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Mathematician Lawley Named Presidential Scholar

October 21, 2024

Mathematician Lawley Named Presidential Scholar

October 21, 2024
Photo above: Sean Lawley, associate professor of mathematics.

Five presidential scholars for 2024 have been announced by the U's President Taylor Randall. Mathematician Sean Lawley is one of them.

The newest cohort of Presidential Scholars at the U are navigating frontiers in cyber law and artificial intelligence, plunging into the earth to understand the impact of humans on the environment, breaking language barriers in diabetes treatment, using mathematical equations to solve biological quandaries, and preventing heart disease and dementia. Recipients of this award are chosen for their leadership in their field and significant contribution to scholarship, education and outreach at the U.

The 2024 Presidential Scholars were nominated by the U’s deans and will receive $10,000 in funding, provided by an anonymous donor, each year for three years. The scholars are Matthew Tokson, associate professor in the S. J. Quinney College of Law; Tyler Faith, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Social and Behavioral Science; Michelle Litchman, associate professor in the College of Nursing; Sean Lawley, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics in the College of Science; and Adam Bress, associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.

“The work being done by these exceptional researchers is crucial to our university-wide goal of impacting the lives of all Utahns,” Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Mitzi Montoya said. “I am proud of their dedication to tackling problems that affect all of us. Their findings can help us build a brighter, healthier future.”

A new cohort of Presidential Scholars is selected every year as a means of retaining faculty who have strong scholarly recognitions, significant promise for continued achievement and are likely targets for outside recruitment.

Math: A Magical Tool

To hear Sean Lawley talk about the power of math, you would think he was describing a magical tool that answers the unanswerable and predicts the future. To an extent, you’d be right. Lawley has published more than 70 papers, many with undergraduate mentees — in less than 10 years — about the power of probabilistic models and analysis to answer questions in physiology and medicine. He uses stochastic math to answer questions like, can a cryopreservation procedure delay menopause? If so, how much tissue and what age is needed to be most effective? What nutritional supplements can speed up arsenic detoxification of the body? What should you do if you miss a dose of a prescription medication? Through math, Lawley is able to answer questions that couldn’t be found in a lab or by any other means. “The equations become the laboratory from which you can explore and do experiments and solve some of these things,” Lawley said. “What I get really excited about and am passionate about is using mathematics to improve public health, to make an impact. I think mathematics is a very purposeful tool—a very big hammer.”

by Amy Choate-Nielsen 

Read about all five of the newly announced presidential scholars in @TheU.

Fielding Norton Named College of Science Senior Fellow

September 24, 2024

FIELDING NORTON NAMED COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
SENIOR FELLOW

September 24, 2024.
Above: Fielding Norton. Credit: Todd Anderson

Climate physicist, insurtech venture advisor and former reinsurance executive Fielding Norton III joins the College’s Leadership Team.

The University of Utah College of Science has announced that Fielding Norton has been appointed to the role of Senior Fellow.

In this role, Norton will serve as a resource for the College’s faculty and staff, focusing on the intersection of climate science, technology, and insurance. He will help develop project-based learning opportunities for students in the College and identify ways to unlock the commercial potential and societal benefit of research & innovation across the College. Norton will also serve as an advisor to the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy and serve on the College’s Energy & Environment Advisory Board.

Norton currently advises insurtech and climatech companies that use AI and other technologies to enable a profitable transition to a low-carbon economy. His career spans more than 35 years, first as a science and math educator in Kansas and Maine, then as recipient of teaching awards while earning a MS in applied physics and a PhD in earth & planetary sciences at Harvard University. Later, in the global reinsurance industry, he and his teams managed and priced the risk of extreme disasters including hurricanes, floods and wildfires. Among his recent leadership roles, Norton worked in Bermuda as chief enterprise risk officer of XL Group, a Fortune 100 global insurer and reinsurer.

“I am thrilled to join the College of Science as Senior Fellow,” said Norton. “The College and the Wilkes Center can play a pivotal role in creating common sense, pragmatic solutions to complex environmental, societal and economic problems. I look forward to working with Dean Trapa and the faculty and staff of the College to help Utah flourish and find opportunity in the environmental challenges we face.”

