School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Interested in a challenge? Want some skills that will prepare you for both a job and further study? Our undergraduate research program provides stimulating mathematical experiences for ambitious undergraduates. Students have presented the results of their work to student and faculty groups throughout the Southeast. Some have published their work in national and international journals. It is not unusual to develop a project into an undergraduate or graduate thesis.
Dr. C. S. Chen's research is focused on the use of meshless methods for solving science and engineering
problems. Roughly speaking, meshless methods are to the computational science what
wireless technology is to digital communication. The work ranges from fundamental
mathematical aspects to real world engineering applications.
Contact: cs.chenFREEMississippi
Dr. Jiu Ding researches chaos from a statistical point of view. More specifically, he develops
and analyzes numerical methods for the computation of physical measures that describe
statistical properties of dynamical systems. Recently he has directed an undergraduate
research project that connects fractals to the composition of music.
Contact: %20Jiu.DingFREEMississippi
Dr. John Harris studies knots and links embedded in locally three-dimensional spaces, and the closely
related area of quantum invariants of these spaces. He is also interested in finding
game-theoretical invariants of knots and links and game-theoretical interpretations
of existing invariants.
Contact: John.HarrisFREEMississippi
Dr. James Lambers' research focuses on efficient algorithms for the realistic, real-time simulation
of physical phenomena such as the diffusion of heat energy, propagation of seismic
waves through buildings, or the flow and transport of hydrocarbons in oil reservoirs.
The techniques involved are equally applicable to image enhancement for medicine or
law enforcement, or modeling of financial derivatives. Undergraduate students have
contributed essential building blocks and unique perspectives that opened doors to
new approaches
Contact: %20James.LambersFREEMississippi
Dr. Sungwook Lee's research is focused on understanding the intriguing interplay between mathematics
and physics. He is supervising undergraduate research projects on black holes/wormholes,
quantum computing, and quantum mechanics in curved spacetime.
Contact: %20SungleeFREEMississippi
Dr. John Perry explores computational algebra, which lies at the foundations of much applied mathematics.
His work frequently connects to other subjects, such as computer science, combinatorial
games, and linear programming, and it has great potential for undergraduate research.
Undergraduate research page, Contact: %20John.PerryFREEMississippi
Dr. Bernd Schroeder has directed undergraduate research on using data analysis techniques to predict
future solar radiation intensity, student sucess in college and profits for a gaming
provider.
Contact: Bernd.SchroederFREEMississippi
Dr. Haiyan Tian’s research interests include the development of efficient and accurate domain methods
and boundary methods for partial differential equations, especially for problems on
irregularly shaped domains. The research applies to many branches of science and engineering
such as elasticity, structural and continuum mechanics, electro-cardiology, non-destructive
testing, and thermal explosion.
Contact: Haiyan.TianFREEMississippi
Dr. Anna Wan is researching how to best use rapid prototyping (3d printing) in high school classrooms.
3d printing is a rapidly emerging technology that is already available in some high
schools. Teachers who can effectively use this technology will be in high demand.
Contact: Anna.WanFREEMississippi
Dr. Zhifu Xie's research applies dynamical systems and nonlinear partial differential equations
to mathematical biology and engineering. His recent research work ranges from discovering
new stable orbits for celestial bodies to proving the existence of new patterns for
three species in a food chain model. Much of this research is done with undergraduate
students.
Contact: Zhifu.XieFREEMississippi
Dr. Huiqing Zhu's research is at the interface between numerical analysis, applied mathematics, and
computer science. Many important problems in engineering, applied science, finance,
and biology are modeled by partial differential equations that cannot be solved by
hand. Dr. Zhu works on the design and analysis of algorithms for the numerical solution
of partial differential equations.
Contact: Huiqing.ZhuFREEMississippi
Our handbook for graduating with Latin Honors outlines the requirements, and gives a timeline for students in the Honors College.
The department maintains LATEX style files for writing an Honors thesis.