Mathematics

Dr. Joceline Lega is a professor of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics (GIDP), and Public Health at the University of Arizona, and a member of the Bio 5 Institute. She was educated in France and graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1988. She holds a Licence (equivalent B.Sc.) and a Maîtrise (M.Sc.) in Physics, both from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (formerly Paris VI), as well as a postgraduate degree (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) in Dynamical Systems and Turbulence, and a doctorate in Theoretical Physics from the University of Nice (1989). Prior to joining the University of Arizona in 1997, Dr. Lega was a full time scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Her research interests are in the modeling of nonlinear phenomena, with applications to physics, nonlinear optics, and biology. Her work combines mathematical modeling, mostly in terms of difference or differential equations, mathematical analysis of the models, and numerical simulations, each of these approaches building upon and informing the others. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals that specialize in nonlinear science, as well as in fluid dynamics, nonlinear optics, molecular and cellular biology, neuroscience, geosciences, and more recently, mosquito-borne diseases. Dr. Lega is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Joseph C. Watkins is Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics at the University of Arizona. Dr. Watkins has published works in the foundations of the theory of probability and has collaborated extensively with researchers in a variety of the life sciences, notably, genetics, biophysics, anthropology, bacteriology, entomology, and biochemistry. He was recognized in 2009 by the College of Science for his contributions in being named a Galileo Circle Fellow. Dr. Watkins work includes both new results in stochastic modeling and in both the theoretical and practical aspects of statistics. His research interests are broad, from understanding the mechanism of the Africanization of the honeybee to the dynamics of single molecule motors to the ancient structure of human populations in Africa. Dr. Watkins has been a leader at the University of Arizona in the interdisciplinary training at the biology/math interface both at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has been a co-investigator for an IGERT training grant and is a member of the steering committee for an NIH training grant housed in an Applied Mathematics Program. In addition, Dr. Watkins serves as the chair of the Undergraduate Biology Research Program’s Biomath Committee.

Walter W. Piegorsch, Ph.D., PStat, is a Professor of Mathematics and the Director of Statistical Research & Education at the University of Arizona’s BIO5 Institute. He is also a Professor of Public Health and a Member (and former Chair) of the University’s Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics. Dr. Piegorsch studies data science for environmental and public health applications, with emphasis on environmental risk assessment and informatics for precision medicine. He has developed new bioinformatic methods for identifying differentially expressed genetic pathways with single-subject data, and he currently leads a team developing statistical methods for estimating benchmark dose markers in environmental risk assessment. This latter research has been funded by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute. He also has constructed statistical models for data from transgenic bio-technologies, developed guidelines for the design of bioassays in select transgenic animal systems, and has proposed retrospective designs for analyzing gene-environment and gene-nutrient interactions in human population studies. Dr. Piegorsch’s work has led to over 200 journal articles and book chapters, five books, and he has served as Editor for two scientific encyclopedias. Dr. Piegorsch has held a number of professional positions, including Chairman of the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics & the Environment (2004) and election to the Council of the International Biometric Society (2002-2005). From 2010-2019 he served as Editor-in-Chief of Environmetrics, the oldest scientific journal publishing on the development and application of quantitative methods in the environmental sciences. He also has served as Joint-Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association (Theory & Methods Section), and as a member of many journal editorial boards, including Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, Mutation Research, and Biometrics. Dr. Piegorsch has been honored as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a Member (by Election) of the International Statistical Institute, and has received the Distinguished Achievement Medal of the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment. Keywords: "statistics", "data analytics", "environmetrics", "quantitative risk assessment"

Biomedical imaging, in general, and various modalities of tomography are now an important part of medical practice and biomedical research. I develop mathematics of biomedical imaging. All modalities of tomography imaging rely heavily on mathematical algorithms for forming an image. My work involves developing the theory and the algorithm enabling this technology. By developing these techniques further, I contribute to improving health and life in the 21st century. Keywords: Electromagnetic and acoustic scattering; wave propagation; photonic crystals; spectral properties of high contrast band-gap materials and operators on graphs; computerized tomography.