“Fielding Norton is a world-class innovator with deep roots in climate science and STEM education,” said Peter Trapa, dean of the College of Science. “I am eager to collaborate with Fielding to bring his wide-ranging expertise to our students across many disciplines.”

College of Science Senior Fellows represent a variety of industries and provide key insights and guidance to leadership and faculty. Fielding Norton joins Tim Hawkes, attorney and former Utah legislator, and Berton Earnshaw, AI Founding Fellow at the clinical-stage “techbio” company Recursion, as senior fellows.

By David Pace

Scientists awarded 1U4U Seed Grants

September 10, 2024

scientists awarded 1U4U Seed Grants

Published on: 
Above: Microbiolites at Bridger Bay on the northwest corner of Antelope Island. Credit: Utah Geological Survey. Biologists Jody Reimer and Michael Werner are part of a 1U4U team that study microbiolites.

Six College of Science faculty members are members of winning teams awarded seed grants of up to $50,000 as part of the 1U4U Seed Grant Program.

Six faculty members in the College of Science are members of winning teams awarded seed grants of up to $50,000 as part of the 1U4U Seed Grant Program.

The program supports cross-campus/cross-disciplinary research teams to solve some of the greatest challenges of our local, national, and global communities. College of Science faculty among the winning teams included Jon Wang, (biology), Colleen Farmer (biology), John Lin (atmospheric sciences), Jody Reimer (biology & mathematics), Michael Werner (biology) and Qilei Zhu (chemistry).

Bonderman Field Station at Rio Mesa (Photo courtesy of Zachary Lundeen)

The theme of the 2024-2025 program was “The Future of Sustainability.” Sustainability is a foundational goal that cuts across multiple intellectual topic areas (e.g., healthcare, water, energy, wildfire, critical minerals, education, food security) and can be interpreted widely.

At the University of Utah, faculty have engaged sustainability across a wide range of domains, including but not limited to environmental, social, communal, health, economic, technical, and legal.

Some of the topics of winning projects include the impact of air quality on elite athletic performance, study of suicide behaviors, and improving health by linking silos.

“It is exciting to fund so many teams working on sustainability projects,” said Dr. Jakob Jensen, associate vice president for research at the U. “The teams are considering sustainability across a wide range of topics from forest management and urban heat islands to physical therapy and mental health. These seed projects will drive significant innovation and impact communities throughout the region.”

Winning teams with College of Science faculty include the following:

Research Team: John Pearson (medicine) & Jonathan Wang (College of Science — biology)
Application Title: Heat and Healing: The Influence of Urban Heat Islands on Postoperative Outcomes

Research Team: Colleen Farmer (College of Science — biology), Ajla Asksamija (Architecture & Planning), Zach Lundeen (Bonderman Field Station), Jorg Rugemer (Architecture & Planning), Atsushi Yamamoto (Architecture & Planning)

Research Team: John Lin (College of Science — atmospheric sciences) & Tanya Halliday (Health)
Application Title: Impact of Air Quality on Elite Athletic Performance:  from Salt Lake to Beyond

Research Team: Jody Reimer (College of Science — biology and mathematics), Brigham Daniels (Law), Beth Parker (Law), Michael Werner (College of Science — biology)
Application Title: Understanding Great Salt Lake microbialite ecology to inform sustainable water management policy

Research Team: Qilei Zhu (College of Science — chemistry) & Tao Gao (Engineering)
Application Title: Ion-Conductive Membrane-Enabled Sustainable Industrial Electrochemical Production

 

For more information about the 1U4U Seed Grants and a complete list of this year's awardees click here.

New bioinformatics major

August 28, 2024

New bioinformatics major opens doors to thriving careers

August 28, 2024

Beginning fall 2024, the degree provides rigorous interdisciplinary training to help graduates thrive in rapidly growing sectors.

Tommaso De Fernex, Chair of the Department of Mathematics. Credit: Todd Anderson

Tommaso De Fernex, chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah, has announced a new bioinformatics bachelor's degree (BS) available beginning fall semester 2024. The degree provides rigorous interdisciplinary training to help graduates thrive in rapidly growing sectors.

