News & Events
New Mathematical Sciences Department Faculty
During the spring of 2009, six new hires were made, and thus in fall of 2009, the department welcomed one tenure-track Assistant Professor, two tenure-track Associate Professors and three new Visiting Assistant Professors:
Dr. Irina Mitrea, Associate Professor earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Minnesota under the direction of Carlos Kenig and Mikhail Safonov. Her area of expertise is at the interface between Real and Harmonic Analysis, and Partial Differential Equations. Following post-doctoral positions in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton (2000-2001) and in the Department of Mathematics at Cornell University (2001-2004) she joined the University of Virginia in the Fall of 2004 as an Assistant Professor where she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2007.
Mitrea's research program resulted in 25 papers in peer refereed journals, more than 20 conference presentations, and numerous invited talks, colloquia, and seminars. She is currently supported by an NSF CAREER Grant, 2006-2011.
Other awards include the 2008 Ruth Michler Memorial Prize from the Association of Women in Mathematics; an NSF DMS Grant, 2003-2006; a Fund for Excellence in Science and Technology from the University of Virginia, 2005-2006; a Sloan Dissertation Fellowship, 1999-2000, and a Liftoff Fellowship from the Clay Mathematics Institute, 2000.
During the last four years Mitrea created, organized, and ran a number of mathematical outreach activities involving more than 400 students, a significant portion of which were specifically designed to benefit women and minority in mathematics. A case in point is the Girls and Mathematics Summer Program, offered during 2006-2008 at the University of Virginia and in 2009 at WPI, which overall had more than 130 middle school girls participants.
At the national level, Mitrea has been an active participant and mentor in programs with a long tradition in supporting the interest of undergraduate women in graduate studies in mathematics such as the G. Washington University Summer Program for Women in Mathematics and the Women and Mathematics Program of the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University.
Dr. Burt S. Tilley, Associate Professor earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Northwestern University, an B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Lowell and a B.A. in modern languages from the University of Lowell.
Dr. Tilley joins WPI with an extensive record as an educator and researcher, most recently as professor of mathematics at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. He joined the Olin faculty in 2001 as an associate professor after seven years in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has previously held positions as an NSF-NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Ecole Polytechnique in France (1996-97) and as a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University (1994-95). Since 2007, Dr. Tilley has also been an affiliated professor in WPI's Department of Mathematical Sciences.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Schlumberger-Doll Research, and other organizations, Dr. Tilley has pursued research on mathematical modeling of problems in scientific and engineering applications that focus on continuum mechanics, nonlinear partial differential equations, and nonlinear differential equations, among other area of mathematics. Recent applications include interfacial pattern formation on thin binary fluid films in coating applications and heat transfer behavior in residential geothermal heating systems. This work has resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, a number of Mathematical Problems in Industry Workshop reports, and numerous invited talks and conference talks. He is also named on an application for a patent for "Methods and Apparatus for Harnessing Potential Energy Downhole."
Dr. Zheyang Wu, Assistant Professor earned a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Yale University, an M.Phil. in epidemiology and public health from Yale University, a M.S. in mathematics from the university of New Orleans and a B.S. in international trade from Chong Qing University in China.
Dr. Wu's dissertation research involved approaches to high-dimensional model selection that facilitate genetic studies with high-throughput data. The focus was on genome-wide association studies that identify genetic variations associated with the susceptibility to certain diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Such studies can involve up to a million single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variations. This work has resulted in a number of published papers and presentations. Dr. Wu has been a referee for three journals, Bioinformatics (2007), Annals of Human Genetics (2007, 2008), and Statistics and its Interface (2008).
Dr. Nabin Shrestha, Visiting Assistant Professor earned a Ph.D in Statistics from the University of South Florida, an M.S. in mathematics from the University of South Alabama and a M.S. in mathematics from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.
Nabin's research interests are in microarray gene expression analysis, survival analysis and categorical data analysis. Part of his thesis work has already been published in one paper "Behrens-Fisher distribution for selecting differentially expressed genes". His teaching experience includes a wide array of mathematics and statistics courses taught at Tribhuvan University in Nepal and at the University of South Florida.
