Canzani Sloan Research Fellow

Yaiza Canzani, an assistant professor of mathematics in UNC’s College of Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship.

The fellowships are given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as “rising stars,” the next generation of scientific leaders. The recipients are recognized for being among the very best scientific minds working today. Winners receive a two-year $65,000 fellowship to further their research.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced the selection of 126 new Sloan Fellows from 53 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada on Feb. 15. The fellowships have been awarded yearly since 1955. The Sloan is among the most prestigious awards given to young scholars.

“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best science has to offer,” said Sloan President Adam Falk. “[They are] the brightest minds, tackling the hardest problems, and succeeding brilliantly – Fellows are quite literally the future of 21st century science.”

Canzani’s research is dedicated to studying solutions to the Schrödinger equation, which is a mathematical formulation derived by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1926. This equation describes how a quantum system evolves over time. Her research focuses on understanding the behavior of wave functions that solve Schrödinger’s equation – the mathematical formulation for studying the energy levels of quantum mechanical systems like atoms.

The Sloan Fellowship will allow her to dedicate more time to this complex research as well as collaborating on this project with several colleagues.

Forty-five previous Sloan fellows have received a Nobel Prize in their respective field, 16 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, 69 have received the National Medal of Science, and 17 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics, including every winner since 2007.

Richard McLaughlin, chair of the mathematics department, said this is exciting news because the last time the department had a Sloan Fellow was about 10 years ago.

“Yaiza’s remarkable results on the Schrödinger equation bridge many areas of mathematics and physics, including partial differential equations, geometry, statistical mechanics, random matrix theory, quantum mechanics and number theory,” McLaughlin said.

Canzani was previously a Benjamin Peirce Fellow at Harvard University and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. She received her Ph.D. from McGill University.

Canzani in Endeavors

Yaiza Canzani is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding the behavior of wave functions that solve Schrodinger’s equation – the mathematical formulation for studying the energy levels of quantum mechanical systems like atoms.

When you were a child, what was your response to this question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
When I was younger, it was much easier for me to think about what I didn’t want to be. I knew, for example, that I would never end up doing anything related to sports – I’m too much of a couch person!

Describe your research in five words.
Quantum particles avoid my zeros.

Share the pivotal moment in your life that helped you choose your field of study.
I come from Uruguay, and over there you choose your career when you are 18 years old. Then, you spend the four years of your undergrad taking courses directly related to your election. I think I was too young to make such a decision. What I knew at the time was that I was good at math, and that I really liked chemistry.

There is only one public university in Uruguay, and the buildings for the different careers are spread across the capital, Montevideo. I chose to do math because the math department was a ten-minute walk from home, while the chemistry building was an hour away by bus, ha! I was eighteen – what can I say?! After starting the career in math, though, I realized that I loved it, and it became clear to me that doing research in math would lead me to a happy life. So I kept going.

Tell us about a time you encountered a tricky problem. How did you handle it and what did you learn from it?
The first draft of a blog post I published with Scientific American came back from the editor with a note at the top saying something like: “I stopped writing comments because there would be too many, and they would all say the writing sounds too much like a textbook. It should be conversational, and I really hope that’s not how you talk!” I had to laugh at the criticism, because I knew it was true! Somewhere along the line I had decided this style of writing made me sound smart. But I realized my goal in the piece was to communicate with people, not to impress them, which meant writing something they might actually want to read.

What are your passions outside science?
Throughout most of graduate school, I volunteered with Girls Rock NC, a youth empowerment program for girls and gender-variant youth. I’ve been less involved since co-founding my own summer camp, Girls Talk Math, though I was able to collaborate with them by having their teen group write and record an intro song for our campers’ podcasts. It’s important to me to stay connected with and help the community around UNC. Research can sometimes feel isolated from the rest of the world, but academics are community members just like anyone else.

Women in Science Wednesday highlights UNC researchers at all levels of their careers across dozens of fields. From nursing to economics to computer science, women at Carolina excel in research, mentorship, and advocacy.

