Following SIAM’s recent elections, we are pleased to announce our new Officers and Board and Council Members. Thank you to the entire slate of outstanding candidates for your willingness to serve the SIAM community in this capacity, and the SIAM members who cast your vote in the election.
President Elect
Lisa J. Fauci, Tulane University
Candidate Statement: SIAM is the premier organization for applied mathematics and serves the community world-wide. SIAM Journals continue to be the gold standard and SIAM conferences continue to create and nurture a vibrant network of applied mathematicians and computational scientists representing academia, industry and government. I have been fortunate to serve as a Council member and Board member, and I am continually impressed with the talent, dedication and ingenuity of SIAM’s leadership and staff.
SIAM’s membership is at a healthy level, and while challenges exist due to the changing landscape of publication, its journal program remains strong. SIAM has had record-breaking attendance at recent conferences, and it has been a pleasure to see the involvement of graduate students and early career members at mini-symposia, poster sessions and panels.
One of SIAM’s great strengths is its emphasis on bringing together those in the academic, government and industrial communities. Most students, both domestic and international, who complete a degree in applied mathematics or computational science will not end up working in a traditional tenure-track academic position. However, many of us who train students are ill-equipped to help our students navigate their opportunities outside of academia. I believe that SIAM can improve its role in identifying and coordinating such opportunities. Moreover, SIAM’s education activities can play a critical role in advising educators how to mentor their students to take advantage of opportunities outside academia.
Applied mathematics is widely accepted as a critical component of all areas of science, and scientific professional societies do embrace participation by applied mathematicians. SIAM should lead efforts to foster collaboration between applied scientists and mathematicians, and actively seek their increased participation in all SIAM activities.
Finally, applied mathematics will only continue to thrive when all members of the community are involved. As an organization that values diversity, SIAM must continually examine ways to promote participation in mathematics and ensure that its activities present a welcoming, interesting and a vibrant environment for all.
Vice President At Large
Carol S. Woodward, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Candidate Statement: SIAM has been and continues to be a strong professional resource for applied mathematicians and computational scientists in industry, government labs, and academia. SIAM’s conferences are frequently a place for connecting related work in differing applications and industries. SIAM journals are at the top of their respective areas and are typically the first place many go to for high-quality papers.
SIAM Activity Groups aid in connecting members with like research interests and foster healthy research communities. In addition, SIAM Prizes and Awards recognize achievements in applied mathematics and bring prestige to applied and industrial mathematics world-wide. In the coming years, however, new challenges will face our field and SIAM as the main society that serves it. I expect we will see continued growth in applied mathematics and computational science throughout the world. We are seeing significant changes in high-end computer architectures focusing demand for new algorithms and synergy between mathematicians and computer scientists. In addition, decreasing journal subscriptions and open access requirements are challenging the journal revenue generation that SIAM relies on for much of its budget. Through the office of Vice President At Large, I hope to help SIAM meet these challenges by supporting our Activity Groups in developing and maintaining their research communities and through stimulated recognition of our fields through the various SIAM Prize and Fellows Programs. This work will include helping SIAM continue to: strengthen its engagement with industrial applied mathematicians; expand its conferences and networking opportunities throughout our international community; and increase recognition for applied and industrial mathematics.
Secretary
Chen Greif, The University of British Columbia
Candidate Statement: SIAM is a central force in the applied mathematics community and the scientific community at large. It is successful in publishing high-quality research and scientific books; SIAM conferences are well attended; membership continues to grow; and SIAM student population and student chapters are seeing a positive upward trend.
With the growth come also new opportunities and challenges. As SIAM Secretary, if elected, I will work to keep the exceptional quality of SIAM and its activities, while thinking about innovation and renewal. I will strive to strengthen the diverse nature of SIAM committees, which form the engine that keeps this society going. Plenty of good work has been done in this front, and more work can be done, in particular during a period of growth. A primary challenge is to keep the strengths of SIAM while guaranteeing diversity in several fronts: gender, geography, seniority, research area, academia and industry representation, and other aspects. I will bring high energies to the role, as well as experience from other leadership roles that I have been fortunate to have. I look forward to having an opportunity to make a positive impact in fulfilling the vision and the important goals that stand in front of SIAM in the coming years.
