Applied Mathematics News

Learn more about the recent research accomplishments, contributions, and awards of our Applied Mathematics faculty members and students.

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Data Science in Context: Foundations, Challenges, Opportunities

Columbia University professors Jeannette M. Wing and Chris H. Wiggins collaborated with Alfred Spector (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Peter Norvig (Stanford University) to complete a new textbook, Data... More

Jun 13 2022 | Columbia University Data Science Institute

Why we’re seeing so many deadly floods

Read Prof. Adam Sobel's latest article in CNN Opinion More

Sep 22 2023 | CNN

Sobel Named AGU Fellow

Professor Adam Sobel has been named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union More

Sep 14 2023

Montreal Protocol Is Delaying First Ice-Free Arctic Summer

New research shows that the 1987 global treaty, designed to protect the ozone layer, has postponed the occurrence of the first ice-free Arctic by as much as 15 More

May 22 2023 | By Holly Evarts

Spiegelman Receives Society of Columbia Graduates' Great Teacher Award

Marc Spiegelman is the recipient of the Society of Columbia Graduates' Great Teacher Award in Columbia College More

Apr 27 2023

The wild evolution of data science and how to unpack it

An excerpt from "How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms" by Chris Wiggins and Matthew L Jones More

Apr 26 2023 | Big Think

How El Niño May Test the Limits of Our Climate Knowledge

Read Prof. Adam Sobel's latest article in Time, "How El Niño May Test the Limits of Our Climate Knowledge" More

Mar 17 2023 | Time.com

Tian '17 Named Sloan Fellow and Received an NSF Career Award

Dr. Xiaochuan Tian '17 was named a 2023 Sloan Fellow and received an NSF Career Award. More

Feb 22 2023

Polvani Named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Professor Lorenzo Polvani has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the Section on Atmospheric & Hydrospheric More

Feb 02 2023

In Memoriam: C.K. Chu

Columbia Engineering and Applied Science community mourns the loss and celebrates the life of Chia-Kun (John) Chu, the Fu Foundation Professor Emeritus of More

Jan 04 2023

What Is the State of Data Science Today?

Jeannette Wing and Chris Wiggins are co-authors of a book on the promises and perils of the burgeoning field. More

Dec 08 2022 | Columbia News

A climate scientist’s personal reckoning

Professor Adam Sobel - A climate scientist’s personal reckoning More

Nov 23 2022 | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Where the hurricane risk is growing

Read Prof. Adam Sobel's latest opinion piece in CNN More

Oct 04 2022 | https://www.cnn.com

Spiegelman Named AGU Fellow

Prof. Marc Spiegelman was elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU More

Sep 23 2022

New Applied Mathematics Faculty Member: Shanyin Tong

Shanyin Tong has joined the Applied Mathematics faculty More

Jul 13 2022

The Supreme Court’s EPA decision heralds a broad assault on democracy

How bad, specifically, is the ruling for the climate? It’s not good. But it certainly doesn’t end the energy transition, either. It still allows the EPA some More

Jul 01 2022 | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Ren Wins Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award

Prof. Kui Ren has won the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association's Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award More

May 26 2022

Statistical Methods for Climate Scientists

Congratulations to Timothy Delsole and Michael Tippett on the publication of their new book - Statistical Methods for Climate Scientists More

May 12 2022 | cambridge.org

TEDxBroadway Features Adam Sobel

Adam Sobel is a featured speaker at 2022 TEDxBroadway on Tuesday, May 17th at 2pm More

Mar 25 2022 | TEDxBroadway

A Climate Science Midlife Crisis

Listen to Prof. Adam Sobel's recent interview on Sea Change Radio - A Climate Science Midlife Crisis More

Mar 18 2022 | Sea Change Radio

Sobel's Article Named One of the Best Climate Stories of the Year

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have named Prof. Adam Sobel's article, "Big Oil’s lies about climate change—a climate scientist’s take," one of the best More

Jan 04 2022 | The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

COP 26 highlights an infuriating, depressing, miserable situation. And yet...

