DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS - Florida State University

drawbacks. Numerical Analysis is an exciting field for me these days because itseems like there has been an exponentially growing number of new applicationsfor computer algorithms in order to helpsolve problems in industry, medicine,and national security. I look at glassdoor.com, indeed.com, and monster.com and I see exciting opportunities forNumerical Analysts. Also, I look at themany Government Grant opportunitiesonline and I am always encountering newapplications listed.In Computational Science andEngineering, we apply cutting edge numerical methods in order to solve problems with Aerospace, Navy, Automotive,and Medical applications. Our researchhas been funded through the NationalScience Foundation (NSF), Office of NavalResearch (ONR), Sandia Labs, SAIC (nowLeidos), UTRC, Weidlinger Associates,and National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA).In the past ten years, I have noticed thatthe following fields have grown rapidly:Data Science, statistical learning, distributed computing systems, self-driving vehicles, robotics, space exploration, andscientific discovery at atomistic scales.How do you find collaborators? Whatis your favorite part of research?What is your least favorite aspectof research?In the process of carrying out my research, I am non-stop curious aboutwhat other researchers are doing. I amconstantly searching the web lookingfor information. If one knows where tolook, the web is full of links to articles,journals, researcher websites, computerprograms, and presentation files. Theamazing thing is that I very rarely spotmisinformation on the web in my fields.I try a lot of algorithms that I find on theweb for example, and they almost always work! In many cases, I only “communicate” with collaborators throughthe sharing of computer algorithms andother related research ideas. I use a lotof other peoples’ research, so I cite manypeople in our articles, and, thankfully,other people cite our research too.4 May 2020It is hard for me to select my most favoritepart of research since research to me is awhole process that cannot be broken upinto pieces. As a research professor, myofficial duties are research, teaching, andservice, and I have been very lucky in thatall of these activities, without exception,contribute as a whole to my continuedgrowth in understanding of the worldaround us, as well as contribute to continued awareness of what I don’t know.I feel like that I am constantly growing. Iam always reading, whether it be math,physics, engineering, computer science,agriculture, history, etc.How many projects do you keepmoving at one time?As many as humanly possible.FacultyPromotionsCongratulations to Arash Fahim, EttoreAldrovandi, Nick Cogan, and Pennington LeNoir on their recent promotionsArash Fahim joined the departmentin 2013 after graduating from EcolePolytechnique in 2010 and Postdoctoral positions at the Fields institute andthe University of Michigan from 20102013. He was promoted to AssociateProfessor in August 2019.Ettore Aldrovandi joined the department in 2001 after Postdoctoral andScientific positions at Aarhus Universitet, SUNY Stony Brook, Trieste International School for Advanced Studies,and the FSU physics department. Hegraduated from the Trieste ISAS in1992 and was promoted to Full Professor at FSU in August 2018.Nick Cogan joined the department in2005 after a Postdoctoral position atTulane and graduating from the University of Utah in 2003. He was promoted to Full Professor in August 2017.Pennington LeNoir joined the department in 1987. She taught in the Alabama K-12 system from 1972-1980, atcolleges in North Carolina from 19801987, and received her PhD from NorthCarolina State University in 1989. Shewas promoted to Teaching Faculty III inAugust 2017.Arash FahimEttore AldrovandiNick CoganPennington LeNoir