Board of Trustees
Russel Caflisch, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences*
Candidate Statement: SIAM is a strong organization that provides valuable service to its members and the applied mathematics community through publications and conferences. It also represents the community to government agencies and the general public. I’ve had the privilege to serve on the Board for the past three years, and my focus has been on maintaining the high quality of SIAM journals and conferences, ensuring SIAM’s financial health, planning for an uncertain future environment for math and science, and addressing issues of access and diversity. I have broad interests in pure and applied mathematics and in science and technology, and want to see robust interaction of SIAM with the scientific and industrial communities. If I am reelected to the Board, I would be pleased to continue working for this great organization.
Tammy G. Kolda, Sandia National Laboratories*
Candidate Statement: SIAM is an exemplar professional society with world-class journals, stimulating conferences, and an active membership. But the landscape of our profession is forever changing, and we need to change along with it to stay relevant to our constituency. The Board of Trustees is charged with the management of SIAM, including monitoring and deciding the financial allocation of resources. In my first two terms, I have been passionate in my advocacy of the interests of the SIAM membership and the field at large, and it would be a privilege to serve for a third and final term if I am reelected.
I have always been particularly pleased to see SIAM's emphasis on diversity, not just gender and race, but also by considering that we have diversity in terms of including persons from industry and labs as well as academia, having representation from around the world, ensuring that both junior and senior persons have many options for participation in the society, and fostering an inclusive environment in all activities.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we've achieved our goals, so I will continue to work hard to make the society as welcoming as possible to all persons with interests in applied mathematics and related areas of research.
We often say that a strength of SIAM is its *mathematical* diversity --- we cover a broad range of topics in our journals and conferences, and it's my hope that we continue to expand so that we stay relevant. That said, new activities have costs (both financial and other resources), so we must also make wise decisions on expansion and even sometimes contraction. I will work to help SIAM find the right balance between charging forth into new areas while continuing to support our established areas of strength.
Last but not least, SIAM has growing attendance at meetings but its membership has remained largely stagnant. How can we make membership more appealing to members of our field and closely-related fields? How can we better recognize those members that are active and engaged in making SIAM great through work as referees, workshop and minisymposium organizers, editors, committee members, and much more? Are there new ways to involve industry members? How do we draw links between our different parts, like activity groups and student chapters?
Thank you for your participation in the SIAM election!
Esmond G. Ng, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Candidate Statement: The Board of Trustees is responsible for the management of SIAM. Over the years I have had the opportunity to be involved in many SIAM activities, such as serving on journal editorial boards and committees and organizing conferences. SIAM conferences and journals are of the highest scientific quality and among the most respected in their fields. This is an indication that the SIAM Board is functioning well.
SIAM is an international society for applied and industrial mathematics, as is evident from the conferences that have been held overseas and the number of SIAM Sections and Student Chapters outside the United States. According to the latest statistics from SIAM, about one third of the membership is from outside the U.S. While this is a healthy sign, I would like to see the non-U.S. membership grow further so that SIAM becomes a truly international professional society. Also, as I work in a non-academic environment, I see and appreciate the benefit of SIAM activities in industry and government research laboratories. However, only about 16% of the SIAM membership is from industry and government. While the percentage of membership from government organizations seems to be constant, the percentage of membership from industry appears to be declining over the years. It would benefit the society to work with industry and government research laboratories to increase the membership in these two sectors as well. Membership is vital to the success of SIAM, and increasing membership is one way to strengthen the society. If elected, I would work with SIAM to increase membership in all of these areas.
I have been a member of SIAM since I was a graduate student and I have benefited a great deal from this fantastic international professional society for applied and industrial mathematics. It would be an honor for me to have the opportunity of serving on the Board of Trustee so I could give back to the community.