At the nexus of data science and life and physical sciences, bioinformatics applies intensive computational methods to analyze and understand complex biological information related to health, biotechnology, genomics and more. Through a comprehensive curriculum, undergraduates at the U will gain expertise in a variety of areas that together form an inter-disciplinary, multi-semester laboratory with rich possibilities.

“This major represents a pivotal step in keeping our students at the forefront of biotechnology,” says De Fernex. “It embodies true interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing expertise from biology, chemistry, and computer science faculties. I'm grateful for the dedication of our faculty in developing this program and for our strong partnerships with the medical campus and Utah's thriving biotechnology sector.”

 The complexity of life

Another math professor at the U, Fred Adler, agrees. The “study of life” is decidedly complex, says Adler who has joint faculty appointments in biology and mathematics and is currently director of the U’s School of Biological Sciences. “Unraveling that complexity means combining the tools developed in the last century: ability to visualize and measure huge numbers of tiny things that used to be invisible, technology to store and analyze vast quantities of data, and the fundamental biological and mathematical knowledge to make sense of it all.”

Continues Adler: “A few years ago, we heard that biology is the science of the 21st century. But with all the excitement and innovation in AI and machine learning, it might seem that this prediction was premature. We think nothing could be further from the truth.” Clearly, with the advent of biostatistical modeling, machine learning for genetics, biological data mining, computer programming and computational techniques for biomedical research, he said, “the preeminent role of biology in the sciences” has arrived.

A busy intersection

Bioinformatics is a field that intersects virtually every STEM discipline, developing and utilizing methods and software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Mathematics, (including statistics), biology, chemistry, physics, computer science and programming and information engineering all constellate to analyze and interpret biological data. The subsequent process of analyzing and interpreting data is referred to as computational biology.

Historically, bioinformatics and computational biology have involved the analysis of biological data, particularly DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. The field experienced explosive growth starting in the mid-1990s, driven largely by the Human Genome Project and by rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology, including at the U.

The new bioinformatics bachelor’s degree also complements the University’s storied graduate program in biomedical informatics, run by the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Spencer Fox School of Medicine.

High-growth career field

The field of bioinformatics is experiencing rapid growth, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 15% increase in related jobs over the next decade, outpacing many other occupations. Graduates with a bioinformatics degree can expect to find opportunities in diverse sectors, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and research institutions. The interdisciplinary nature of this degree equips students with a unique skill set that combines biological knowledge with computational expertise. This blend of skills is increasingly valuable in today's data-driven economy, opening doors to a wide range of career paths and translating into higher earning potential for bioinformatics graduates.

"Students with quantitative expertise, like that offered in the new bioinformatics degree, are in high demand in the life sciences industry," says Peter Trapa, dean of the College of Science. "Recent data on U graduates highlights strong job placement and impressive salaries for graduates with such skills. This degree is designed to prepare students for success in these thriving job markets."

What students can expect

As a bioinformatics major, a student will learn from and collaborate with faculty pushing the boundaries of genomics, systems biology, biomedical informatics and more. Other universities and colleges offer a similar degree, but advantages to the U’s bioinformatics major include the following:

  • Hands-on research experiences in a student’s first year through the College’s celebrated Science Research Initiative
  • Core mathematical foundations through the renowned Department of Mathematics
  • Access to an R1 university with nationally ranked biomedical, health sciences and genomics programs
  • Internship opportunities with industry partners
  • Advisory support and career coaching

Concludes De Fernex, “Our bioinformatics curriculum promises a challenging yet immensely rewarding journey, equipping students for high-paying careers or further advanced studies. In today's world, where science and medicine increasingly rely on big data analysis, bioinformatics stands as a frontier of discovery.”

Students can learn more about the new bioinformatics major by visiting http://math.utah.edu/bioinformatics.

By David Pace

Those with the biggest biases choose first

August 12, 2024

How our biases are reflected in how fast we make decisions

August 13, 2024

Quick decisions more likely flow from biases, while people who take longer make better decisions, according to study led by Utah mathematicians.

