Three faculty members of The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) have received inaugural $100,000 ICES Distinguished Research Awards from the institute.
Recipients of the first-ever awards are:
- Todd Arbogast, professor of mathematics and holder of a Frank E. Gerth III Faculty Fellowship,
- Clint Dawson, professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics and holder of the Joe King Professorship, and
- Leszek Demkowicz, professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics and holder of the J. H. Herring Centennial Professorship in Engineering.
An ICES evaluation and selection committee granted the awards, the first of their kind, to ICES faculty who have demonstrated a sustained level of distinguished research in computational sciences and engineering. The award includes funds of $25,000 per year for up to four years to support research within the institute. The new awards are funded through a private endowment.
“The award recognizes outstanding research records, impressive and sustained contributions to ICES and the graduate program in Computational Sciences, Engineering and Math (CSEM), dedication to CSEM students, and the distinction the faculty’s work and reputation brings to ICES and the university,” said Dr. Tinsley Oden, associate vice president of research and director of ICES.
Arbogast develops models describing how fluids flow through complex areas of the earth’s subsurface to simulate petroleum production, groundwater contaminant transport, and long-term carbon sequestration. He specializes in developing algorithms for the approximation of partial differential systems, high-performance and parallel scientific computation and multi-scale mathematical modeling.
Dawson applies his research to storm surge modeling and problems of pollution in ground and surface water, as well as oil and gas reservoir exploration. His research includes numerical analysis, large-scale parallel computing and environmental modeling.
Demkowicz’s research has been applied to understanding damage to the human ear and vocal cords, as well as oil and gas discovery. He teaches and researches numerical analysis, hp-adaptive finite element methods, and wave propagation problems including acoustics and elastodynamics.
ICES is an interdisciplinary teaching and research unit at the university offering a graduate degree program, an undergraduate certificate and internship program, and 18 research centers and groups in computational engineering and sciences. ICES draws faculty from 17 academic departments in three colleges. The institute offers the university’s science and engineering community more than 50 seminars annually, manages a program that supports research in the grand challenges facing the nation, and supports an international visiting scholar program that has hosted more than 500 scholars from around the world.
