SIAM Introduces Its Newly Elected Leadership

By Lina Sorg

At the end of 2023, the SIAM community voted in the annual election to select the Society’s new and returning leadership:¹ the incoming President-Elect, Vice President-at-Large, Secretary, three members of the SIAM Board of Trustees, and four members of the SIAM Council.

The President-Elect will shadow current President Sven Leyffer (Argonne National Laboratory) for the entirety of 2024 and serve as President from January 1, 2025, until December 31, 2026. The newly elected Vice President-at-Large and Secretary began their terms on January 1 and will retain their positions until December 31, 2025. New and returning members of the SIAM Board of Trustees and SIAM Council will remain in office until December 31, 2026.

Here, SIAM’s newest leadership—all of whom have been dedicated, involved members throughout the years—react to their recent appointments and share their goals for their time of service. Their full candidate statements are available online. 

President-Elect

Carol Woodward (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory): “I am delighted and grateful to have been selected as President-Elect of SIAM. The opportunity to serve SIAM as President-Elect—and later as President—is both a tremendous honor and responsibility. SIAM has long been a bedrock for applied mathematicians, providing crucial support, recognition, and connections. As we confront new challenges—explosive growth in data science, shifts in computational science, and financial complexities—I am committed to helping SIAM meet these challenges while maintaining its extremely high-quality and successful activities. I plan to support our journals and programs, expand global connections, and champion diversity. With collective support, we’ll navigate these changes and ensure that SIAM remains the go-to hub for applied mathematics by embracing excellence and fostering a welcoming community.”

Vice President-at-Large

Xiaoye Sherry Li (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory): “I am deeply honored to have been elected by my colleagues to serve as the Vice President-at-Large for SIAM. SIAM is a vibrant community that fosters the rapid growth of interdisciplinary fields in computational science and engineering. I am committed to working with the community to establish closer collaborations among theoreticians and practitioners; expand nontraditional areas that require cross-cutting technologies, such as the analysis of experimental data from scientific instruments and robust artificial intelligence/machine learning; and provide more opportunities for undergraduate students, graduate students, and other junior scholars.”

Secretary

Karen Devine (Sandia National Laboratories, retired): “I am honored to be elected as SIAM Secretary. Thank you to all of the SIAM election candidates for their willingness to serve. My goal is to increase member participation in SIAM activities, and I invite all members—especially early-career individuals—to enhance their careers by getting more deeply involved with SIAM. SIAM’s website offers a list of opportunities for involvement; please feel free to contact me for more information. I’d love to hear from you!”

The newly elected leadership of SIAM. Top row, left to right: President-Elect Carol Woodward (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Vice President-at-Large Xiaoye Sherry Li (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Secretary Karen Devine (Sandia National Laboratories, retired), and SIAM Board of Trustees members Liliana Borcea (University of Michigan) and Jan S. Hesthaven (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). Bottom row, left to right: SIAM Board of Trustees member Cynthia Phillips (Sandia National Laboratories) and SIAM Council members Elizabeth Cherry (Georgia Institute of Technology), Hans De Sterck (University of Waterloo), Judith Hill (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and Andrea Walther (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Photos courtesy of the elected individuals.

SIAM Board of Trustees

Liliana Borcea* (University of Michigan): “I am honored to be re-elected and serve alongside the distinguished scientists on the SIAM Board of Trustees. My focus will remain on increasing the impact and visibility of SIAM and applied mathematics as key players when addressing the ever-growing scope and complexity of problems that are driven by rapidly developing technological discoveries and an explosion of data. I would also like SIAM to play an even stronger role in recruiting and training a versatile generation of scientists who can move easily between disciplines and have impactful careers in academia, research labs, and industry.”

Jan S. Hesthaven* (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne): “It is always a special honor to be elected by the SIAM membership as their voice on the SIAM Board of Trustees. The solutions to many major challenges of the day—e.g., climate change, the energy transition, or the continued development of artificial intelligence to drive innovation in science and technology—are all deeply anchored in computational and applied mathematics. These rapid and extensive changes will require us to rethink education and promote an increased societal understanding of emerging advanced technologies, some of which will be truly transformative. I look forward to helping to position SIAM as a key stakeholder in this transformation.”

Cynthia Phillips (Sandia National Laboratories): “It was such a happy surprise to be elected to the SIAM Board of Trustees. With so many strong candidates, I am grateful for and humbled by the support from SIAM membership. During my term, SIAM will likely need to update its policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT in publications. I hope to contribute to discussions about allowable use, such as for automatic grammar correction, which is a service to authors who are not native English speakers and to editors and reviewers. However, I believe SIAM should be cautious about allowing AI tools to write other aspects of technical papers.”

SIAM Council

Elizabeth Cherry* (Georgia Institute of Technology): “I am honored to have been re-elected for a second term on the SIAM Council. I have been proud to call SIAM my professional home since I was a graduate student, and I want SIAM to play that same role in the lives of both new and established practitioners in applied and industrial mathematics and adjacent fields. It is a privilege to continue to serve SIAM in this role, help maintain the Society’s prominence as a global leader, and address new challenges and opportunities.”

Hans De Sterck* (University of Waterloo): “I am thrilled to continue my engagement as a member of the SIAM Council for another three-year term. There is no shortage of topics that will require the Council’s specific attention: SIAM’s positioning with respect to open-access publishing and reproducibility, the goal of making real improvements to equity and diversity in our field, and effective conference formats in a post-pandemic world. With its leading journals and conferences, SIAM is a great asset to our scientific community. I look forward to helping increase the reach and effectiveness of the Society as a member of the SIAM Council.”

Judith Hill (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory): “I am very honored and humbled to have been elected to the SIAM Council. I hope to champion ways for SIAM to enhance its engagement with current and future student members through increased conference participation, mentorship opportunities, and professional involvement in student chapters. To ensure that we have diverse viewpoints that represent the many experiences in our Society and profession, we must support our future members in order to retain as many perspectives as possible. I look forward to serving our community.”

Andrea Walther (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): “I am very grateful and honored to have been elected by my colleagues to serve on the SIAM Council. We have many challenges to address in order to maintain SIAM’s success: incorporating and addressing machine learning in mathematical research, providing networking opportunities and face-to-face meetings with as small a carbon footprint as possible, increasing the accessibility of publications for researchers all over the world, and supporting the professional development of young scientists in increasingly demanding environments.”

Lina Sorg is the managing editor of SIAM News.