Story by Endeavors, January 10th, 2018, Women in Science Wednesdays

Katrina Morgan in Endeavors

Katrina Morgan is a fourth-year PhD candidate studying mathematics within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research is motivated by General Relativity, which says our universe bends near massive bodies like planets or black holes and becomes flat away from them. She examines how light waves decay on a variety of spacetimes that are curved, but become flat far away in space.

When you were a child, what was your response to this question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
In third grade, I wanted to be a teacher. But, eventually, it occurred to me that teachers’ days didn’t look quite like mine. They taught the same class multiple times each day – and they definitely didn’t get recess! I like teaching, but I love that academia also allows me to do research and other projects.

Describe your research in five words.
Light waves on bendy universes.

Share the pivotal moment in your life that helped you choose your field of study.
I come from a math family. My dad has a Ph.D. in math, and my mom had a dual master’s degree in math and physics. They always talked about math as being creative and dynamic, which was often not what I got from my math classes in primary school. Their enthusiasm for the subject helped me develop my own love of mathematics.

Tell us about a time you encountered a tricky problem. How did you handle it and what did you learn from it?
The first draft of a blog post I published with Scientific American came back from the editor with a note at the top saying something like: “I stopped writing comments because there would be too many, and they would all say the writing sounds too much like a textbook. It should be conversational, and I really hope that’s not how you talk!” I had to laugh at the criticism, because I knew it was true! Somewhere along the line I had decided this style of writing made me sound smart. But I realized my goal in the piece was to communicate with people, not to impress them, which meant writing something they might actually want to read.

What are your passions outside science?
Throughout most of graduate school, I volunteered with Girls Rock NC, a youth empowerment program for girls and gender-variant youth. I’ve been less involved since co-founding my own summer camp, Girls Talk Math, though I was able to collaborate with them by having their teen group write and record an intro song for our campers’ podcasts. It’s important to me to stay connected with and help the community around UNC. Research can sometimes feel isolated from the rest of the world, but academics are community members just like anyone else.

Women in Science Wednesday highlights UNC researchers at all levels of their careers across dozens of fields. From nursing to economics to computer science, women at Carolina excel in research, mentorship, and advocacy.

Story by Endeavors, January 10th, 2018, Women in Science Wednesdays

Fluid Labs News

Kaylyn Gootman observes the water in the racetrack flume, as her undergraduate research assistant Savannah Swinea sets the Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, ADV.

Streambeds act as natural water filters by trapping particles and pollutants. To better understand the dynamics of these small yet complex systems, a UNC hydrologist is creating, and clogging, her own stream.

The basement of Chapman Hall is a maze. Wind through several hallways, swipe a UNC OneCard to gain access through a heavy, locked door, and enter the massive chamber of the Joint Applied Math and Marine Sciences Fluids lab.

Turn left, walk past the wind tunnel and the towering 36-meter wave tank, and you’ll see hundreds of gallons of water swirling through an elevated metal structure. Kaylyn Gootman, a PhD candidate in the Curriculum in Environment and Ecology, dumps a large plastic bag full of what looks like flour into the water and watches closely as the contents disperse.

The large oval-shaped metal structure, called a racetrack flume, holds approximately 430 gallons of water, the equivalent of about eight bath tubs. Using an electric trolling motor and an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, ADV, Gootman can control the direction and speed of the water. The material that looks like flour is actually finely ground clay – and Gootman is very interested in how it moves.

Gootman calls the set-up a “mock stream.”

“We’re studying the physical impact of a natural pollutant – like how much clay gets embedded in a streambed – and the natural clean-up processes that the water circulation of a stream provides,” she says.

Water movement is complex – in a natural stream, water flows up, down, and all around. To understand the whole system, Gootman, and her undergraduate assistant Savannah Swinea, are examining the individual processes of a stream they built here in the fluids lab.

“Being able to narrow our focus to major physical controls allows us to study a few key processes without much interference,” Gootman says. “That knowledge can then act as a foundation for better understanding in the natural environment where things happen in multiple directions and dimensions all at once.”