New Faces in theGraduate Facultyby Reagan Creamer and Shelby FintakTom NeedhamIn January of 2019, Dr. Tom Needhamwalked into the Love Building to give atalk on topology in data science at FSU’sMathematics Colloquium. Less than ninemonths later, he walked into the samebuilding to teach his first full day ofclasses as an Assistant Professor. As thenewest professor within the Departmentof Mathematics, Dr. Needham brings abackground of data science researchand signal processing applications to theuniversity.Journey to Florida StateBefore coming to Tallahassee, Tomstarted his undergraduate studiesin mathematics at the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee, graduating twicefrom the school: once in 2007 for aBachelor of Science in Applied Math andPhysics, and again, in 2009, for a Masterof Science in Mathematics. Following histime in Wisconsin, Tom traveled south toattend the University of Georgia. Here,he earned his PhD in Mathematics, andwrote his thesis titled, “Grassmannian geometry of framed curve spaces.” Whileworking on his PhD, Tom also began histeaching career by serving as a TeachingAssistant for six years.Following his graduation, Tom washired by The Ohio State University as aRoss Assistant Professor. At Ohio State,he taught courses such as GeneralTopology and Knot Theory and Calculus.Additionally, he created and established Introduction to Applied AlgebraicTopology, an undergraduate course focused on persistence homology.In the Fall of 2019, Tom joined theDepartment of Mathematics at FloridaTom NeedhamState University as an Assistant Professor.During his first semester, he enjoyedbeing able to work with FSU studentsfor the first time through his Calculus IIIcourse. “The class went smoothly and Ihad some very bright students,” he said.“My teaching experience in the first semester was great.”A Focus on Data ScienceOutside of the classroom, Tom is a part ofthe budding data science research takingplace at FSU. As stated in the 2018 “DataNever Sleeps” report by Domo, a cloudbased business management platform,it was estimated that “1.7 megabytesof data will be created every secondfor every person on earth” in the year2020. With 2.5 quintillion bytes of databeing created every day, data sciencehas become essential to understandfor researchers. For Tom, this understanding will come from mathematicsand statistics. “Data science is a vital area inmathematics becausemethods of data science have been verysuccessful from a practical viewpoint, but thetheory of why they workis still not well understood,” he said. “In order for advancedmethods of data science to be morewidely adopted in, say, medical diagnostics, we need a better theoretical understanding of them.”data science from many perspectives,” hesaid. In addition to their research, Tomand his peers are teaming up with theDepartment of Computer Science andDepartment of Statistics, to develop aMaster’s Degree Program in Data Science.Tom has also worked on using data science for specific applications outside ofFSU. Last summer, he joined a groupof mathematicians at The Institutefor Computational and ExperimentalResearch in Mathematics at BrownUniversity, to look into gun violencethrough a mathematical lens. “We arecurrently working on developing a mathematical model to explain the increasein mass shooting incidents in recentyears.” This is just one example of howTom’s research provides data scienceapplications.Aside from data science, Tom has beenfocusing his attention ona number of researchprojects. For example, heis looking into NetworkAnalysisthroughOptimal Transport withhis collaborator, SamirChowdhury, of StanfordUniversity. This area ofmathematics examines the most effective way to allocate resources. “The goalof this project is to use ideas from OT tocompare networks, such as social networks or neural networks,” Tom said. “Itturns out that the Optimal Transport formulation of network analysis has manyconvenient properties, allowing us to define statistical quantities for collection ofnetworks. For example, given a collectionof social networks, how should one defineData science isa vital area inmathematicsWith new programs and projects startingup, Tom and a number of his peers areworking to explain the theory of datascience through mathematics. “FSU hasstrong groups working in the theory ofFSU Math 5

the ‘average’ social network?” Tom andhis collaborator answer this questionthrough their work. Furthermore, heis studying Symplectic Geometry andSignal Processing. “It turns out thatsymplectic geometry has surprisingapplications to problems in signalprocessing,” he said. “My collaborator, Clayton Shonkwiler [of ColoradoState University], and I discovered thatproblems in signal processing can frequently be reformulated in the language of symplectic geometry, whichgives a new set of tools for tacklingthem.”Looking AheadIn addition to his research, Tom iscurrently organizing an internationalworkshop to take place this summer.The workshop, set to take place at theMathematical Biosciences Institute atThe Ohio State University, will focuson bringing researchers together“from the disciplines of optimal transport and topological data analysis todiscuss application domains whichare commonly studied in both fields.”During