My Research

Much of my current research centers around, but is not restricted to, applied optimization, derivative-free and hybrid methods for simulation-based problems, mathematical modeling, and simulation in the geosciences. I am grateful to be an applied mathematician because I have been given the opportunity to collaborate with environmental engineers, biologists, psychologists, chemical engineers, and even farmers.

For more details on the so-called community problems, go here: Optimization

Students Advised

Doctor of Philosophy

1. Godfred Yamoah, Fully Adaptive Methods for Variably Saturated Flow Problems, 2009.

2. Ahmad Almomani, Constraint Handling for Derivative-free Optimization, expected graduation 2012.

Master’s Degree

1. Brian McClune, New Hybrid and Surrogate Techniques for Simulation-based Optimization of a Polymer Extrusion Filter, 2009.

2. Jacob Orsini, Understanding Video Games as a Learning Tool in an Introduction to Numerical Methods Course, 2010.

3. Katie Lozo, A Mathematical Modelling Approach to Assessing Teacher Leaders, 2010.

4. Ryan Lewis, TBA, expected graduation December 2011.

5. Stephen Kelso (via a courtesy appointment in Civil and Environmental Engineering), expected graduation 2013.

Undergraduate Researchers (Clarkson Undergraduates are AWESOME!)

1. Mark Minick won the SIGMAA EM award at Mathfest, which recognizes exceptional presentations that involve work on problems arising from environmental sources for our 2010

summer research project with Ruby Fu, Optimizing Aquifer Water Consumption and Maximizing Profit for Strawberry Farmers

2. Brian Leventhal won the Outstanding Presentation Award for his talk on Understanding How the Brain Detects Threats at Mathfest, working during summer 2010 jointly with psychology junior Kylie Drouin, mentored by Fowler and Psychology Professor Robert Dowman. The research was part of a National Science Foundation-funded Undergraduate Biology- Mathematics (UBM) program designed to help students learn how to work as part of an interdisciplinary team to conduct research that might not be accessible from a single field.

3. Benjamin Ritz, summer Honors Program 2010, Modeling the Spread of Porphyric Hemophilia (Vampirism), and A Matlab Implementation of a Hybrid GA-Implicit Filtering method for MINLP

4. Nevin Brackett-Rozinsky, Honors Program Thesis Advisor, Sensitivity Analysis for a Polymer Extrusion Filter Model, 2010.

5. Brian Leventhal, summer 2009-present, Parameter Estimation for a Shallow Subsurface Heat Transport Model.

6. Daisy Barbecho, McNair Scholars Program, summer 2009, Sensitivity Analysis of a Colloid Transport Model.

7. Samantha Batcheller, summer 2009, Implementation of the Umatillo Navy Waste Site Simulation.

8. Ben Ritz, Clarice Dziak, and Kate Purdy, Pre-freshmen Summer Program 2009, Mathematical Modelling for Middle School Classrooms.

9. Matthew Parno, Honors Program Thesis Advisor 2009, Particle Swarm Optimization with Surroagate Functions

10. Ruby Fu, Honors Program Summer Research 2008-present and Honors Program Thesis Advisor, The Effects of Heterogeneities on the Solution of Water Management Problems

11. Ryan Northrup, Honors Program Summer Research 2008, Validating an Interval Arithmetic ODE Algorithm

12. Andrew Davis, Honors Program Summer Research 2007, The Effects of Grid Resolution on the Solution of Optimal Control Problems in Water Resources and Effects of Saltwater Intrusion on a Coastal Aquifer: Henry’s Problem and the Coastal Region of Hersonissos Crete

13. Scott LaLonde, McNair Scholars Program 2007, Maximizing the Performance of a Polymer Extrusion Filter via Derivative-free Optimization Methods

14. Tiffany Terpstra, McNair Scholars Program 2007, Roller Coaster Project: Integrated Mathematics and Physics Curriculum for Middle and High School Students

15. Michael Petito, Honors Program Thesis Advisor 2007, Adaptive Implicit Temporal Integrationf ODEs with Interval Computations

My research has been  supported by the Department of Education, Army Research Office, the Association for Women in Mathematics, the American Institute of Mathematics, and the NSF.