math-news

U student Muskan Walia now holds a leadership role in USHE Board

September 17, 2024

U student: Muskan Walia now holds a leadership role in USHE Board

September 17, 2024
Above: Muskan Walia, current student majoring in in mathematics and philosophy.

Muskan Walia didn’t intend to become a student leader when she started attending the University of Utah in 2020; she just really didn’t want to pay for printing.

Now, she’s the 2024-25 student member of the Utah System of Higher Education Board. 

“Our state has a great opportunity right now to be a leader in higher education policy,” Walia said. “As a current student, I am excited and grateful to work with students across Utah to bring our perspective into the conversation.”

A senior at the U, Walia has extensive leadership experience—including more than two years on the University of Utah’s student senate and two years as a Presidential Intern in Higher Education Leadership at the U.

“Muskan has a rare combination of modesty and confidence, in addition to the ability to listen to others and get things done,” said Frederick R. Adler, director of the U’s School of Biological Sciences and a mentor to Walia. “Beyond her intellect, passion for justice, and self-confidence, she has an extraordinary sense of humor that brings real joy to her work. That humor is very much part of her ability to see the world from different perspectives and to engage with others.”

While in the ASUU Senate, Walia served as treasurer and chair. Through her involvement, she’s found her passion and developed as a leader, but it might never have happened if she hadn’t wanted a solution to her printing problems.

Read the full story by Matilyn Mortensen in @TheU.

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.

The College of Science Welcomes New Faculty Fellows

June 12, 2024

THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE WELCOMES NEW FACULTY FELLOWS

June 6, 2024
Above:  Crocker Science Center

Geologist and mathematician to serve during the coming academic year.

The College of Science welcomes Associate Professor Lauren Birgenheier and Professor Akil Narayan as its inaugural class of Faculty Fellows. By working closely with colleagues on key projects, the new Fellows Program is designed to develop emerging academic leaders who are interested in learning more about college administration.

Lauren Birgenheier

Birgenheier is a sedimentary geologist and geochemist. Her research studies fluvial, shallow marine and lacustrine systems, shedding light on the processes that shaped our planet's past with a view toward implications for energy development, critical mineral exploration, carbon storage and paleoclimate reconstruction. Previously, Birgenheier served as Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Chair for the Department of Geology & Geophysics.

Akil Narayan

Narayan is an applied mathematician specializing in numerical analysis. As a member of the University of Utah's Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute, his broad research agenda at the forefront of computational innovation includes machine learning, model reduction and uncertainty quantification, among others. Narayan has previously held many departmental and university roles, including serving on an Academic Senate subcommittee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Department of Mathematics.

"Lauren and Akil are exceptional scholars and leaders," said Dean Peter Trapa. "Their diverse expertise, coupled with their commitment to excellence, will be put to good use in these new Faculty Fellow roles.  I look forward to working with them both."

 

 

 

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.

Distinguished Professor: Davar Khoshnevisan

May 1, 2024

davar khoshnevisan, Distinguished Professor

May 1, 2024

Above; Davar Khoshnevisan. Credit: Mathew Crawley

 

A member of the Department of Mathematics since 1993, Davar Khoshnevisan became a full Professor in 2001 and was chair of the department from 2017 to 2023. His appointment to the rank of Distinguished Professor beginning July 1 is a recognition of his outstanding contributions to the research, teaching, and service missions of the department.

Khoshnevisan’s research in probability theory spans three sub-concentrations: mathematical statistics, multi-parameter random processes, and stochastic partial differential equations. These topics are mathematically sophisticated yet have immediate applicability in engineering and applied sciences. His work in mathematical statistics is used in high dimensional data analysis, while his research in stochastic partial differential equations has been used to model the intermittency properties of sunspot phenomena over time. His work on multi-parameter random processes led to the resolution of several long-standing conjectures on fractal properties of random fields, some of which dated back to the 1930s.

A prolific author of over 135 research papers that have been cited over 1,800 times, fully one-quarter of Khoshnevisan’s articles have appeared in Annals of Probability or Probability Theory and Related Fields, the most well-regarded journals in the field.