the summer, he will also speakat the 2020 SIAM Conference onMathematics of Data Science.Despite only being in Tallahassee for asemester so far, Tom is already beginning to leave several lasting impactswithin the math department. Withnew programs, courses, conferences,and research projects in the works,he is looking forward to what his firstyear at FSU will hold. For Tom, FSU’sDepartment of Mathematics is setapart from others across the countrybecause it provides students and faculty alike with inclusivity and a friendlyatmosphere. “In many math departments, there is not very much interaction between different researchgroups or between senior and juniorfaculty,” he said. “At FSU, there arefrequent events where faculty fromseveral disciplines and seniority levelsget together. At larger events, there isalso a lot of interaction with postdocsand graduate students.” Feeling welcomed in his new environment, Tom isgrateful to call Florida State home andis excited for what his time within themath department will bring.6 May 2020New Faces: Feng BaoStarting his studies in science, one FSUprofessor is working to find applications for today’s pressing issues. Now amathematician focused in applied andcomputational math, he is working withchemists and physicists to create solutions based in mathematics. Working onprojects supported by the Departmentof Energy and collaborating with someof the country’s top scientists, Dr. FengBao says mathematics is about solvingreal world problems.BackgroundFor his undergraduate studies, Dr. Baowas a student in the Chu Kochen HonorsCollege at Zhejiang University. Studying inHangzhou, China, he says his first majorwas not math. Instead he studied alltypes of science ranging from chemistryto psychology. Soon, he switched to applied mathematics, adding that he knowsit’s useful and can be used in many different fields.After graduating from the elite honorscollege with a Bachelor of Science inMathematics, in 2006, he started attending Shandong University. Based inShandong, China, he worked with advisor,Dr. Peng Shige, who he describes as oneof the most well-known mathematiciansin financial math. Working with one ofthe founders of financial math, Dr. Baosays that Dr. Shige hugely influenced hisresearch interests. “He is very importantin my research career,” he shared. “He’sprobably one of the best people in probability, especially control theory.”By 2009, Dr. Bao earned his Master ofScience in Mathematics, and moved tothe United States. Attending AuburnUniversity in Georgia, he began focusingon computational math. There, he wrotea thesis based on optimal filtering. “Thegoal of the optimal filtering problem isto make the best estimate of the hiddenstate that is not directly observable basedon your partial noisy measurementsor observations,” he said. By 2014, hegraduated from Auburn with his PhD inMathematics.Following his graduation, he served asa postdoc at the Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory. Working in the Division ofFeng BaoComputational Science and Mathematics,he started to develop his vision as a mathematician. “At Oak Ridge, I rarely saw applications,” he said. “That established myvision of why I should use math to solvereal world problems.” After completinghis two-year postdoctoral fellowship, hebecame an Assistant Professor at theUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga,where he stayed for two years.TeachingIn 2018, Dr. Bao started his career atFlorida State University as an AssistantProfessor within the Department ofMathematics. Since arriving at FSU, hehas taught Calculus III, along with a graduate course in Stochastic Computing andData Assimilation. In that special topicscourse, he is able to share his researchfield with students. “Another way to describe optimal filtering, in general, is asdata assimilation,” he explained. “In theclass, I still say, ‘this is an optimal filteringproblem,’ because this is a state that israndom, stochastic, and not directly observable. So, we use partial noisy measurements on these hidden states. Wefilter out the uncertainties and the noiseto make the best estimation.”Looking to the future, Dr. Bao hopes tocontinue to teach courses in stochasticcomputing and optimal filtering. “I do feelstochastic computing is a very importantdirection in computational math, especially now with the supercomputers andthe high-performance computing facilities that are focused on parallel computing,” he said. “I think that it’s a veryimportant direction in computationalmath, and I hope I could teach more students in this area.”