Prof. Adam Sobel latest article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences More

Nov 18 2021 | Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences

Multidisciplinary Research Team Awarded $1.2M NSF Grant to Improve Traffic Management in Real Time

Qiang Du, the Fu Foundation Professor of Applied Mathematics, is part of team of a Columbia team who have been awarded $1.2M NSF grant More

Oct 14 2021

Du will Present SIAM Invited Address at JMM 2022

Prof. Qiang Du will present the SIAM invited address at the Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM) 2022. More

Sep 29 2021

ENSO-Based Predictability of a Regional Severe Thunderstorm Index

Prof. Michael Tippett and his colleague, Dr. Chiara Lepore from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, "use coupled climate model forecasts of Niño 3.4 and a More

Sep 22 2021 | AGU

Sobel in the News

Prof. Adam Sobel was recently featured in numerous news outlets regarding hurricanes and extreme weather. More

Nov 18 2021

Climate scientist: This is a dystopian moment

CNN Opinion by Prof. Adam Sobel More

Sep 04 2021 | CNN Opinion

Sobel Tracks Tropical Storm Henri

Prof. Adam Sobel tracks Hurricane Henri in The New York Times More

Aug 21 2021

New York City not prepared for extreme weather

“We’re pretty confident that hurricanes are getting stronger overall, in terms of their winds, and New York gets the tailings of them,” said Adam Sobel. More

Sep 02 2021 | Crains

Big Oil’s lies about climate change—a climate scientist’s take

Adam Sobel shares a climate scientist’s perspective on big oil’s lies about climate change More

Jul 09 2021 | The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Sobel Joins Jupiter Board of Advisors

Adam Sobel has joined the Board of Advisors of Jupiter, the leading provider of predictive data and analytics for climate risk and resilience More

Aug 10 2021 | GLOBE NEWSWIRE

Kuang Huang Selected as CKGSB Fellow

Kuang Huang has been named a Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) fellow for a second year. More

Jul 29 2021

Sobel Featured on The Brian Lehrer Show

Adam Sobel discusses extreme weather on The Brian Lehrer Show More

Jul 23 2021 | WNYC

Polvani Research Featured in The Guardian

Research from Prof. Lorenzo Polvani was featured in The Guardian article, "Climate emissions shrinking the stratosphere, scientists reveal" More

May 18 2021 | The Guardian

Sobel Discusses Extreme Precipitation in Esquire

Adam Sobel explains the causes of extreme precipitation that resulted in flooded NYC subway stations, sewers, and buildings More

Jul 12 2021 | Esquire

Technology Innovations for Urban Living in the Face of COVID-19

Learn more about the Urban Tech Pilot program in Columbia Engineering More

Jun 08 2021

Determining the Best Protection from Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge

Kyle Mandli, George Deodatis, & Dan Bienstock have published a paper that attempts to provide a way to determine the best way to protect coastlines More

Jun 08 2021

Tropical Cyclone Tauktae is fifth-strongest cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea

A 2019 study by Prof. Adam Sobel was featured in Yale Climate Connections (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory) More

May 19 2021 | Yale Climate Connections

Usable climate science is adaptation science

In the present historical moment, the only climate science that is truly usable is that which is oriented towards adaptation More

May 10 2021 | Springer | Climate Change

Alex Paskov Named Columbia Engineering 2021 Salutatorian

Alex Paskov (BS '21, Applied Mathematics) was named the 2021 Columbia Engineering Salutatorian More

Apr 20 2021 | Columbia Engineering

Making the transition to a green economy: What is our responsibility as citizens?

Prof. Adam Sobel asks, "What moral responsibility does each of us carry as an individual to fight global warming, and what is the best way for us to fulfill More

Mar 15 2021 | Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences

I Got A $500K Deal On Shark Tank

Great advice from APAM alumna Samantha John on building a business, teaching kids to code, and making a deal on SharkTank! More

Apr 07 2021 | BuzzFeed

Samantha John '09 Featured on ABC’s Shark Tank

APAM alumna and Hopscotch Cofounder/CEO Samantha John '09 appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank More

Mar 05 2021 | cnbc.com

The Science of Climate: A High Degree of Difficulty

Adam Sobel discusses the methods used and the lessons learned from modeling our climate More

Mar 05 2021 | KSMU Radio

The phony blame game on Texas weather

Adam Sobel discusses extreme weather his new CNN opinion article More

Feb 17 2021 | CNN Opinion

Qiang Du Wins USACM Hughes Medal

Qiang Du has earned the prestigious Thomas J.R. Hughes Medal from the U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM). More