Additionally, Khoshnevisan is known as an excellent expositor. His textbook Probability is used in graduate-level probability courses across the country, and his monograph Multiparameter Processes is the standard in the field. His upcoming book Gaussian Analysis is intended for beginning researchers. He has also served in an editorial role for several prestigious journals.

Related to his publications, Khoshnevisan has received numerous accolades in recognition of his prodigious research output and his professional service, including in 1998 the Rollo Davidson prize. In 2015 he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and in 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Then, in 2018 he was recognized as a Medallion Lecturer at the Institute of Mathematical Statistics’ annual conference.

Of special note is Khoshnevisan’s mentorship of young mathematicians. At least 50 of his research articles are jointly authored with his postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. At the U, Khoshnevisan has directly supervised 14 postdoctoral fellows, 10 PhD students, and nine master's of statistics students.

Khoshnevisan has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation since 1997, with his most recent grant extending into 2026. This is a remarkable achievement given the exponential increase in probability research during that period and is an extraordinary validation of his research program. Equally impressive is that he was able to maintain his research funding while taking on the additional responsibilities of department chair. In 2020 alone, while chair and managing the pandemic, he published five remarkable articles on spatial ergodicity of solutions to stochastic partial differential equations. Already this work is being recognized as fundamentally important in the field.

“I am thrilled that Davar Khoshnevisan has been selected as a Distinguished Professor for the 2023-24 academic year,” says Department Chair Tommaso de Fernex. “This is a great accomplishment and well deserved recognition.”

by Tom Alberts

Goldwater Scholars 2024

April 17, 2024

Goldwater Scholars 2024

Two College of Science students awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2024-25

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship is a prestigious award given to undergraduate sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers. Goldwater Scholars often go on to hold distinguished research and leadership positions across many disciplines. For the 2024-2025 academic year, 438 scholarships were awarded to college students across the country. At the University of Utah, two undergraduate students have earned the honor of becoming Goldwater Scholars: Muskan Walia and Nathan Patchen.

Nathen Patchen
Biochemistry

“Biochemistry was a great way for me to combine my love of biology and chemistry and understand not only how things work, but why,” says Nathan Patchen about what motivated him to pursue research in that field. Patchen was awarded the Goldwater Scholarship for his work in Yang Liu’s lab, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. 

Patchen describes his research as broadly being focused on DNA damage repair. He says “[w]e have access to revolutionary gene editing tools that, when used in conjunction with advanced imaging techniques, allow us to explore how cancer cells undergo DNA damage repair as never seen before. Personally, I am doing this by implementing a modified CRISPR-Cas9 that allows us to capture time-resolved images after damage and then produce data about the kinetics of repair.” 

After graduating from the U, Patchen hopes to pursue an MD/PhD to practice medicine while continuing his research on gene editing and aging. Outside of his time in the lab, he enjoys being active through swimming, biking, and running as he trains for an IRONMAN 70.3 in St. George, Utah in May. 

 

Muskan Walia
Mathematics
Philosophy

“Mathematics is at the cusp of interdisciplinary research” says Muskan Walia. During the College of Science ACCESS Scholars research program, she reflected on her academic interests and goals. She explains, "I wasn’t interested in studying any discipline in a vacuum or in isolation. Rather, I wanted to work on mathematics research that centered justice and informed public policy.”

The majority of Walia’s undergraduate research sprouted from her time in ACCESS where with the help of Fred Adler in the mathematics department at the College of Science, she began to adapt an epidemiological SIR model to predict the number of cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. Since then, she has created other models to further answer her questions about disease. These include a “... model of disease progression within an infected individual, a model of an antigen test, and a model of symptoms to evaluate how testing can be used to limit the spread of infection.”

“Ultimately, I want to lead a team that utilizes mathematical principles to tackle the most pressing social justice related questions of our time.” Walia is one of 57 awardees honored this year who intend to pursue research in mathematics or computer science. Besides innovating mathematical models, Walia enjoys spending time outside bird watching with her mom and gardening with her grandmother.

 

 

By Lauren Wigod
Science Writer Intern