Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--World-renowned mathematician Louis Nirenberg of New York University will be among principal speakers for a May 13 and 14 conference at Mississippi State University.
The sixth annual MSU-University of Alabama-Birmingham Conference on Differential Equations and Computational Simulations takes place 8 a.m.-7 p.m. both days at the Wise Center on Blackjack Road.
A professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Nirenberg has received numerous prestigious awards. They include the National Medal of Science--among the highest U.S. scientific honors--and the Crafoord Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' equivalent to the Nobel Prize for research in areas outside existing Nobel categories.
Nirenberg--who is making an extended campus visit May 12-15--is recognized primarily for his fundamental contributions to mathematical analysis. According to the European Academy of Sciences, he is considered "one of the most outstanding mathematicians of the second half of the 20th century."
"Dr. Nirenberg's work has had a major influence on the development of different areas of mathematics and their applications," said Ratnasingham Shivaji, MSU's William L. Giles Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics. "His research focuses on partial differential equations and related fields of analysis, the basic mathematical tools of modern science."
"Dr. Nirenberg has discovered interactions between mathematical analysis, differential geometry and complex analysis, and his work includes deep applications to the theory of fluid flow and other physical phenomena," noted Michael Neumann, head of the MSU department of mathematics and statistics.
Nirenberg and eight other distinguished lecturers and engineers are scheduled to address the conference, which is organized jointly by Neumann's department and UAB's department of mechanical engineering. More than 150 participants are expected to attend, and more than 100 research papers will be presented.
The event is co-sponsored by the ERC (Engineering Research Center) at MSU; National Science Foundation; Electronic Journal of Differential Equations; Institute for Mathematics and its Applications in Minneapolis, Minn.; Atlas Conferences Inc, a Toronto, Canada-based firm; and Cypress Semiconductor Corp. of San Jose, Calif.
Other conference speakers include: Margaret Cheney of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York; Lawrence Delucas of UAB; Thomas Yizhao Hou of the California Institute of Technology; Mark Lewis of the University of Alberta (Canada); Fang-Hua Lin of the Courant Institute; Jean Mawhin of the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), Robert Meakin of the U.S. Army-NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.; and Klaus Schmitt of the University of Utah.
For more information, contact the MSU department of mathematics and statistics at (662) 325-3414 or visit www.msstate.edu/dept/math/de2005.