Each year for Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics—a collaboration between SIAM, the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, and the Mathematical Association of America—holds a month-long celebration to enhance public understanding and appreciation of mathematics and statistics.
Mathematical and statistical research drives technological innovation and leads to discoveries of broad societal importance across many scientific fields. Throughout the month of April, universities, high schools, student groups, research institutions, public information offices, and other related organizations host math-related workshops, competitions, lectures, and other activities. We encourage you to join the celebration and share your math-related festivities using the hashtag #MathStatMonth on social media.
To celebrate Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, SIAM will be highlighting influential mathematicians and statisticians from our community, featuring Jack Dongarra, Anshu Dubey, and Suzanne Shontz.
Jack Dongarra
Dr. Jack Dongarra received a bachelor of science in mathematics from Chicago State University (1972) and a master of science in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology (1973). He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of New Mexico (1980). He worked at the Argonne National Laboratory until 1989, becoming a senior scientist.
He now holds an appointment as University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of Tennessee and has the titles of Distinguished Research Staff member in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Turing Fellow at the University of Manchester, and computer science adjunct professor at Rice University.
He specializes in numerical algorithms in linear algebra, parallel computing, the use of advanced-computer architectures, programming methodology, and tools for parallel computers. His research includes the development, testing, and documentation of high quality mathematical software. Learn more about Dr. Dongarra.
Dr. Dongarra has been a member of SIAM for 42 years and was named a 2009 SIAM Fellow. He has been actively involved with the SIAM community for multiple decades, and currently serves on the SIAM Committee on Science Policy. He served on the SIAM Council for six years and has presented many times at SIAM conferences. He was also the founding chair of the SIAM Activity Group on Supercomputing and subsequently became the first recipient of the SIAM Activity Group on Supercomputing Career Prize in 2010. In addition, he received the 2019 SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering and has written a number of SIAM books, including several software user guides and Numerical Linear Algebra for High-Performance Computers.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Dongarra’s career and his advice to early career professionals.
Anshu Dubey
Dr. Anshu Dubey received her bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (1985), master’s degree from Auburn University (1990), and Ph.D. in computer science from Old Dominion University (1993). She then joined the University of Chicago as a research associate and was promoted to research scientist (1998). In 2001, she joined the University of Chicago’s Flash Center for Computational Science as lead application programmer, where she became computer science applications group leader (2003), and then associate director (2010). From 2013-2015, Dr. Dubey was a staff member at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, serving as work lead and computer systems engineer in the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group. Subsequently, she joined the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne as a computational scientist (2015). Currently, she is a Senior Computational Scientist and Research and Development Leader at Argonne and a Senior Scientist in the Computer Science Department at the University of Chicago. Learn more about Dr. Dubey.
Dr. Dubey has been an active SIAM member for the past decade, presenting talks at multiple SIAM conferences, and most recently served as an organizing committee co-chair for the 2024 SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Dubey’s career and her advice to early career professionals.
Suzanne Shontz
Dr. Suzanne Shontz received her B.A. in mathematics and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa (1999) and her M.S. degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from Cornell University (2002). She also received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Cornell (2005). Prior to joining the University of Kansas in August 2014, she was a faculty member at Mississippi State and The Pennsylvania State University. Previously, Dr. Shontz was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Research Scholar at the University of Minnesota. At the University of Kansas, she now holds the position of Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the School of Engineering, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Director of the Computational Bioengineering Track, and Director of Mathematical Methods in Interdisciplinary Computing Center at the Institute for Information Sciences.
Dr. Shontz is the recipient of a 2011 NSF Presidential Early CAREER Award (NSF PECASE Award) from the White House for her 2010 NSF CAREER Project on parallel dynamic meshing algorithms, theory, and software for simulation-assisted medical interventions. She has also been actively involved as a SIAM member for 25 years, and currently serves on the SIAM Coordinating Committee for the JMM and the SIAM Committee on Activity Groups. Learn more about Dr. Shontz.
Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Shontz’s career and her advice to early career professionals.