Visiting Lecturer Program – June Spotlights

The SIAM Visiting Lecturer Program (VLP) provides the community with a roster of experienced and inspirational applied mathematicians and computational scientists in industry, government, and academia, who can speak on topics that are of interest to developing professional mathematicians.

Learn more about the following speakers from Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, and Minnesota and contact them if you are interested in them speaking at your institution.

• Cleve Moler
• Sheldon Jacobson
• Stephanie Fitchett
• Chris Bemis

Sheldon Jacobson

Founder Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Urbana, Illinois, U.S.

Job Description: Professor of Computer Science

Education: B.S. in Mathematics   /   M.S. in Mathematics   /   Ph.D. in Operations Research

Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Geographic Districting and Political Gerrymandering / General audience
Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Aviation Security and Risk Assessment / Can be tailored to a technical or nontechnical audience (same for Topic 1)
Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: The mathematics of March Madness / n be tailored to a technical or nontechnical audience (same for Topic 1)

Geographical Constraints: Prefers flying

Stephanie Fitchett

Data Scientist, Transamerica | Boulder, Colorado, U.S.

Other Positions: Statistician, Neptune and Company, Inc.

Education: B.S. in Mathematics   /   M.S. in Mathematics, M.S. in Statistics   /   Ph.D. in Mathematics

Other information: Rotating program officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation

Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Data science in life insurance underwriting / Undergraduate math majors and beyond
Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: The interdisciplinary world of data science / Can be adjusted to any of the above audiences
Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Evaluating estimates of solar power for an electric utility / Undergraduate math majors and beyond

Chris Bemis

Head of Quantitative Analysis and Research, Whitebox Advisors | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.

Job Description: Team lead for researching, implementing, and supporting quantitative strategies for hedge fund trading.

Other Positions: Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota

Education: B.S. in Mathematics   /   M.S. in Mathematics   /   Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics

Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Constraints and investor views in portfolio optimization: a Bayesian-like interpretation / Graduate math students and beyond
Possible Lecture Topic and Audience: Practical implementation of math finance models; what works and what doesn't, and why industrial math is so interesting / Undergraduate math majors and beyond

Learn more about hosting a speaker at your institution by visiting the Program Guidelines.