In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, SIAM is recognizing the achievements of Hispanic American mathematicians throughout September and October. Dr. Ricardo Cortez is the Pendergraft William Larkin Duren Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Center for Computational Science at Tulane University. He is a longtime member of SIAM, a SIAM Fellow, and a member of the SIAM Activity Group on Mathematics Education. Dr. Cortez has been a SIAM volunteer for many years, serving on the Fellows Selection Committee, Fellows Canvassing Committee, Diversity Committee, SIAM Review Editorial Board, and SIAM Coordinating Committee for the Joint Mathematics Meeting.
Research
Dr. Cortez’s research is in computational fluid dynamics, with particular emphasis on the development and analysis of computational methods for the simulation of biological fluid flows. He is best known for introducing and developing the method of Regularized Stokeslets, which has become a standard computational framework for engineers and physicists studying fluid flow around microorganisms. Throughout his career, Dr. Cortez has promoted interdisciplinary collaborations that combine computational methods with experimental work and theory. In recent years, Dr. Cortez has developed research interests in mathematical modeling within secondary mathematics education.
Education and Accolades
Dr. Cortez received bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and mechanical engineering from Arizona State University. He earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley. While there, he received the Bernard Friedman Award for outstanding dissertation research. Dr. Alexandre Chorin was Dr. Cortez’s Ph.D. advisor and mentor. After graduation, Dr. Cortez became a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow and instructor at the Courant Institute at New York University.
Early in his faculty appointment at Tulane University, Dr. Cortez received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty from Underrepresented Groups from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. More recently, he was elected a Class of 2017 SIAM Fellow, and a 2021 American Mathematical Society Fellow. Dr. Cortez has been honored twice from the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), first with a Distinguished Undergraduate Institution Mentor Award for his work mentoring undergraduates, and then with their Presidential Award. Dr. Cortez was the 2012 recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia prize for significant contributions to research and for serving as a role model for mathematical scientists and students from underrepresented minority groups.
Dr. Cortez is a member of the Editorial Boards of Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles Journal of Computational Mathematics, and La Matematica, a journal of the Association of Women in Math. He serves on Advisory Committees at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, and several NSF funded projects around the country.
Thank you for your dedication to SIAM and applied mathematics, Dr. Cortez!