Constructing a Stream

Think of a streambed as a kidney. “Kidneys filter blood, and streams filter water – both trap toxins,” Gootman says. While kidneys filter toxins like alcohol, streams break down particles from surface water runoff including pollutants from irrigation, construction, or industrial agriculture. But just as kidneys can fail, so can streams – a kidney stone is akin to a clogged streambed.

Gootman’s research can help geoscientists, developers, and land owners better understand erosion events, especially as they relate to urbanization. How much pollution can a stream filter before the system gets overwhelmed?

Working in the fluids lab allows her to save time and resources – and she’s not harming the environment. “Going out to a stream and dumping a bunch of clay in it would not be very good environmental stewardship,” Gootman says with a smile.

Using a contained system like the racetrack flume also gives her the ability to obtain precise measurements. Gootman can focus on one particular direction of water movement, like down-welling, or the downward flow of water into the streambed. Examining each parameter individually simplifies the inherently complex nature of fluid dynamics.

Obstructing a Stream

Turbidity, or the level of “cloudiness” in the water, is another important indicator when measuring quality – but it’s a difficult measurement to obtain in natural streams. “The most accurate way to measure turbidity is to take samples, then go back to the lab to filter them,” Gootman says. “And you have to do that a lot. It’s really expensive and time consuming.”

But there are other methods for measuring turbidity, including optical sensors. “Optical back scatter” is a technical term used by hydrologists that refers to the use of light to determine how much material is in a body of water. Optical backscatter sensors, OBS, emit infrared light into the water column. As soon as the light comes into contact with suspended particles, it bounces back to the sensor. Faster signals indicate more particles in the water.

Gootman and other hydrologists measure the optical back scatter in river networks all over the world, but no two rivers are the same. “It’s very location specific work – a calibration for the Haw River is different from the Mississippi,” she says. “That’s another advantage of working in the fluids lab – we can make these kinds of calibrations more accurately and easily than we can in the field.”

Gootman holds some of the sand she and Swinea use to “clog” their stream.

Decoding the Data

The value of this kind of high-tech instrumentation is it records every tiny signal – the downside is it records a lot of data. On paper, it looks like a jumbled mess. “The instrumentation is so sensitive it’s almost like earthquake data,” Gootman says. To make sense of it, Gootman meets with UNC’s resident earth science data expert and chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, Jonathan Lees. “He’s helped me discern the signal from the noise,” she says.

In addition to decoding her backscatter data, Gootman analyzes the migration of clay particles by examining sediment cores. “How deep clay particles travel into the streambed tells us a lot about the physics of the water in the stream,” she says. “You might not think that a tiny thing like bits of clay could have a large impact but enough of it over a certain amount of time could.”

Gootman and Swinea spend hours separating the sediment cores by hand in the lab – but that only gets them so far. Fortunately, Gootman can borrow a laser particle size analyzer from Laura Moore, director of the UNC Coastal Environmental Change Lab.

In addition to utilizing the resources and expertise of the Department of Geological Sciences, Gootman also collaborates with faculty in math, physics, and marine sciences. “This is inherently collaborative work,” she says. “And it has also afforded me the opportunity to be a mentor.”

Blazing a Trail

As a junior pursuing a major in environmental science and a minor in marine science, Swinea knew she wanted to get experience with hands-on research.

“I was looking for research opportunities for the summer and realized that UNC has a program for students in the geosciences from underrepresented communities,” Swinea says. The IDEA Undergraduate Research Experience, a program funded by the National Science Foundation, matched Swinea with Gootman and the two women have created a strong partnership.

The collaboration has given Swinea experience and research skills she didn’t have before this past summer. “Learning how to program a probe or use a test tube is useful, but the biggest things I’ve learned from Kaylyn are being adaptable and being patient – those are overarching qualities that you don’t necessarily learn in a class.”

Swinea holds the ADV steady as Gootman begins to fill the flume with water.

Swinea’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn also inspires Gootman. “It’s really cool to see a woman who is younger than me on the early part of her scientific path,” she says. “Savannah is a great student – she’s curious, she’s a quick learner and she’s not afraid to ask for help when she’s stuck. And she’s getting started with research much earlier than I did.”

One of the greatest strengths of their work together, and one of the most vital things for Swinea, has been seeing herself in Gootman. Because Gootman also went to UNC for undergrad, Swinea can visualize a similar trajectory for herself. “Kaylyn has given me a lot of advice about academia and grad school and life decisions,” she says. “What’s kept me on the science path is not only teachers and peers encouraging me – it’s being able to see myself in the future.”

As Swinea contemplates the possibilities associated with a career in science, Gootman considers impact of the research they’re currently conducting together. “There are lots of things happening to our rivers and streams as housing developments and commercial developments increase,” she says.

The work Gootman and Swinea are doing in the fluids lab will one day help inform issues like bank erosion, excess runoff, and water quality. “Our data provides information on the baseline physical dynamics of streams – how water functions as a filter,” Gootman says. “Having that information on hand can help us target places to study out in the real world.”

Story by Mary Lide Parker, Endeavors Magazine, 2017

Rudy Horne In Memoriam

Horne delivering the Blackwell–Wilkins Keynote Address at CAARMS 2017

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing this week of Rudy Horne, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Mathematics at UNC from 2002 until 2005. Rudy was a person with enormous spirit and he cheered us everyday he was in the Mathematics Department at Carolina.

Horne grew up in the south side of Chicago. His father worked at Sherwin-Williams, and Rudy graduated from Crete-Monee High School. He completed a double degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Oklahoma in 1991, and joined the University of Colorado Boulder for his postgraduate studies. Rudy earned a master’s degree in physics in 1994 and in mathematics in 1996. He completed his doctorate, Collision Induced Timing Jitter and Four-Wave Mixing in Wavelength Division Multiplexing Soliton Systems, in 2001, supervised by Mark J. Ablowitz. He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Applied Mathematics.

Rudy was most recently an Associate Professor at Morehouse College, teaching and inspiring undergraduates there to pursue athematics. His research was in nonlinear optics and he was known for uncovering effects in PT symmetric systems as well as his earlier work on four-wave mixing.

In 2016, Rudy worked on the production of the movie “Hidden Figures” as a mathematics consultant. The movie centers on three African-American women who played key roles in the US space program. Rudy’s role was to ensure the credibility of the mathematical ideas discussed and written on the blackboards during the movie. He was scheduled to deliver a public lecture at UNC in October about his experience participating in the creation of the movie, but had to cancel due to ill-health.

Congratulations Mark!

Congratulations to Professor Mark McCombs, winner of the Math Department Halloween Candy Guessing Game! There were 86 tootsie rolls in the jar, and Mark guessed 85. Congratulations, Mark! And Happy Halloween, from the Math Department!

AWM Receives Grant

We are excited to announce that our AWM Chapter has received funding to organize the first Association for Women in Mathematics Triangle Conference.” Francesca Bernardi and Katrina Morgan, with Dr. Katie Newhall as Faculty Advisor, have received funds through the “WATCH US” grant from the NSF INCLUDES program. This undergraduate/graduate conference will take place early in the Spring ’18 semester in the Mathematics Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with attendees from several local universities and colleagues.

Congratulations Francesca, Katrina, and Dr. Newhall!

Inaugural Sue E. Goodman Award

At the May 17 commencement ceremony, Jason Metcalfe was honored with the inaugural Sue E. Goodman Award. The award was presented by Professor Jeremy Marzuola, who, in his commencement address expressed his honor in “awarding someone who so embodies her devotion and passion for the craft of teaching.”

Jason graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2003, writing a thesis under Chris Sogge, then spent time at Georgia Tech and Berkeley before coming to UNC in 2007, where is now a full Professor. Jason’s research fopcuses on Partial Differential Equations, especially in areas related to nonlinear wave equations and General Relativity.

During his time here, Jason has taught many undergraduate courses, and worked on several successful research projects with undergraduates. He has received great praise for his ability to take difficult concepts and through a combination of thoughtfulness, care, and examples, explain them in ways that seem to connect with a remarkable number of students.