Apr 12 2021 | Columbia Engineering News

Du and Tian Publication Selected a Springer Nature 2020 Research Highlight

A publication by Qiang Du and Xiaochuan Tian '17 was one of six papers selected as a Springer Nature 2020 Research Highlight in Mathematics. More

Feb 15 2021

ENSO-Based Predictability of a Regional Severe Thunderstorm Index

Prof. Michael Tippett and his colleague, Dr. Chiara Lepore from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, "use coupled climate model forecasts of Niño 3.4 and a More

Sep 22 2021 | AGU

Du is Founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of Communications of the American Mathematical Society

Prof. Qiang Du is a founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of a new AMS journal, Communications of the American Mathematical Society More

Feb 08 2021 | AMS Blog

Du Appointed to Committee on Science Policy

Prof. Qiang Du has been appointed to the SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Committee on Science Policy. More

Jan 26 2021

Revitalize the Sciences

Three goals for the Biden administration as it seeks to put science-based responses at the center of its policy initiatives. More

Jan 21 2021 | Adam Sobel | Columbia News

Jia Wan CC’18, SEAS’20 Named Rhodes China Scholar

Jia Wan (B.S. Applied Mathematics, Columbia College, M.S. Computer Science, SEAS) has been named a Rhodes China Scholar More

Dec 21 2020 | Columbia College

Gentine Named Worzel Professor of Geophysics

Former APAM "Chu" professor, Pierre Gentine, has been named Maurice Ewing and J. Lamar Worzel Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth and More

Dec 15 2020

Isabel Baransky '16 Named One of Forbes 30 Under 30

Isabel Baransky (B.S. Applied Physics '16), currently Vice President, Bank of America in San Francisco, has been named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in finance More

Dec 02 2020

Drowning in Disinformation

Prof. Chris Wiggins collaborates on a white paper issued by CRA’s Computing Community Consortium addressing how we can stop the deluge of disinformation More

Dec 17 2020 | PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY OF CHRIS WIGGINS

CM3 Group Publications Among SIAM Journals Most Cited Papers

Two papers authored by Prof. Qiang Du's CM3 group members and collaborators are among 51 articles listed in the SIAM Journals Top Three Most Cited Papers since More

Dec 02 2020 | CM3 Group - Prof. Qiang Du

Scant evidence for a volcanically forced winter warming over Eurasia following the Krakatau eruption of August 1883

Compelling new research from Prof. Lorenzo Polvani & Prof. Suzana Camargo - "Scant evidence for a volcanically forced winter warming over Eurasia following the More

Nov 20 2020 | Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics

Disrupting Disinformation

Prof. Chris Wiggins has six ways to understand and combat online disinformation. More

Nov 16 2020 | By Mindy FARABEE | Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chris Wiggins

A Less Hazy Forecast - Climate modelers use machine learning and novel statistical methods to paint a clearer picture

Prof. Michael Tippet, Adam Sobel, & Kyle Mandli are featured in the latest issue of Columbia Engineering Magazine More

Aug 07 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

What science and democracy have in common: us, hopefully

Oct 14 2020 | By Adam Sobel, | Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences

Sustain What: Tracking Threats as Climate Science, Law and Politics Collide

Prof. Adam Sobel discusses themes in “What science and democracy have in common: us, hopefully,” a recent essay published in the Bulletin of the Atomic More

Oct 23 2020 | Earth Institute

Our focus has to be on the victims of Hurricane Laura

We must adapt to the climate change already underway, Prof. Adam Sobel says, but that "adaptation will only be just if it recognizes and remedies the More

Aug 28 2020 | CNN

Does global warming create more hurricanes in the Atlantic?