Quick decisions are more likely influenced by initial biases, resulting in faulty conclusions, while decisions that take time are more likely the result in better information, according to new research led by applied mathematicians at the University of Utah.

A team that included Sean Lawley, an associate professor of mathematics, and three former or current Utah graduate students used the power of numbers to test a decision-making model long used in psychology.

They developed a framework to study the decision-making processes in groups of people holding various levels of bias.

“In large populations, what we see is that slow deciders are making more accurate decisions,” said lead author Samantha Linn, a graduate student in mathematics. “One way to explain that is that they’re taking more time to accumulate more evidence, and they’re getting a complete picture of everything they could possibly understand about the decision before they make it.”

The findings were reported this week in the journal Physical Review E.

The researchers explored how initial biases of individuals, or “agents,” in a group affect the order and accuracy of their choices. The goal was to determine whether a decision was driven mainly by an agent’s predisposition as opposed to accumulated evidence.

They found, in short, the faster the decision was made, the less informed it was and more likely to be wrong.

“Their decisions align with their initial bias, regardless of the underlying truth. In contrast, agents who decide last make decisions as if they were initially unbiased, and hence make better choices,” the study states. “Our analysis shows how bias, information quality, and decision order interact in non-trivial ways to determine the reliability of decisions in a group.”

Read the full story by Brian Maffly in @TheU.

Berton Earnshaw Named College of Science Senior Fellow

July 15, 2024

BERTON EARNSHAW NAMEd COLLEGE OF SCIENCE SENIOR FELLOW

July 15, 2024. Above: Berton Earnshaw at Recursion event.

A deep learning and AI expert, Earnshaw joins the College’s Leadership Team.

Berton Earnshaw

The University of Utah College of Science has announced that Berton Earnshaw has accepted the role of Senior Fellow. As a Founding Fellow at Recursion, a leading clinical-stage “techbio” company (defined as one focused on leveraging data and technology to improve, enhance, and accelerate life science processes), and as Scientific Director of Recursion’s AI research lab Valence Labs, Earnshaw has led the development and deployment of many of the machine learning capabilities employed in the company’s drug discovery workflows. He also directs multiple research programs across Recursion and Valence Labs.

“I first met Berton in the math department during his PhD studies,” said Dean Peter Trapa. “It’s great to see him come full circle with the U as a Senior Fellow in the College of Science. Currently, he’s at the top of his game in machine learning as it relates to drug development and will add appreciably as an executive advisor to the College and its research priorities.”

Earnshaw earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Brigham Young University and, in 2007, earned a PhD in mathematics from the U while working with its mathematical biology group. There he designed biophysical models of protein trafficking at synapses during episodes of learning and memory formation. He was a postdoctoral researcher at both the U and Michigan State University and has taught as an adjunct professor in the U’s Department of Mathematics since 2018.

Earnshaw has worked in many scientific and leadership roles in industry before arriving at Recursion as Director of Data Science Research in 2017, including as CTO of Perfect Pitch (now Boomsourcing), Director of Data Science and Operations at Red Brain Labs (acquired by Savvysherpa) and Principal and Senior Scientist at Savvysherpa (acquired by UnitedHealth Group). Earnshaw has also served as a member of the Utah State Auditor’s Commission on Protecting Privacy and Preventing Discrimination.

Outside of work, Earnshaw enjoys traveling together with his wife and five children and loves being outdoors, eating well, investing, and reading everything from fiction to philosophy to theoretical physics.

“The opportunities offered by today’s innovations in AI and the life sciences to radically impact our lives for good are extraordinary,” said Earnshaw. “I am honored and thrilled to be working with Dean Trapa to ensure that the College of Science is a leader in preparing its students to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Earnshaw joins Tim Hawkes, attorney and former Utah legislator, who was announced as the inaugural senior fellow in 2023. The College of Science senior fellows represent a variety of industries and provide key insights and guidance to leadership and faculty.

 

 

What It Means to Meet a Mathematician

May 21, 2024

What It Means to Meet a Mathematician

May 21, 2024
Photo above: Selvi Kara. Credit: Aaron Windhorst

The importance of representation in a field of study cannot be overstated.

