John Urschel
John Urschel (born June 24, 1991) is a mathematician, MIT assistant professor and former NFL offensive lineman. After three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, he retired in 2017 to focus on mathematics, completing his MIT PhD in 2021. His research includes matrix analysis, numerical linear algebra and spectral graph theory.
Contents19 sections
Key facts
June 24, 1991Born in Winnipeg
John Cameron Urschel was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and later attended Canisius High School in New York State.[1]
2012–2013Earning Mathematics Degrees
While playing football at Penn State, Urschel completed a mathematics bachelor’s degree in May 2012 and a master’s degree in May 2013, maintaining a 4.0 GPA in both.[1]
December 10, 2013Receiving the Campbell Trophy
The National Football Foundation named Urschel the 24th recipient of the William V. Campbell Trophy, recognizing his combined academic, football and community achievements.[2]
2014Drafted by the Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens selected Urschel in the fifth round of the NFL draft, 175th overall. He played on the offensive line, including at left and right guard.[3]
January 2016Beginning Doctoral Study at MIT
July 27, 2017Retiring at 26
After three NFL seasons, Urschel retired at age 26 to focus on doctoral research and his family.[6][5]
He later explained that research on brain injury prompted him to reconsider his priorities, while emphasizing that he continued to value his football experience.[5]
2019Publishing a Memoir of Math and Football
Urschel and his wife, journalist Louisa Thomas, co-authored Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football, recounting his life, choices and education across mathematics and competitive sport.[4]
2020–2022Serving on the College Football Playoff Committee
The College Football Playoff’s annual rosters list Urschel as a selection committee member in 2020, 2021 and 2022.[7]
2021Completing His Mathematics PhD
Urschel completed his mathematics PhD under Michel Goemans, with the dissertation Graphs, Principal Minors, and Eigenvalue Problems.[8]
2021–2022Research at IAS and Harvard
His CV records membership of the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Mathematics in 2021–2022 and the start of a Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellowship in 2022.[8]
2023Joining MIT’s Mathematics Faculty
Urschel joined MIT’s Department of Mathematics as an assistant professor, working on matrix analysis, matrix computations and spectral graph theory.[9]
2024Receiving SIAM Prizes
2026Receiving the Brualdi Early Career Prize
The International Linear Algebra Society awarded Urschel its 2026 Richard A. Brualdi Early Career Prize for contributions involving Gaussian elimination, the Lanczos method and spectral graph theory. The award was announced in its fall 2025 newsletter.[11]
August 19, 2026Posting a Gaussian Elimination Preprint
Urschel and Rikhav Shah posted Entry Growth in Gaussian Elimination on arXiv. The preprint reports quasi-polynomial worst-case growth factors in matrix dimension for complete and rook pivoting. Growth factors describe numerical amplification during elimination and bear on stability in finite-precision computation.[12]
October 5, 2026Posting Research on Random Matrices
Urschel posted On the Growth Factor of Random Matrices. The preprint reports that Gaussian matrices under partial pivoting rarely have growth factors much larger than the square root of their dimension, describing the result as resolving an old conjecture of Nick Trefethen.[13]
Research, Teaching, and Outreach
His research centers on applied linear algebra, including extremal eigenvalue problems, matrix recovery and Krylov subspace methods. At MIT, he teaches linear algebra, numerical analysis and matrix computations.[14]
He participates in the MathROOTS high-school program and the Mathical Book Prize selection process, and serves on the board of the National Museum of Mathematics.[14]
Personal Background
Urschel’s CV lists Canadian and U.S. citizenship.[8]
Personal Website and Public Accounts
John Urschel: Personal academic website: https://math.mit.edu/~urschel/ (opens in a new window).[14]
John Urschel: X: https://x.com/JohnCUrschel (opens in a new window).[15][16]
Sources
- John Urschel — 2013 Football Biography (opens in a new window)
- Penn State Guard John Urschel Claims NFF’s 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy (opens in a new window)
- 9 Ravens Players You Didn’t Know Were Compensatory Picks (opens in a new window)
- Grad Student John Urschel Tackles His Lifelong Balance of Math and Football in New Memoir (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel Tells the Full Story of Why He Retired, And Why He Doesn’t Want it to Hurt Football (opens in a new window)
- Ravens Players, John Harbaugh React to John Urschel’s Sudden Retirement (opens in a new window)
- Year-by-Year CFP Selection Committee Membership (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel — Curriculum Vitae (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel — MIT Mathematics Profile (opens in a new window)
- May Prize Spotlight (opens in a new window)
- IMAGE 75 — ILAS News (opens in a new window)
- Entry Growth in Gaussian Elimination (opens in a new window)
- On the Growth Factor of Random Matrices (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel’s Homepage (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel (@JohnCUrschel) — X (opens in a new window)
- John Urschel — Science Friday (opens in a new window)