought. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2026. To appear.
Thanh Le, A. Pavan, Xavier Pérez-Giménez, and N. V. Vinodchandran. Cliques, Quasi-Cliques, and Bicliques in Random Graphs: Sampling and Algorithms. Submitted, 2026.
Derek DeBlieck, Thanh Le, and Xavier Pérez-Giménez. Hamilton cycles with a periodic pattern in random digraphs with minimum total degree at least 2. In preparation, 2026.

Teaching

Instructor of Record

Fall 2024: Math 103 (College Algebra and Trigonometry), 1 section, at UNL
Spring 2024: Math 101 (College Algebra), 1 section, at UNL
Fall 2023: Math 101 (College Algebra), 1 section, at UNL

Teaching Assistant

Summer 2023: Math 107 (Calculus II) recitation, 1 section, at UNL
Spring 2023: Math 107 (Calculus II) recitation, 2 sections, at UNL
Fall 2022: Math 107 (Calculus II) recitation, 2 sections, at UNL
Spring 2022: Machine Learning, at Fairfield University
Fall 2021: Theory of Programming Languages, at Fairfield University

Honors

Lloyd Jackson Award (UNL, 2024, awarded based on scholarship)
Math Department’s Outstanding Qualifying Exam (UNL, 2023)
Rank 193/2975 at Putnam Math Competition 2021
Third Prize at Vietnam Mathematical Olympiad 2017
Media Coverage: VnExpress (2018)

Outreach and Service

Co-organizer of UNL’s Discrete Seminar (DisCo) (Fall 2025 and Spring 2026)
Mentor in UNL Math department’s Directed Reading Program (DRP) (Spring 2025)
Mentor in UNL Math department’s Graduate Student Mentor Program (2024-2025 school year): mentored a first-year grad student to help their transition into grad school
Ran the UNL Putnam Competition Study Seminars (together with 2 faculties, Fall 2024)
Volunteered at NCUWM, Math Day (at UNL, in 2023, 2024)
Built the website for Vietnam Math Modeling Contest (2021)
Taught Olympiad Math (Number Theory, Combinatorics) for high school students in Kon Tum, Vietnam (July 2020, July 2022)

Past Talks:

“On the existence of Hamilton cycles with a periodic pattern in a random digraph with degree at least 2” (UNL Discrete Seminar, May 2025).
“Thresholds in random graphs and the Kahn-Kalai Conjecture” (UNL Discrete Seminar, November 2024)

Materials

UNL Putnam Seminar 2024: Here are some resources that I created: Proof by Contradiction, Induction, Extremal Heuristic. I did not write up solutions, but contact me if you want to know where to find solutions!
In Spring 2024, I had a reading course on the first 4 chapters of Probability: Theory and Examples by Rick Durrett. I wrote up some key concepts and a few exercises.

Other Stuff

My hobbies: Soccer, Reading. I am reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”

Micellaneous cool stuff:

This site was so easy to create, thanks to academicpages. No coding experience required, totally free - I highly recommend.

(site last updated in Sep. 2026)

Thanh Le