Dr. Mohamed Sulman, Visiting Assistant Professor earned a Ph.D. and an M.S. in applied mathematics from the University of British Columbia, an M.S. in applied mathematics from the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and a B.S. in mathematics from the Al-Neelain University in Khartoum in Sudan.
Mohamed's research interests numerical PDEs, adaptive methods with application to fluid mechanics and image processing and analysis. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Optimal mass transport for adaptivity and image registration". He submitted three papers for publication, containing his thesis work, and has three papers published from his previous work. He has taught courses from Calculus and Complex Analysis, to Numerical Analysis, Classical and Fluid Mechanics both in Sudan and at the Simon Fraser University.
Dr. Weiwei Xie, Visiting Assistant Professor earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Houston, an M.S. in applied mathematics from the University of Houston and a B.S. in mathematics for Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Before joining WPI, Weiwei held a one-year visiting position in the Department of Mathematics at University of Houston. Her research interests are in probability and statistics applied to modeling financial derivatives. Her Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Valuation spread options by bivariate edgeworth expansion" and work from this is submitted for publication. While a student in Houston she was awarded a teaching scholarship and a scholarship for excellence in graduate studies. She taught courses in financial mathematics as well as courses for first-year students.
Faculty Grants, Awards and Recognition
Homer Walker has been awarded a new NSF grant totaling $210,000. The grant "Anderson Acceleration for Fixed-Point Iteration," was funded by the Computational Mathematics program of the DMS.
"The method to be investigated is at present an important method for accelerating computations used in materials science, for example, to determine properties of "designer" materials in nanotechnology applications. In practice, the method is usually very effective but occasionally fails. The first goal of this research is to develop a theoretical understanding of the method that explains this behavior and points the way to methods that are more consistently successful."
"The goals of this research are to analyze the convergence of the method, to explore its effectiveness across a broad range of important applications, and ultimately to develop extensions with improved global convergence and stability properties."
Vadim Yakovlev was awarded a grant by the EADS Foundation (EADS is best known for being the parent company of Airbus), for the project "Comprehensive Electromagnetic-Thermal-Mechanical Model for Microwave Sintering of Particulate Materials".
WPI's portion ($65,500 Euros) is a part of the total of 159,900 Euros (currently, nearly $240,000) awarded by the Foundation to the team of three research groups (including the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory of the Grenoble Institute of Technology, France and the Microwave for Materials Processing Group of EMPA - the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology). The program is dedicated to the development of an innovative technique for modeling of microwave sintering of realistic particulate (including nano-structured) materials. The project aims to build up a comprehensive macroscopic numerical model embracing three most essential components of high temperature microwave sintering of dielectric and metallic powders.
22nd Annual Mathematics Meet, October 21, 2009
The 22nd Annual Mathematics Meet was held on the WPI campus on October 21 under the direction of John Goulet. More than 300 high school students from 89 high schools participated. Students competed as individuals and as teams answering challenging questions in secondary-level pre-calculus mathematics. Sorathan Chaturapruek of Kent High School won first place in the individual competition and received a $3,000 scholarship to WPI. The Lexington High School team, advised by Albert Roos, took first place in the team competition; team members were Sabeel Saif Hakim, Theodore Liu, James Zhang and Jaeyoon Lee. Worcester Academy team took second place; team members were Qingyang Xi, Hyun Woo Ko, Chester Caswell and Moungjin Kang. Third place honors went to the Northfield Mount Hermon team; team members were Kawin Surakibovorn, Soomin Heo, Daniel Kang and Joon Ho Suh. WPI funding for the event was supplemented by generous contributions from Sullivan, Garrity and Donnelly Insurance Agencies, Rosenlund Travel Service, Barnes & Noble @WPI Bookstore. For anyone wishing to try their hand at the exams, they are welcome to go to www.wpi.edu/+mathmeet.