Council Members At Large
Raymond Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong*
Candidate Statement: Being a SIAM journal editor from outside the US for the last 17 years, I have witnessed SIAM's spectacular growth to become a global influence. Its journals are of the highest standards in their respective fields and colleagues around the world are proud to have their papers published in SIAM's journals. Its conferences are becoming more international too with more being held outside of the US and attracting participants from many countries. SIAM is opening up new Activity Groups to cover additional fields in applied mathematics while its membership is expanding worldwide to every corner of the world. SIAM is therefore the best place to promote applied mathematics research and raise public awareness of applied mathematics globally. It would be my honor to have the opportunity to continue to serve SIAM in these areas, especially in promoting and enhancing understanding and collaborations between SIAM and other parts of the world.
Laura Grigori, INRIA France
Candidate Statement: I will be honoured to serve as a member of the SIAM Council. For me joining SIAM was a (professional) life changing experience and it will be my ambition as a Council member to ensure that this is also the case for the next generation of SIAM members. Internal and external contexts within which the Society operates are ever-changing and to continue its role, SIAM should address successfully a few major issues. I will be particularly concerned about the following aspects.
First, I believe SIAM should continue to attract new students and young researchers to applied mathematics and extend its international reach. From my personal experience summer schools and programs are particularly effective means in achieving such goals. They educate but also they are melting-pots of ideas and springboards to life-long, fruitful collaborations. These should continue and be strongly supported. These also could and should be extended to reach out already to high school students bringing to them the taste of the cutting-edge research in an appealing form directly from the best practitioners in the field.
Second, the Society needs to lead the way in attracting underrepresented minorities to applied mathematics. This needs to be addressed on multiple fronts, by simultaneously creating a welcoming environment within the community and developing outreach programs to attract and encourage interested individuals. We also need to be more accountable and transparent in this respect.
Third, the open-access era is looming as the next big change in the way we disseminate our research. The potential is fantastic as is the envisageable impact. However, realistic sustainable models of implementing it are urgently needed. I believe that SIAM could be on the forefront of the on-going discussions in this area.
Lois Curfman McInnes, Argonne National Laboratory
Candidate Statement: SIAM is the leading international professional society for advancing the principles of applied mathematics as well as computational science and engineering (CSE), while fostering the vibrant exchange of ideas among a community of applied mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, and domain scientists from academia, industry, and research laboratories.
SIAM should continue to play a prominent role in advancing next-generation interdisciplinary strategies for applied mathematics and CSE in light of recent trends—including significant broadening of application fields and industrial opportunities, dramatic growth of computational power, the increasing role of data science, and recognition of the importance of flexible software as a cornerstone of long-term collaboration as we work toward truly predictive CSE. SIAM also has an opportunity to promote dialogue on strategies to address the growing demand for an international workforce with skills in applied mathematics as well as computational and data science.
I would be honored to serve as a member of the SIAM Council. Key issues from my perspective include promoting interdisciplinary education and research; extending connections among the academic, industrial, and research laboratory segments of the international SIAM community; and promoting broader engagement in SIAM from under-represented groups. SIAM’s activity groups, conferences, journals, career fairs, student chapters, and online presence are important avenues for community engagement on these crosscutting issues.
Padma Raghavan, Vanderbilt University*
Candidate Statement: SIAM is now globally recognized for our pivotal role in the development of computational science and engineering. SIAM earned this preeminent status, first, by seeing the potential of this emerging area more than three decades ago, and then, by leveraging established strengths in foundational aspects of applied mathematics and computer science. Today, there are increasing opportunities for advances in science through insights gained from the analysis of data from a variety of sources: simulations, scientific instruments, and networked communities. I would like to continue to serve on the Council to engage with the SIAM community in developing our response to this emerging area, data science, in concert with our established strengths. By recognizing these opportunities and by leveraging our strengths, SIAM can play a critical role in advancing mathematical rigor while gaining recognition as the authoritative entity for informing science policy in the data-rich digital age.
* indicates incumbent
Learn more about the SIAM General Election.