NJIT distinguished professor named inaugural Fellow of Math Society

NJIT Distinguished Professor Robert M. Miura, http://www.njit.edu/news/experts/miura.php, has been named a 2013 inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). This first class will honor 1119 scholars, representing more than 600 institutions. Fellows have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics, according to the Society. Miura is a resident of Milburn Township.

Miura has joint NJIT appointments in the department of mathematical sciences in the College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA) and in the department of biomedical engineering in Newark College of Engineering. His research focuses on developing mathematical models in neuroscience for cell and tissue dynamics. He helps biologists understand how and why a type of depressed brain activity propagates as a slow pathological wave. In humans, this wave is associated with migraine and aura headaches, stroke and traumatic brain injury.

CSLA Dean and Professor Fadi Deek congratulated Miura on the honor. ""Following his well-known and much celebrated work on the Korteweg-de Vries equation, Dr. Miura has turned his attention to developing mathematical models in neuroscience for cell and tissue dynamics which have resulted in pioneering contributions to the understanding of cortical spreading depression. The mathematical biology group at NJIT, of which Dr. Miura is a senior member, has garnered national recognition as one of the most productive groups of math biologists in a mathematics department in North America."

A Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2009), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), the Royal Society of Canada (1995) and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1980), Miura joined NJIT in 2001. Prior to that, he spent 26 years at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, as a professor of mathematics.

Earlier in his career, Miura solved the Korteweg-de Vries equation with mathematicians from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. To solve the Korteweg-de Vries equation, Miura helped develop the inverse scattering method for solving nonlinear partial differential equations. In January 2006, Miura shared the prestigious Leroy P. Steele Prize for a Seminal Contribution To Research In Mathematics from the American Mathematical Society. The prize honors the work of Miura and his co-authors C.S. Gardner, J.M. Greene and M.D. Kruskal.

Regarding the new Fellows of the AMS program and the Society, AMS President Eric M. Friedlander says, "The AMS is the world's largest and most influential society dedicated to mathematical research, scholarship, and education. Recent advances in mathematics include solutions to age-old problems and key applications useful for society. The new AMS Fellows Program recognizes some of the most accomplished mathematicians—AMS members who have contributed to our understanding of deep and important mathematical questions, to applications throughout the scientific world, and to educational excellence."

Provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology