Kui Ren Named 2026 SIAM Fellow

Professor Kui Ren of Columbia Engineering’s Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM) has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Prof. Ren was recognized for contributions to computational and mathematical analysis of inverse problems and their applications in imaging sciences.” 

Prof. Ren is among 25 newly selected fellows who will be formally recognized at a reception during the SIAM Annual Meeting, scheduled to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, in July 2026. SIAM Fellows are acknowledged for their significant impact on advancing applied mathematics, computational science, and data science.

Prof. Ren's research involves several aspects of applied and computational mathematics. His recent work includes theoretical and numerical analysis of inverse problems related to partial differential equations with applications in biomedical imaging; mathematical modeling and computation of the propagation of high-frequency acoustic/electromagnetic waves in random media; numerical and mathematical studies of random graphs and networks; as well as numerical algorithms for kinetic modeling of electrostatics and charge transport in semiconductor devices.

Prof. Ren received his B.S. from Nanjing University in China and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the APAM Department at Columbia University in May 2006. He moved to the University of Chicago as a L.E. Dickson Instructor in 2007 and, in 2008, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Mathematics and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences where he became a tenured professor. Prof. Ren returned to Columbia Engineering in 2018 and joined the Applied Mathematics faculty in the APAM Department. He is also now a member of the Columbia Data Science Institute, the Initiative for Computational Science and Engineering, and the Artificial Intelligence@Columbia. Prof. Ren was the recipient of the 2017 Calderon Prize and 2025 Feng Kang Prize.

Congratulations to Prof. Ren on this well-deserved honor recognizing his outstanding contributions to computational mathematics. As both an alumnus and a faculty member of Columbia University, his international distinction underscores the global impact of Columbia’s academic community and its enduring commitment to excellence in research and scholarship.