Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Mathematicians Sweep NSF Grant Awards

Tuesday, September 8, 2015, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesresearch

Three mathematicians in the College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded major grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), totaling more than $518,400. Each grant is for a three-year period.

Professor Lixin Shen has received a collaborative research grant for $183,400 to study image and signal processing; Professor Loredana Lanzani, $180,000 to explore harmonic analysis and partial differential equations; and Professor Graham Leuschke, $155,000 to investigate representation theory and non-commutative algebraic geometry.

“I am extremely proud of these professors, who embody our department’s commitment to research excellence,” says Uday Banerjee, professor and chair of mathematics. “Their cutting-edge work as teachers, scholars and administrators elevates the college, while raising the research profile of the University.”

Lixin Shen

Lixin Shen

Shen’s research focuses on algorithms for optimization problems that arise from a variety of applications, including parallel magnetic resonance imaging in medical imaging processing, as well as facial and fingerprint recognition in security identification systems. Such image/signal problems of practical importance are often modeled as large-scale optimization problems; therefore, he says it is essential to develop efficient computational algorithms to solve them.

An algorithm is a sequence of instructions, used to show how to perform a task.

“Image/signal processing problems of practical importance, such as incomplete data recovery, compressive sensing and matrix completion usually possess hierarchical structures or are represented in a multiscale analysis,” Shen says. “Multiscale analysis, however, is mainly used to sparsify [to scatter or disperse] the underlying image/signal in formulating the optimization problem, but it has not been fully exploited in the development of efficient algorithms. … I will make systematic use of the hierarchical structure in optimization problems of interest to solve them in an accurate and computationally efficient way.”

Loredana Lanzani

Loredana Lanzani

Like Shen, Lanzani is interested in harmonic analysis, but she also is an expert in partial differential equations and complex analysis. Her grant project deals with the study of so-called integral formulas in complex and harmonic analysis. These formulas are often used to recover information in large data sets that are difficult to reach

“For example, integral formulas may be used to determine the internal temperature of something, such as a tree, without poking holes in it,” she says. “After measuring the temperature at a surface level [e.g., the tree’s bark], one can use an integral formula to plot the value of the internal temperature.”

Lanzani says these formulas permeate pure and applied science, and help shed light on the study of heat transfer and celestial mechanics.

Graham Leuschke

Graham Leuschke

Leuschke, who is also associate chair for graduate affairs, works in commutative ring theory, which explains algebraic systems where addition, subtraction and multiplication are defined. Since every commutative ring has a corresponding geometric object, known as an algebraic variety, his work uses aspects of algebraic geometry, commutative algebra and representation theory. Combined with noncommutative algebra, this allows exploration of a new field called “non-commutative algebraic geometry.”

“I want to make sense of the geometric content of noncommutative rings and their representations,” says Leuschke, adding that his project will focus on various rings, categories and other abstract structures. “This kind of data is useful to mathematical physicists who work at the quantum level.”

 

 

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Confronting ‘Who We Are”
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By News Staff
  • Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • University College Announces Online Degree in Computer Programming
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Eileen Jevis
  • Stadium Testing Center Closed for Planned Enhancements Wednesday, Jan. 20
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By News Staff
  • Sound Beat: Access Audio Offering Children’s Audiobooks about Enslaved People by Cheryl Wills ’89
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Cristina Hatem

More In STEM

Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado

After 25 years working in the field of forensic science and over two decades of executive experience as a laboratory director, Kathleen Corrado has been named director of the Forensic and National Security Science Institute (FNSSI) in the College of…

Hehnly Lab Awarded $1.2M NIH Grant to Research Critical Tissue Formation

A key process during the development of an embryo is tissue morphogenesis, where the number of cells in an organism increase through cell division and tissues begins to take shape. Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a…

The Role of Digital Forensics and Tracking Down US Capitol Riot Criminals

With just under a week left before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, investigators and law enforcement agencies across the country are working speedily to identify as many of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot offenders as they can. Knowing exactly…

A&S Researchers Awarded $2.1M Grant to Study Causes of Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting nearly 1 percent of births in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors have been unable to lower that number…

$1.5 Million NIH Grant Funds ALS-Linked Research

The human body is made up of trillions of cells. Within each cell are proteins which help to maintain the structure, function and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. When cells are under stress, as in response to heat…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.