Liliana Borcea
George P. Livanos Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
Professor Borcea's research interests are in applied mathematics, with particular interests in wave propagation in random media with applications to wave-based imaging and free space optical communications; inverse problems for hyperbolic, elliptic, and parabolic partial differential equations; and data-driven reduced order modeling and applications to inverse problems.
Professor Borcea earned her undergraduate degree in Applied Physics from the University of Bucharest in Romania and her PhD in Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics (SCCM) from Stanford University. Following a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Caltech, she joined the faculty in the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University in 1996 and was named the Noah Harding Professor in 2007. She then joined the Mathematics faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she has been the Peter Field Collegiate Professor of Mathematics since 2013.
Professor Borcea was recognized as the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer for 2017, selected "for her distinguished scientific contributions to the mathematical and numerical analysis of wave propagation in random media, array imaging in complex environments, and inverse problems in high-contrast electrical impedance tomography, as well as model reduction techniques for parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations." She is a member of the 2018 class of SIAM Fellows and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
Research Areas
- Wave Propagation in Random Media with Applications to Wave-Based Imaging and Free-Space Optical Communications
- Inverse Problems for Hyperbolic, Elliptic, and Parabolic Partial Differential Equations
- Data-Driven Reduced Order Modeling and Applications to Inverse Problems
- Scientific Computing
Additional Information
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Professional Experience
- George P. Livanos Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, July 2024 -
- Peter Field Collegiate Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, 2013-2024
- Noah Harding Professor, Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University, 2007-2013
- Associate Professor, Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University, 2001-2007
- Assistant Professor, Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University, 1996-2001
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Honors & Awards
- 2023 Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2022 Rothschild Distinguished Visiting Fellowship (for the year 2023), Isaac Newton Institute of
- Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University, UK
- 2022 Plenary Speaker, SIAM Imaging Science Conference
- 2020 Elected to the SIAM Board of Trustees for two terms: (2021-2023) and (2024-2025).
- 2019 Editor in chief, SIAM Journal Multiscale Modeling and Simulations. First term: (2019-2022)
- and reappointed for second term (2023-2025)
- 2018 SIAM Fellow
- 2018 Distinguished Women in Mathematics lecture, University of Texas, Austin
- 2017 The AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky prize
- 2015 Simons Fellow in Mathematics
- 2014 Elected to the SIAM Council. Served two terms: 2014-2017 & 2017-2020
- 2013 Peter Field Collegiate chair, University of Michigan.
- 2012 SIAM SIGEST award.
- 2010 NSA Research Professorship, MSRI Berkeley
- 2007 Noah Harding chair, Rice University
- 2007 Plenary speaker, AMS West Section Meeting, Tucson, AZ.
- 2004 Invited topical speaker, SIAM Annual meeting, Portland, OR
- 1996-99 NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
- 1994-96 NSF Graduate Research Traineeship
- 1992-93 Stanford NASA Ames Global Change fellowship
- 1983 Laureate of the national contest \Traian Lalescu" between all Romanian Physics Universities
- 1982 Laureate of the Romanian National Olympiad in Physics
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Education
- PhD (1996) Stanford University. Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics.
- MS (1994) Stanford University. Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics.
- BS (1987) University of Bucharest, Romania. Department of Applied Physics.