Prof. Adam Sobel discusses global warming and hurricanes in The New York Times article, "Hurricane Laura Live Updates: Storm Strengthens to Category 1" More

Aug 25 2020 | The New York Times

Sobel on CNN Newsroom

Prof. Adam Sobel appeared on the CNN Newsroom today to discuss Joe Biden's stance on climate change. More

Sep 14 2020

Sobel - Isaias Live Updates in The New York Times

Isaias strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on Monday night and is predicted to make landfall near the South Carolina and North Carolina border, with More

Aug 03 2020 | The New York Times

Cyclone ‘Nisarga’ weaker, but it still carries significant danger

Jun 03 2020 | Mumbai Mirror

From The Top Down

“The profound link between global warming and ozone-depleting substances is only now beginning to be appreciated,” says Prof. Lorenzo Polvani. More

Aug 07 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Sobel Discusses Hurricane Isaias on Bryan Norcross Podcast

In this podcast, Prof. Adam Sobel discusses Hurricane Isaias, his book about Hurricane Sandy, how scientists become climate science, and much more. More

Aug 04 2020 | Bryan Norcross Podcast

Holding Back The Tide

Prof. Kyle Mandli & Prof. Daniel Bienstock are part of a team of Columbia engineers that are working to protect NYC and other places from coastal flooding. More

Aug 05 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Lee Wins 2020 Korean Honor Scholarship

Hwi Lee was chosen as a recipient of the 2020 Korean Honor Scholarship More

Aug 05 2020

NSF Expands Funding for I-CORPS Award

The NSF has made an expansion to its award for the tri-university I-CORPS award, of which Professor Chris Wiggins is the Columbia University Principal More

Jul 22 2020

New Faculty Member: Lu Zhang

The APAM Department is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Lu Zhang as the Ju Tang Chu and Wu Ping Chu Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics More

Jul 01 2020

Profs. Bienstock, Capponi, and Iyengar Win $2M DOE Award to Develop Power Grid Risk Dashboard

Three Columbia Engineering professors are integrating their expertise in power grids, optimization, and financial engineering with data science techniques to More

Jun 29 2020 | By Holly Evarts | Bienstock Photo Credit: Dennis Bienstock | Capponi Photo Credit: TIMOTHY LEE PHOTOGRAPHERS | Iyengar Photo Credit: EILEEN BARROSO

From The Top Down

“The profound link between global warming and ozone-depleting substances is only now beginning to be appreciated,” says Prof. Lorenzo Polvani. More

Aug 07 2020 | Columbia Engineering Magazine

Sobel on Cyclone Nisarga

Adam Sobel was featured in several media outlets on Cyclone Nisarga More

Jun 03 2020

Emma Schechter - Columbia Engineering's 2020 Valedictorian

May 08 2020 | Columbia Engineering News

Spiegelman Wins CEAA's 2020 Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award

Marc Spiegelman received CEAA's 2020 Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award More

Apr 29 2020

2020 Senior Award Winners

May 06 2020

Successful Ozone Treaty Stops Jet Stream Drift in the Southern Hemisphere

Mar 26 2020 | Columbia Engineering News

Applied Mathematics Program Awarded RTG Grant by the National Science Foundation

Mar 25 2020

First Study to Relate Antarctic Sea Ice Melt to Weather Change in the Tropics

Mar 16 2020 | Columbia Engineering News

A Storm Expert’s View: What Lessons Can We Apply From Hurricanes to the Coronavirus?

Mar 19 2020 | The New York Times

New Podcast Lets You Eavesdrop on Conversations Between Climate Scientists

Feb 18 2020

Sea-Level Rise to Make Things Worse in Mumbai Within Decades

Dec 23 2019 | IndiaSpend

Polvani Named 2019 AGU Fellow & Appointed to Endowed Professorship

Aug 23 2019

Marvel's Message About Climate Change: It’s Not Too Late

Nov 25 2019 | The New York Times

Qiang Du Named Fellow of the American Mathematical Society

Qiang Du, Fu Foundation Professor of Applied Mathematics, has been elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). More

Dec 27 2019 | By Allison Elliott

Weinstein Invited to Speak at NSF Distinguished Lecture Series in Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Nov 21 2019

Multimodal transcriptional control of pattern formation in embryonic development

Jan 14 2020 | PNAS

OTREC Atmospheric Science Field Experiment

Aug 22 2019

Sobel Testifies Before Congress on Extreme Weather

Sep 26 2019 | https://science.house.gov

Data Ethics: Contesting Truth and Rearranging Power

Aug 05 2019 | Ann Spencer | Domino

Columbia Researchers Provide New Evidence on the Reliability of Climate Modeling

For decades, contradictory data in a key climate phenomenon threatened to undermine confidence in the reliability of climate models overall. A study by Columbia More

Jun 24 2019 | By Nicole deRoberts, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory | Photo Credit: NASA