Two newly named professors

Two faculty members in the University of Delaware's Department of Mathematical Sciences have been appointed to named professorships in recognition of their many contributions in research, scholarship and teaching. Richard Braun has been named the Carl J. Rees Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Tobin Driscoll has been named the Unidel Professor of Mathematical Sciences.

“Professors Braun and Driscoll are both highly regarded, internationally recognized mathematicians and scholars," said John A. Pelesko, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Both also have a long history of exemplary service to the department, college, university, and profession. The impact of their scholarship and of their innovative approaches to undergraduate and graduate education will long be felt at UD and beyond. We are fortunate to have both Professor Braun and Professor Driscoll as members of the College of Arts and Sciences."

Richard Braun joined UD in 1995 and currently holds joint appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and the Data Science Institute.

His work has had impact on applied mathematics, mathematical medicine and material science.

His seminal work on using a phase field approach to compute complex phase boundaries insolidification has been widely adopted. In his doctoral dissertation he elucidated the role of the free boundary between solid and melt in rapid solidification of binary alloys.

Braun's contribution to fluid dynamics and material science is internationally recognized. His work has been cited numerous times, and he has spoken at venues both in the mathematical and medical communities. Of special note is an invitation to publish an article in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics – only leaders in the field are invited to author articles for the Annual Review.

In addition to his research, Braun is a strong contributor to the broader mathematical sciences community, including serving as an associate director of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications and as a regular contributor to Mathematical Modeling in Industry workshops.

Braun was recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) with a 2013 Outstanding Scholarship award.

Beginning in 2017, Braun led the development and launch of UD's Master of Science in Data Science program, which launched in 2019 and was one of the first large programs for UD's Graduate College. In 2019 he received the CAS Excellence in Service award.

Tobin Driscoll joined UD in 2000 and has authored or co-authored six books on a variety of topics benefiting from computational solution. He was the driving force on two editions of “Fundamentals of Numerical Computation" with one using Matlab and the other using the fast-growing computer language Julia. Matlab is a programming and numeric computing platform used by millions of engineers and scientists to analyze data, develop algorithms and create models. He also authored “Learning Matlab" and co-authored the “Chebfun Guide," which is an extension of Matlab. The remaining books are “Exploring ODEs" and “Schwarz-Christoffel Mappings." Three of the books are collaborations with L. N. Trefethen of Oxford University.

He has collaborated to produce three software packages, including the Schwarz-Christoffel Toolbox for Matlab, and the ComplexRegions.jl package for Julia. The Chebfun project was a collaboration with Oxford University and others that enhanced Matlab functions and capabilities with high precision Chebyshev approximations for functions and various operations.

Driscoll recently spearheaded the creation of an undergraduate data science major. He has mentored several UD alumni who are working in both academia and industry. He also works with undergraduate research students.

Driscoll has served on three editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals and has been elected to serve on the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Council.

Driscoll has published more than 60 research papers on various computational methods for ordinary and partial differential equations, using complex variable mappings, pull-down of membranes and fluid dynamics of the tear film on the surface of the eye.

Tear film and dry eye diseas​​e

In recent years, Braun, Driscoll and their students have collaborated on research papers into tear film.

Many of these papers have been joint with colleagues in optometry at the Ohio State University and Indiana University. The tear film research has extended fundamental understanding of the film's dynamics in both health and dry eye disease (DED). The aim of the research is to both extend computational methods for models that explain these dynamics and to provide basic science understanding of the tear film for diagnosis and treatment of DED. DED affects millions of people worldwide.

This internationally recognized research on the tear film in eyes combines materials science, mathematical biology and fluid dynamics. It provides mathematical models to estimate the elevated salt levels in tear breakup, quantities that cannot currently be measured directly. The collaboration with medical experts has led to external funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and the work is highly cited in the medical literature.

About the professorships

The Carl J. Rees Professor of Mathematical Sciences was created in 2004 from the Carl Rees Math Fund. Rees served as mathematical sciences department chair for 10 years, dean of the College of Graduate Studies and as university provost from 1955-1962.

Unidel professorships are awarded by the Unidel Foundation, which was established by Amy E. du Pont, a noted sportswoman and philanthropist who supported women's education at Delaware and bequeathed her estate to create the foundation. The Unidel Foundation makes grants to finance specific projects to enrich educational programs at UD.​​​