Lawrence Udeigwe

UDEiGWE
Born
Lawrence Udeigwe

Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
Other namesUDEiGWE
Lorens Chuno
CitizenshipNigerian-American
EducationDuquesne University (BS)
University of Pittsburgh (MS, PhD)
OccupationsMathematician, professor, musician
Years active2007–present
EmployerManhattan University
OrganizationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (Research Affiliate)
Known forMathematics research; jazz and Afro-jazz music
TitleProfessor of Mathematics
Websiteudeigwe.net

Lawrence Udeigwe is a Nigerian-American jazz musician. He performs under the stage name UDEiGWE and was formerly known as Lorens Chuno. He is also a professor of mathematics.[1][2]

Udeigwe's music incorporate elements of jazz and West African musical traditions and has received coverage in jazz publications and music media[3][4][5]

His 2026 album Four Lemmas incorporates mathematical concepts into its musical structure and themes.[6]

Early life and education

Udeigwe was born in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. He moved to the United States in 2000. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics and computer science in the United States and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in 2014.[7][8][9]

Career

Music

Udeigwe began performing music in the mid-2000s under the name Lorens Chuno and released his debut album, Highlife, Soul, & Ecstasy, in 2007. He later released My House (2013) under the same name.[10][11][12]

He was listed among Nigerian EPs that received the most Streams and trended in Audiomack in 2018 to 2022.[13]

His 2016 album Naija Rhythm Affair, NYC, released under the name Lorens Chuno, received a full-length review from All About Jazz, which examined the album’s fusion of West African rhythmic elements with contemporary jazz.[14][5]

His album Rhythm Sustained (2018) was initially released under the stage name Lorens Chuno and was subsequently reissued under the name UDEiGWE.[15]

In the 2020s, performing under the name UDEiGWE, he released several singles that were covered by Nigerian and international music media. His 2023 single Do, featuring Nigerian artist Skales, appeared on Apple Music editorial playlists.[1][16]

In January 2026, Udeigwe released the live album Live in Williamsburg, recorded with his band at the Williamsburg Music Center in Brooklyn.[17][18]

Later in 2026, Udeigwe released Four Lemmas, a concept album structured around four mathematical ideas: orthogonality, sparsity, local maximum, and stable equilibrium. The album received reviews from All About Jazz and other jazz and music publications.[6][19]

Udeigwe has collaborated with musicians including Skales and the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, as well as jazz artists such as Poogie Bell and Geri Allen.[20]

Academic Background

Udeigwe is a Professor of Mathematics at Manhattan University. He has also held a visiting appointment in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His academic work includes research in applied mathematics and computational approaches to neuroscience, and he has published in peer-reviewed journals[21][22][23]

He is also the founder of LCM Cube, an indie label, and hosts "Doing Jazz," a Podcast where he chats about music and life.[24][25]

In 2009, Udeigwe was appointed as a lecturer at Penn State Fayette.[26] He was awarded a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Associate Professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2020, Udeigwe was awarded a National Science Foundation Research Grant, and in 2021, he was awarded a Department of Defense research grant from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM).[27][28]

Discography

Albums

  • Highlife, Soul and Ecstasy, in (2007)
  • My House (2013)
  • Live in Williamsburg (2026) [17]
  • Four Lemmas (2026)[6]

Singles

  • "Today (Remix)" (2023)[32]
  • "Do" (feat. Skales) (2023)[33]
  • "Falling" (2024)

Books and Journals

  • "Emergent Dynamical Properties of the BCM Learning Rule." Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience. Vol 7:2, (2017), DOI: 10.1186/s13408-017-0044-6[34]
  • "Waves and patterns on regular graphs." SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems Vol. 14(2), 1102-1129, 2015. DOI: 10.1137/140969488[35]
  • Interfacing Music and Mathematics: A Case for More Engagement[36]
  • An Analysis of the Cluster-Detecting Property of the BCM Neuron[37][38][39]

Professional membership

He became a Fellow of the Advance HE, formerly known as the Higher Education Academy, in 2021.[10] He is also a Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), Los Angeles, CA. He is a member of Sigma Xi, Organization for Computational Neuroscience, Mathematical Association of America a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.[40][2]

Awards and recognition

He won the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2020, BCS Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and in 2021, he was awarded by Department of Defense research from the United States Army Research Laboratory.[41] [42]In 2023, He was awarded Yessiey Awards [43][44] and named among the Black Honorees by the mathematically gifted black.[45] In 2024, Apple Music named Udeigwe as one of Nigeria's rising artists to watch.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Do By Lawrence Udeigwe Sweeps Nigeria Off Its Feet". Daily Times. Lagos, Nigeria. 18 November 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Nigerian scholar Appointed Professor Of Mathematics At Manhattan University". Blueprint. Abuja, Nigeria. 12 March 2024.
  3. ↑ "Udeigwe The Unconventional Artiste Fusing Two Extremes". culturecustodian.com.
  4. ↑ "My Nigeria Music Udeigwe". Turntablecharts.com.
  5. 1 2 3 "Lawrence Udeigwe The Math Professor Redefining Jazz". The Guardian. Lagos, Nigeria. 14 May 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 "UDEiGWE: Four Lemmas". allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  7. ↑ "i have Become All I Wanted To Be As A Child Musician Mathematician Udeigwe". P.M. News. Lagos, Nigeria.
  8. ↑ "Udeigwe Drives Purpose With New Single". This Day. 29 April 2023.
  9. 1 2 "10 interesting facts about nigerian american artist lawrence udeigwe". The Guardian. Lagos, Nigeria. 2024-02-03.
  10. 1 2 "Lawrence Udeigwe: From Chart-Topping Success to Scholarly Excellence". P.M. News. Lagos, Nigeria.
  11. ↑ "Professor Lawrence Udeigwe Doubles As Jazz Musician". mcquad.org.
  12. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe Uses Elegant Math Understand Complex Systems Brain". news.mit.edu.
  13. ↑ "Asake Burna Boy lawrence Udeigwe Simi Others Tops audiomack trend". The Nation. Lagos, Nigeria. October 2022.
  14. ↑ "Naija Rhythm Affair Nyc Lorens Chuno Self Produced Review By James Nadal". allaboutjazz.com. 12 July 2016.
  15. ↑ "Udeigwe". allaboutjazz.com. 13 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "lawrence udeigwe The Math Professor Redefining Jazz". The Guardian. Lagos, Nigeria.
  17. 1 2 "UDEiGWE Live In Williamsburg". musicontherox.com/. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  18. ↑ "LAWRENCE UDEIGWE — Live in Williamsburg". jazzmusicarchives.com. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  19. ↑ "LAWRENCE UDEIGWE — Four Lemmas". jazzmusicarchives.com. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  20. ↑ "lorens Chuno". allaboutjazz.com.
  21. ↑ "Udeigwe The Unconventional Artiste Fusing Two Extremes". culturecustodian.com. 24 April 2024.
  22. ↑ "Professor Lawrence Udeigwe Doubles As Jazz Musician". mcquad.org. 6 February 2024.
  23. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe Uses Elegant Math Understand Complex Systems Brain". news.mit.edu. 22 March 2022.
  24. ↑ "Doing Jazz Podcast Pushing New Music Culture Udeigwe". The Sun. Lagos, Nigeria.
  25. ↑ "I Tackle Contemporary Issues In My Songs Udeigwe". punchng.com. 2023-04-13.
  26. ↑ "Penn state fayette". psu.edu. 2009-07-27.
  27. ↑ "Visiting professor". manhattan.edu. 18 August 2021.
  28. ↑ "MIT Nigerians Make List Of Visiting Professors And Scholars". engineersforum.com.ng. 22 September 2021.
  29. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe - It's Difficult To Describe Why i do music". This Day. 15 April 2023.
  30. ↑ "Meet Lawrence Udeigwe, The Math Wiz With Music in His Bones". Pulse Nigeria.
  31. ↑ "Udeigwe Sustain album". open.spotify.com.
  32. ↑ "Us Based Nigerian Maths Professor Releases New Single". von.gov.ng. 15 April 2023.
  33. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe New Single". open.spotify.com.
  34. ↑ Udeigwe, L. C.; Munro, P. W.; Ermentrout, G. B. (2017). "Lawrence Neuroscience Journal". Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience. 7 (1): 2. doi:10.1186/s13408-017-0044-6. PMC 5318375. PMID 28220467.
  35. ↑ "Lawrence waves and pattern Journal". epubs.siam.org. doi:10.1137/140969488.
  36. ↑ "Lawrence Journal" (PDF). ams.org.
  37. ↑ "Lawrence analysis journal". worldscientific.com. doi:10.1142/S2972370124500028.
  38. ↑ Udeigwe, Lawrence (January 2024). "Analysis". epubs.siam.org.
  39. ↑ "Publications". mydigitalpublication.com.
  40. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe". manhattan.edu.
  41. ↑ "Lawrence Udeigwe Awarded Martin Luther King Visiting Associate Professorship at MIT | Manhattan University". Manhattan.edu. Aug 18, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  42. ↑ Grace, Ihesiulo (Sep 12, 2023). "Udeigwe wins BCS Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)". Daily Times. Lagos, Nigeria. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  43. ↑ "Celebrating Innovators And Change Makers". yessiey.com. 23 October 2023.
  44. ↑ "Music Artist Udeigwe Gets Artist Of The Year Award". The Sun. Lagos, Nigeria. 15 October 2023.
  45. ↑ "Black history honorees". mathematicallygiftedandblack.com. 2024-05-13.
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