Dear colleagues, alumni, and friends,
With the spring quarter almost coming to an end, it is time to keep you posted about what is going on in our department. The features in this newsletter illustrate quite convincingly the extreme breadth of topics to which applied mathematics can bring relevant insight. Read how Professor Daniel Abrams and PhD graduate Emma Zajdela use it to elucidate the cyclic nature of fashion, while Professor William Kath and Marco Gallio, research professor of molecular biology and a professor of neurobiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, collaborated to investigate how snow flies manage to live in freezing temperatures.
Other highlights of the spring quarter were the annual Reiss Memorial Lectures, which were given this year by Melanie Mitchell of the Santa Fe Institute. In a very accessible way, she told us about the nature of AI and described six principles for evaluating cognitive capabilities in AI models. If you missed the streaming of the lectures, you can still enjoy the recordings in our online archive of applied mathematics colloquia.
As always, this newsletter recognizes the applied mathematics undergraduates and graduate students who graduated this year. If you know of further news relevant for the ESAM community, please let us know so we can include it in future newsletters or in postings on our LinkedIn page. We have also compiled a list of career milestones for our alumni over the past year. Congratulations to everybody on their accomplishments!
Hermann RieckeProfessor and ChairDepartment of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
McCormick School of Engineering
Bell-Bottoms Today, Miniskirts Tomorrow
A team led by Professor Daniel Abrams and Emma Zajdela (PhD ’23) created—and mined—the most comprehensive fashion database to date to reveal the math of the fashion cycle.
Some Like It Cold: Snow Flies Create Their Own Heat to Avoid Freezing
A study by a team with Professor William Kath found that specialized ‘snow flies’ produce bursts of heat and antifreeze proteins.
Sohini Awarded Fulbright Germany Research Award
Fourth-year student Rohan Sohini was awarded a Fulbright Germany Research Award to conduct 10 months of machine learning research at Helmholtz Munich, where he will study gene expression dynamics under the mentorship of Professor Steffen Schneider.
Luijten Named New Northwestern Provost
Erik Luijten, a McCormick associate dean and professor of materials science and engineering with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, will become Northwestern’s chief academic officer.
Northwestern SIAM Chapter Expands Outreach
Organized by doctoral student Ana Barioni, the Northwestern chapter of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) organized a range of activities this year, including a visit to Argonne National Laboratory and its Advanced Photon Source, as well as an outreach event for 20 students from Northwest Middle School. During their visit to the Dearborn Observatory, the students explored the power of mathematics through interactive talks and hands-on problem-solving activities led by SIAM chapter members.
Congratulations to our 2025-26 Graduates
Below is a list of students who graduated from the ESAM department over the past year.
PhD
Ruoming Gong, Addison Elisha Howe, Xinyi Liu, Liam O'Connor, Connor Harrison Puritz, Bennet Sakelaris, Adam Reuben Sandler, Richard Suhendra, Kumar Utkarsh
MS
Hussam Abdulaziz M. Althunayyan, Manas Ambati, Junqi Chen, Yuxiang Feng, Ziqi Gao, Finn Patrick Hagerty, Samuel Halahurich, Xiaotian Ji, Alexis Daniel Robles, Kathryn Tam, Yu Wang, Haoan Zhang
BS
Drew Alvarez, Evan Barnett, Arthur Chen, Isaac Cross, Pierce Dillon, Soorya Kuppam, Zheming Li, Lucia McConnell, Baenan McKeown, Isaac Meite, Edwin Mizen, Noah Oxfeld, Evan Parish, Ryan Parks, Rohan Sohini, Mel Vasquez, Inessa Verbitsky, Kyle Wynn
How Gwynne Shotwell Makes SpaceX Soar
Shotwell, who received a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has an expansive role at the rocket and satellite company, helping to foster its rise. Read the Wall Street Journal article