Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics Seminar 2010/2011 (sponsored by MITACS and PIMS)

About The Speaker

Andrea Bertozzi is a mathematician who is known for her interdisciplinary work with computer scientists, physicists, and engineers. Much of her work has, in one way or another, examined the behavior of thin liquid films on hard surfaces. In tandem with physicists and engineers, she has worked at the Argonne National Laboratory and at Duke University constructing mathematical models that explain this and other physical phenomena. Born in 1965, in Boston, Massachusetts, to William and Norma Bertozzi, Andrea was encouraged by both of her parents to study and attend university. Her father, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, encouraged her to pursue her interest in the sciences. In 1991, she married Bradley Koetje, a management consultant. Bertozzi knew from an early age that she was interested in mathematics. Even in the first grade, she was captivated by the rudimentary math that was being taught and pushed to learn more. By high school, she had begun to learn advanced math and was concentrating on theory and abstract concepts, which she found to be the most interesting part of mathematics. After graduating from high school in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1983, Bertozzi enrolled in Princeton University to study mathematics. She also studied a considerable amount of physics, although she took no degree in that subject. She earned her B.A. in math in 1987 and remained at Princeton to complete an M.S. in 1988 and a Ph.D. in 1991. After completing her Ph.D., Bertozzi took a position as L. E. Dickson Instructor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. At Chicago, Bertozzi first became interested in the mathematics of thin films. She began working with a group of physicists who were studying mathematical models that described the behavior of phenomena that were similar to thin films. Gradually, the problem centered specifically on a mathematical description of liquids flowing on a solid surface. This was an area of mathematics that had not received much attention but had been researched by physicists since the 1960s. Bertozzi remained at the University of Chicago until 1995 when she was offered the position of associate professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Then during 1995-96, she worked at the Argonne National Laboratory, located outside of Chicago in Argonne, Illinois. Here, as a MARIA GOEPPERT MAYER Distinguished Scholar, she continued her work in the field of scientific computing, which she had begun at the University of Chicago. The purpose of scientific computing is to create computer models that simulate physical processes on the computer. In this way, virtual experiments that can mimic actual physical conditions are created. At Argonne, Bertozzi continued her study of the mathematical-physical properties of thin liquids on dry surfaces. This problem, which seems relatively simple, is actually complicated. A liquid applied to a dry surface will not spread evenly but will pool and spread onto the surface in fingerlike rivulets. Bertozzi worked on a set of partial differential equations, also called evolution equations because this kind of math describes an event occurring over time, that fit a model for film-coating behavior into mathematical terms. This work, although basic research, may someday be helpful for industries such as the microchip-manufacturing sector, which needs to understand this coating process in making their complicated and delicate product. After her year at the Argonne Lab, Bertozzi returned to her job as associate professor of mathematics at Duke University in 1996. In 1998, she became associate professor of mathematics and physics, and in 1999, she became a full professor in both disciplines. Currently, she is director of Duke’s Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, an interdisciplinary research center that includes scientists from the disciplines of math, biology, engineering, medical sciences, and environmental studies. In addition to her studies of thin films on hard surfaces, Bertozzi works in more general problems of fluid dynamics. Bertozzi was recognized for her work by the Sloan Foundation, which awarded her a research fellowship in 1995. In 1996, she was presented the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Cambridge University Press published her book, coauthored with Andrew Majda, Vorticity and Incompressible Flow, in 2000.

March 23, 2011

Dr. Feride Tiglay Fields Institute, Toronto, ON

Place:MCLH 242.1

Time: 2:30 pm

Title: The Periodic Cauchy Problem for Novikov's Equation

Abstract