"This is the most meaningful project I’ve ever been involved in," says Dr. Selvi Kara, one of the co-founders of Meet a Mathematician, a growing collection of short video interviews with mathematicians. "Being a part of this project and meeting the amazing mathematicians we interviewed has changed the way I think about the mathematics community."

Meet a Mathematician's goal is to introduce students to role models and encourage their participation in the mathematical sciences. The project also strives to foster a sense of community. By hearing personal stories of mathematicians through short videos, Kara hopes the students, especially from underrepresented groups in STEM and particularly in math, feel a sense of belonging and recognize that there is a place for them in mathematics.

"This project made me feel connected to a community I didn’t know existed before," Kara says. "For people who are watching our interviews, it helps them in ways that are beyond what we could have imagined when we started Meet a Mathematician." Kara launched Meet a Mathematician in March 2020 with Dr. Padi Fuster, an NSF ASCEND Postdoctoral Fellow at the CU Boulder, Mathematics Department and one of her close friends.

Kara is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award from the College of Science where, at the time, she was a Science Research Initiative (SRI) postdoctoral fellow at the U. Prior to that, she was a research associate in the Department of Mathematics. Kara received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from Istanbul University, and after graduation, she attended Nesin Mathematics Village every summer until she moved to the U.S. for her PhD at Tulane University.

Kara with her SRI Chip-Firing Stream Students

Nesin Mathematics Village played a crucial role in Kara's growth as a mathematician. "That’s where I learned about various fields of mathematics not covered in my undergraduate math curriculum," says Kara. "It was at the Math Village where I first learned about combinatorial commutative algebra, the field of my research, and I realized that it was the kind of math I imagined myself doing in the future."

“Combinatorial commutative algebra is a field that lies at the intersection of combinatorics and commutative algebra,” Kara says. “I really enjoy working in this field as it allows me to use tools from both disciplines to answer algebraic questions.”

Kara is interested in translating complex algebraic ideas and notions into ones that are more accessible, as well as finding ways to express such concepts using figures. Recently, Kara’s research has expanded towards a new field called algebraic combinatorics, and she works on problems related to chip-firing games and parking functions in this field.

As part of her role as an SRI fellow, Kara led the higher-dimensional chip-firing SRI stream during the Spring-Fall 2023 semesters and mentored eight undergraduates. The students involved in Kara’s SRI stream presented their research at the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Francisco in January. Kara continues her research with undergraduate and graduate students at Bryn Mawr College, and she still mentors her students from the U even though she is no longer there.

As a first-generation individual, Kara deeply understands the importance of having role models and mentors, and she will continue her work in Meet a Mathematician. This project is a way for Kara to give back to her community and contribute to a positive change in the culture of mathematics.

 


by CJ Siebeneck

You can read recent research by Selvi Kara here and here. Also, "A Conversation on Meet a Mathematician and Math For All," with Padi Fuster in Practices and Policies: Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics, 

Getting Stuff Done: Thomas Yassmin

May 20, 2024

Getting Stuff Done

Thomas Yassmin

May 20, 2024
Above: Tight end Thomas Yassmin, MStat '24 in Mathematics at play during Utah vs Weber State, September 2023. Credit: University of Utah

 

As an undergraduate, Yassmin completed a double major in quantitative analysis of markets and organizations (QAMO) and mathematics with an emphasis in statistics. This spring he graduated with a master's in statistics.

Balancing football and academics was challenging, but Yassmin performed this balancing act well, earning a spot on the PAC-12 Academic Honor Roll multiple times during his five years at the U.

Yassmin has advice for other students balancing busy schedules: "You've just got to prioritize certain things. There are a lot of sacrifices that have to be made. Sometimes weekends are just not the weekends you want to have, or your friends ask you to come over and you just have to suck it up and put your head down for a couple hours and get your work done first before you do anything else. Little things add up, an hour here, an hour there, dedicating times where it's undistracted work. By the end of the week, it accumulates. I think that's the thing, just sacrificing certain amounts of time to make sure you get your stuff done first."

