Director recognized for contributions to engineering and mathematics

Madhav Marathe, director of the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL) and professor of computer science, has recently been recognized for his contributions in the fields of engineering and industrial and applied mathematics.

Marathe was inducted as a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for his contributions to computational network science, specifically for developing high performance computing-based algorithms, software systems and analytical tools for studying socially coupled systems, and public health epidemiology.

Marathe and his colleagues have made sustained contributions to mathematical modeling and the analysis of large-scale real-world socio-technical networks and to the development of high-performance computing (HPC) algorithms and systems to solve important societal problems at the intersection of social science, public health, critical infrastructure networks, national security, and public policy. A unique aspect of the work done by Marathe and his colleagues is to derive important scientific problems from real-world applications, develop rigorous methods to study these problems, and then translate the theoretical findings to support evidence-based policies and decisions.

Fellows in SIAM are nominated by their peers to honor them as distinguished contributors to their shared discipline. The 2018 class of Fellows will be recognized at the SIAM Annual Business Meeting in Portland, Oregon, in July.

“I am delighted to be elected as a fellow of SIAM,” Marathe said. “NDSSL has been at the forefront of the science of socially coupled systems and prides itself on doing multidisciplinary team science. I have been fortunate to have outstanding colleagues and mentors; this recognition is for the collective work we have done together.”

Virginia Tech's College of Engineering also awarded Marathe the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. In her award letter, Dean Julia M. Ross, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering, noted, “The College of Engineering has many top-notch faculty members. Marathe’s commitment to research made him standout amongst his peers.”

A reception and award ceremony were held on April 30, 2018, to commemorate the recipients’ achievements.

In 2013, Marathe was recognized as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association of Computing Machinery for his contributions to high-performance computing algorithms and the development of formal models and software environments for analyzing socio-technical systems. In 2014, Marathe was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Marathe was also the 2011 Inaugural George Michael Distinguished Scholar at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Written by Tiffany Trent