ResearchWhen considering universities to work at,FSU was of great interest to Dr. Bao inregards to research. “With the researchenvironment, especially in applied andcomputational math, there’s a very goodreputation at FSU,” he said. “I know manystudents who graduated from FSU andbecame very successful. There are verystrong programs and good students.”His own research interests include stochastic optimization, data assimilation,and stochastic inferences, uncertaintyquantification. His overall goal in hisresearch is to solve real-world problems. Starting at Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory, he began working with scientists to use mathematics as a solutionto pressing issues. “I feel I have to workwith various scientists, like chemists andphysicists,” he said of his research field.“They really care about real problems. So,the manner that evaluates how well wedo this is how many real problems canbe solved. Could they [the solutions] improve other people’s lives?”Currently, Dr. Bao is working on a numberof problems. One project he has taken onis studying the computational frameworkof unbiased studies of correlated electronsystems. In another research area, he isworking on finding adaptive backwardSDE methods for nonlinear filtering projects. He is also giving new meaning to asubject he studied in his graduate years.“Another direction that I’m trying to explore started since I came here is optimalcontrol,” he said. With a background inthe subject from his graduate advisor, Dr.Shige, he is looking to expand the uses ofthat area. “My master’s advisor worked intraditional optimal control. So, I learneda lot of things actually in preparation foroptimal control. Now, I think, if we havelots of data, and we can make a good estimation based on the data, what do wedo next? We take actions to try to takeoptimal control of the system based onthe data.”Overall, Dr. Bao is focused on providingsolutions to today’s pressing, scienceproblems via mathematical research.For him, being able to use “mathematical methods created by real mathematicians to solve real scientific problems”is what is most exciting in his career. Onlooking towards the future he said: “Ihope I can be the bridge between mathand science.”New Faces: Ibrahim EkrenHow do we measure our time here onEarth? By the amount of money we canmake in a year? By our perfect score on adifficult exam? Or is it the people we meetthat are more important and their advicemore life-changing than any number wecan compute? For Ibrahim Ekren, Ph.D.,it is the latter. He can pinpoint the threebiggest influences in his career and evenremains in contact with some of them tothis day. Though his skill and life-long interest in mathematics guides his daily life,it is the people he meets along the waythat truly leave an impression.Ekren was born in Turkey and movedto France when he was 15 years old. “Ididn’t speak the language, and I realized that I could never compete with theother people academically in anythingthat would require knowledge about thelanguage.” This led him in the directionof math and physics, subjects at whichhe naturally excelled, in the universal language of numbers and logic. After highschool, it was his math teacher, MichelLondon, that encouraged him to continuehis studies in math. “He wrote my recommendation letter, I was accepted [atPreparatory Classes in mathematics], andeverything followed after that. I think thatwas one of the biggest impacts in my lifein terms of this choice.”The force of this impact lead to a trendthat would continue throughout Ekren’seducation. After reading an article aboutan accomplished math finance professor,he knew that attending the university atwhich she taught was the next step forhim. Towards the end of his master’sprogram there, it was her and his advisor’s influence that sent him even furtherinto academia. They suggested he gowork under a strong researcher in mathfinance, Dr. Jianfeng Zhang who wouldlater become his doctoral advisor, at theUniversity of Southern California. Withthis, Ekren moved across the globe toobtain his Ph.D. in mathematics.After conducting postdoctoral research atETH Zurich and completing one year asa Post-Doctoral Assistant Professor withthe University of Michigan’s Departmentof Mathematics, Ekren accepted a facultyposition at Florida State University. Ourstrong math finance department is oneof the biggest in the U.S. - a main factorthat attracted Ekren to our university inthe first place - and provides plenty of oppo

Department of Mathematics Florida State University 208 Love Building 1017 Academic Way Tallahassee, FL 32306-4510 Phone: 850-644-2202 Fax: 850-644-4053 Web: www.math.fsu.edu DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AT FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY Mark Sussman. 4 May 2020 Faculty . mathematics. Mathematics. math. mathematics.".