Yassmin was fortunate to have had some stellar professors, especially Lajos Horvath, from whom he took multiple classes, and Tom Alberts, his project advisor. They understood his unique position and helped him navigate the balancing act between athletics and math. Yassmin expressed that he probably wouldn't have made it through his MStat degree without them.

Read the rest of Thomas's story by Angie Gardiner at math.utah.edu. 

Math Faculty Retiree Jim Keener

May 13, 2024

Math Faculty Retiree Jim Keener

THE RETIREMENT OF DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR JIM KEENER LEAVES AN UNFILLABLE HOLE IN THE WORLD-RENOWNED MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY PROGRAM THAT HE DID SO MUCH TO BUILD.

Or at least would if he was not planning to continue to provide wisdom and insight to students and faculty alike from his office where the door (and minds) is (are) always open.

Jim joined the University of Utah faculty in the Department of Mathematics in 1978 and started a research program that set the standard for mathematical biology by combining creative modeling built on the devilish details of complex biological phenomena with development of the new mathematics needed to understand those models and answer biological questions. His highly influential work on spiral waves emerged from his interest in cardiac arrythmias, and his perhaps even more influential work on ranking (which inspired the first version of Google’s original PageRank algorithm) emerged from his interest in college football.

His three books, Principles of Applied Mathematics (1988), Mathematical Physiology (with James Sneyd, and winner of the 1998 Association of American Publishers’ “Best New Title in Mathematics”), and the new Biology in Time and Space: A PDE Modelling Approach (2021) are paragons of exposition and laid the foundation for the rigorous and deep applied mathematics that underlie any serious quantitative study of biology.

Jim is the visionary leader for the U’s graduate program in mathematical biology. The success of this program reflects his own strengths: inspiring mentorship, biological and mathematical breadth, the joy of collaboration, ability to communicate with both mathematicians and biologists, and the taste to identify and solve important problems. The reach of this program is extraordinary, with graduates holding leadership roles in research universities, liberal arts colleges, industry, and in the mathematical biology community. Students in the program today have a built-in international network of friends, colleagues and mentors.

Like most people who get this much done, Jim is fun to be around. His “cabin parties” are legendary, although what actually happens there can never be revealed. Dinner with Jim is a delightful mix of challenging debate and convivial laughs. His joy in inquiry and in people builds on a deep spirituality and love of nature that underpin the wisdom that we look forward to sharing for many more years.

by Fred Adler
Professor of mathematics and Director of the School of Biological Sciences

Of Honeybees and Carbon Emissions: SIAM Modeling Competition

May 13, 2024

Of Honeybees and Carbon Emissions

LAST NOVEMBER, THE U’S STUDENT CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS (SIAM) HELD A MODELING COMPETITION FOR UNDERGRADUATES.

Teams chose one of three modeling problems that were based on real-world situations and worked together to analyze the problem, generate figures and results, and write a report about their findings.

The reward for the winning team was their registration fee, paid-in-full, for the COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) in February 2024. The U’s SIAM student chapter hosted this competition to help participants prepare for the MCM and give them confidence in their abilities as scientific modelers.

Two teams participated in the contest, one with two members, Maxwell Archibald and Jack Perry, and another team with three members, Joshua Villarreal, Garrett Iverson and Dominic Cinaglia. Archibald and Perry studied the population dynamics of honeybees and won first place with their thorough and well-organized report while Villarreal, Iverson and Cinaglia looked at CO2 levels and their correlation with climate change which won second place for their strong statistical analysis and informative report. The judges were so impressed with the quality of both teams’ submissions they decided to fund both for the MCM in February.

The U SIAM student chapter is extremely grateful for the financial support of the Department of Mathematics, without which the chapter would not have been able to fund these five deserving students.

Aaron L. Fogelson

In late March SIAM also announced the 2024 Class of SIAM Fellows. The group includes Aaron L. Fogelson, professor of mathematics, recognized for pioneering work on mathematical modeling and numerical methods for platelet aggregation and blood clotting. Through their various contributions, SIAM Fellows help advance the fields of applied mathematics, computational science, and data science. Read more about Fogelson’s recognition here.