May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in the U.S., a commemorative month to recognize the historical and cultural contributions of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians. In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, SIAM will be spotlighting Asian American and Pacific Islander mathematicians within our community for their contributions to applied mathematics and computational and data science. We encourage you to join us by learning more about Chao Chen, Edmond Chow, Mary Ann Leung, and Sherry Li below!
Chao Chen
Dr. Chao Chen is an assistant professor at North Carolina State University in the department of mathematics. He received a B.S. in information and computational mathematics from Nankai University (2012) and holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in computational and mathematical engineering from Stanford University (2014; 2018). His research focuses on developing efficient algorithms for matrix computations on modern parallel computers with applications to scientific computing and data science. Learn more about Dr. Chen.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Chen’s research, his involvement in SIAM, and his advice to early career professionals.
Edmond Chow
Dr. Edmond Chow is professor and Associate Chair in the School of Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research involves developing numerical methods specialized for high-performance computers and applying these methods to enable the solution of large-scale physical simulation problems in science and engineering. He previously held positions at D. E. Shaw Research and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
In graduate school, Dr. Chow was part of Asian American Renaissance, an arts organization in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, that reached out to young immigrant students from different parts of Asia and helped them find their voices through creative writing. After earning his Ph.D., Dr. Chow was also a part of Kearny Street Workshop, an Asian Pacific American arts organization, where he taught a poetry writing course and served on its board of directors. Although Dr. Chow was helping to build a community of Asian Americans in the arts, he found these experiences personally enriching and empowering, and he thoroughly enjoyed engaging with new people through a shared cause.
Dr. Chow’s involvement in SIAM as a member for the past 31 years has grown as his career has progressed, including serving on the editorial board of SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing and organizing SIAM conferences. He is a 2021 SIAM Fellow and currently serves as Program Director of the SIAM Activity Group on Computational Science and Engineering, in which the officers are discussing ways to build community at the fringes where there might not be a critical mass of applied and computational mathematicians, such as students at smaller schools or SIAM members who work in industry. SIAM has been a way for Dr. Chow to serve beyond his own institution and, like his earlier experiences in AAPI arts organizations, the people he meets are inspiring in their own work and in their vision for the community.
As advice to early career professionals, Dr. Chow notes that a working career is long, and there will be many changes around. He suggests “being open to these changes, being ready to adapt, and even take charge of positive change.” He also emphasizes the importance of taking time to nurture all the different aspects of oneself, which could include being an active part of a community.
Mary Ann Leung
A computational chemist by training, Dr. Mary Ann Leung is an experienced author and researcher, and the President of Sustainable Horizons Institute. Her research interests include the development of scalable, parallel, scientific codes for the investigation of quantum mechanical phenomena with applications in quantum computing, as well as STEM education, workforce development, and diversity and inclusion. She graduated with honors from Mills College, earning a B.A. in chemistry with a minor in math. She holds an M.S. degree and a Ph.D. in computational physical chemistry from the University of Washington.
Dr. Leung is a nationally acclaimed leader in the design and implementation of innovative programs aimed at developing the next generation of STEM leaders. She is also the founder of Sustainable Horizons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating a diverse STEM workforce prepared to be leaders and add new dimensions to innovation. She heads up a variety of programs aimed at diversifying the U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory workforce as well as catalyzing change in the broader professional community to normalize inclusion. In addition to programmatic work, the nonprofit consults with organizations and provides recommendations on workforce development and diversity and inclusion. Dr. Leung serves on the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee, as an editor in the diversity and inclusion department for the Computing in Science and Engineering magazine and served on the Congressionally-mandated National Academies study of the NASA University Leadership Initiative.
Dr. Leung has been a member of SIAM for 23 years and currently serves on the SIAM Careers Opportunity Committee and the 2025 SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering Organizing Committee. Previously, she has served on the 2015 SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering Organizing Committee and the SIAM Education Committee.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Leung’s research, her involvement in SIAM, and her advice to early career professionals.
Sherry Li
Dr. Sherry Li is a Senior Scientist in the Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.S. in math and computer science from Penn State University, and a B.S. in computer science from Tsinghua University in China. Dr. Li has worked on diverse problems in high performance scientific computations, including parallel computing, sparse matrix computations, high precision arithmetic, and combinatorial scientific computing. She has co-authored over 130 publications and contributed to several book chapters. She is the lead developer of SuperLU, a widely-used sparse direct solver and has contributed to the development of several other mathematical libraries including ARPREC, LAPACK, PDSLin, STRUMPACK, and XBLAS. She has collaborated with many domain scientists to deploy the advanced mathematical software in their application codes, including those from accelerator engineering, chemical science, earth science, plasma fusion energy science, and materials science.
Dr. Li has been a SIAM member for 30 years, was named a 2016 SIAM Fellow, and elected as the SIAM Vice President-at-Large. She also serves on several committees including the SIAM Committee On Programs and Conferences, the SIAM Committee On Committees and Appointments, the SIAM Membership Committee, the SIAM Major Awards Committee, and the SIAM Activity Group on Linear Algebra Early Career Prize Committee. Previously, Dr. Li has served on the editorial boards of the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, the International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, and SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, as well as many program committees of the scientific conferences. Additionally, she is a senior member of ACM.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Li’s research, her involvement in SIAM, and her advice to early career professionals.