Sonja Kovalevsky Mathematics Day, November 21, 2009
Sonja Kovalevsky Mathematics Day, organized on the WPI campus by Irina Mitrea, is a one day program, free of charge, of workshops, talks, and problem-solving competitions for middle school and high school girls and their teachers (both women and men). The purpose of this event is to encourage girls to continue their study of mathematics, to assist them with the sometimes difficult transition between middle school and high school mathematics and between high school and college mathematics, and to develop a more extensive cooperation between WPI and the middle schools and high schools in the Worcester area. This program has been made possible by support from Elizabeth City State University, the National Security Agency, and the Association for Women in Mathematics.
The following are speakers, instructors and coordinators:
Qiu Chen: Qiu is a sophomore at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and an Actuarial Mathematics and Computer Science double major. During this past summer, she studied Probability by herself and she has already passed the SOA Probability exam in July!
Monique Cote: Monique is a sophomore at Worcester Polytechnic Institute this year. She is from a small town in Vermont and she has always loved math. She is currently pursuing a major in Actuarial Mathematics with a minor in Management.
Lauren Edwards: Lauren is a second year Mathematics Major who is also preparing to go to Veterinary school. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, CT as part of the class of 2008. In her spare time, she enjoys social and ballroom dancing.
Alyssa Gottshall: Alyssa is a sophomore Actuarial Mathematics major at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Before studying at WPI, she attended Downingtown West High School in PA.
Elizabeth Hegarty: Elizabeth is a fourth year student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She is from Springfield, MA where she attended Cathedral High School. She will be graduating in May of 2010 with a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and a minor in Physics. She is involved with WPI athletics, being on both the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams. She has also worked for WPI summer programs offered for girls interested in math and science.
Yiewei Liu: Yiwei is a second year Mathematics major at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Originally from Hefei, China, she will be graduating in 2012 with a B.A. in Mathematics.
Irina Mitrea: Professor Mitrea is a faculty member in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at WPI. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Minnesota in 2000. Her research interests are in the areas of Real and Harmonic Analysis and Partial Differential Equations.
Therese O'Garr: Therese teaches algebra, statistics, and calculus at Worcester Academy. She is also the President of the Worcester County Mathematics League. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics from La Salle University in 1999, and she is currently working toward a Master of Mathematics for Educators degree at WPI.
Katie Quertermous: Katie is a PhD student at the University of Virginia with research interests in the area of Operator Theory. Katie was an instructor for the Girls and Mathematics Summer Program, August 2007, at the Mathematics and Science Day for the Young Women Leaders Program, January 2008, and at the two previous editions of the Sonja Kovalevsky Mathematics Day at UVa. Katie is also the winner of a Honorable Mention in the 2009 edition of the Department of Mathematics Teaching Competition.
Brigitte Servatius: Professor Servatius has a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Syracuse. Her research interests are in combinatorics, matroid and graph theory, structural topology, geometry, history and philosophy of mathematics. She has authored more than 30 research articles and serves as the editor of the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal.
Ksenia Trikoz: Ksenia is a fourth year BS/MS student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where she has studied Industrial Engineering and Computer Science as an undergraduate. Ksenia is currently pursuing a master's degree in Financial Mathematics at WPI and hopes to work as a quantitative analyst in the field of investment banking.
Suzanne Weekes: Professor Weekes obtained her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Michigan. Her research interests are in numerical analysis, numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws, Godunov-type methods, reservoir modelling, basin modelling, computational fluid dynamics, porous media flow, and shock capturing schemes. She is the Associate Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at WPI and is the Associate Director of the Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics at WPI.
Diana Wolf: Diana is a first year professional master's student in Financial Mathematics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She earned her B.A. in mathematics from the University of Florida in 2009. She spends her free time rock climbing and enjoying the outdoors.
Weiwei Xie: Professor Xie is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at WPI. Raised in China, she obtained her Bachelor's of Science degree from Zhejiang University. She then came to the United States to continue her education. After completing her PhD at the University of Houston, she remained for a year to teach. She has since moved to Worcester as WPI provided her with an opportunity to continue her research and realize her passion for teaching. Her research interests are probability and statistics, and their application in Finance.
Xiao Zhong: Xiao is a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences studying mathematical statistics.
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Last modified: November 17, 2009 09:23:06