About
The Center for Applied Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame was established in 1987 to enhance applied mathematics research Notre Dame and to facilitate the interdisciplinary collaboration that it thrives on. Applied mathematics at Notre Dame is not located in any one unit. In addition to a major group of applied mathematicians in the Department of Mathematics, there are applied mathematicians and users spread out in many colleges and departments. The main mission of the Center of Applied Mathematics is to strengthen the applied mathematics community at Notre Dame. To do this the Center focuses on increasing collaboration among members of this community and between these members and applied mathematicians at other universities, centers, and governmental laboratories. To carry out this mission the Center runs conferences, colloquium series, and gives graduate and undergraduate fellowships.
The Center aims to break the intellectual constraints of institutionalized disciplines. It encompasses all aspects of applied mathematics and welcomes specialties and methodologies of all kinds.
Mathematics has been a powerful and much loved activity of humanity throughout all of recorded history from the 2000BC discovery of the five "Platonic solids" by Neolithic humans in Scotland through the foundation of the internet and DNA sequencing. Though its beauty beckons many, its pervasive presence in human society is due to its ability to solve important complex problems. Egyptians used applied mathematics to predict eclipses, design pyramids, and calculate the timing of the annual floods along the Nile. The Greeks used applied mathematics to design the Parthenon and measure the circumference of the earth. Numerical methods for ordinary differential equations were developed to compute trajectories of astronomical bodies and cannonballs. Besides classical uses like Newton's laws, the electric and magnetic fields in Maxwell's equations, and Einstein's relativity theory, Mathematics is used to predict the number of insect species on islands, to setup the wireless networks for our cell phones, to safely transmit money over networks, and so on. Applied mathematics is used to gain insight on data gathered during political campaigns. Mathematics is used to model to predict the path of a hurricane. Medical teams use mathematical tools to pinpoint the location in which to deliver therapeutic radiation, and television executives apply mathematical methods to track the popularity of specific shows. Insurance companies and financial institutions around the world use mathematics to quantify and control risk. The deceptively simple singular value decomposition from numerical linear algebra has been a flexible tool with applications from image compression and sharpening to modern internet and database search engines. From the design of computers to the design of easy to open packages for food, mathematics is a common language to describe, analyze, and plan. Applied mathematics making use of the computational and communication technologies it has enabled society to operate at levels far beyond those of past societies - levels of activity that will require ever more applied mathematics.