Jason has received multiple comments such as, “that is by far the most accessible a professor has ever been for me at UNC and my time with him was incredibly helpful,” and “if I could take every math class at UNC with Jason, I would.” Also, “Professor Metcalfe is amazing. He goes above and beyond for his students. His course is difficult but fair and if you put the work in it definitely shows. He works so hard, which is greatly appreciated. The plethora of material he endows us with really helps too!!”

If it were just one student saying such things, it would be an honor to have made such an impact. However, sentiments such as these are echoed by numerous students over numerous classes, which is truly remarkable.

Congratulations Professor Metcalfe on this well deserved honor!

Richard Rimanyi Distinguished Term Professor

Congratulations Professor Richard Rimanyi for being named as the Bowman & Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor!

The Bowman and Gordon Gray Professorship is one of the University’s most esteemed awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching. These professorships help Carolina support its best teachers and scholars, providing a salary supplement, an annual fund for research, and a one-semester research and study assignment during the five-year term of the award.

The late Gordon Gray, who graduated from UNC in 1930, and the estate of Bowman Gray Jr., a 1929 graduate, established the professorships in 1980 in the College of Arts and Sciences. Bernard Gray, UNC Class of 1972 and Gordon’s son, significantly enhanced the 5-year professorships with a gift in 1999 to expand the salary and research supplement, and include a semester-long sabbatical.

Rimanyi is the third member of the Department to hold this position, joining Peter Mucha, who received the award in 2012, and Professor Sue Goodman, who held the award from 1991 to 1994.

Congratulations to Professor Rimanyi on this well-deserved recognition!

Fluids Lab Attract Research Partners

Roberto Camassa’s research is very fluid. The Kenan Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics actively engages in collaborative projects ranging from oil spills to marine sciences to human disease. His partners include UNC faculty and graduate and undergraduate students in anthropology, physics, computer science and marine sciences.

“It really helps to hear from others with different expertise and to be exposed to different research,” Camassa said. “Sometimes you’re surprised when something turns out to be more salient to what you’re doing than you initially thought.”

One of his collaborators is Pierre-Yves Passaggia, a postdoctoral fellow in marine sciences. Passaggia is studying the dynamics of ocean circulation. Another collaborator is physics graduate student Jeff Olander, the lab safety and data manager in the Joint Applied Math and Marine Sciences Fluids Lab in Chapman Hall, the nexus for many shared studies.

The three scientists work together on fluid dynamics, a field that encompasses not just ocean currents and waves but also human airways, among other areas. For some of their work, they’re using a 120-foot wave tank that allows them to conduct large-scale experiments. The tank is one of the largest in the world that is completely optically accessible from all sides and will soon have its own fully recyclable salt-water storage and filtration system.

Passaggia collaborates with Camassa on underwater wave research, studying how the ocean makes exchanges among its different layers and how circulation takes place. Ocean water has a warm surface layer and a colder, denser layer underneath; this stratification of temperature and density causes underwater currents.

The scientists are interested in how fluids of different densities mix, sometimes causing powerful underwater currents that can pose a threat to ships and submarines.

“Since waves are conveniently described mathematically, we carry out experiments replicating ocean conditions that we can map to accurately predict what’s happening,” Passaggia said. “We fill the wave tank with different fluids of different densities and then generate large amplitude waves. Illuminating the tank using lasers, we can measure the characteristics of the waves very accurately using particle tracking and fluorescent dyes. Our results help us understand how the ocean makes exchanges between the different layers and how circulation takes place.”

Camassa and Olander partner to study the flow of complex fluids through small structures such as pipes. Complex fluids such as mucus share properties of both solids and liquids. Understanding the properties of these fluids has the potential to advance clinical research on cystic fibrosis and pediatric airways, for instance.

Olander has additional expertise with manipulating big data sets. “Jeff’s skills with DataTank, a software tool developed by my colleague David Adalsteinsson to handle large data sets, translates immediately across all types of experiments, which is very helpful,” Camassa said.

Passaggia confirms the benefits of cross-disciplinary work. “Collaborations comprise about 90 percent of my work. Applying tools from another discipline allows you to move forward and to do so very fast in research.”

Learn more about the fluids lab

Story by Dianne Gooch Shaw ’71