Andrew Joseph Majda (30 January 1949 – 12 March 2021) was an American mathematician and the Morse Professor of Arts and Sciences at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He was known for his theoretical contributions to

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s as well as his applied contributions to diverse areas including shock waves,

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...

incompressible flow In fluid mechanics or more generally continuum mechanics, incompressible flow ( isochoric flow) refers to a flow in which the material density is constant within a fluid parcel—an infinitesimal volume that moves with the flow velocity. An e ...

vortex dynamics In continuum mechanics, vorticity is a pseudovector field that describes the local spinning motion of a continuum near some point (the tendency of something to rotate), as would be seen by an observer located at that point and traveling along wit ...

, and

atmospheric sciences Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study of ...

. Majda was listed as an

ISI highly cited researcher The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

in mathematics.

Career

Born in East Chicago, Indiana, Majda received a B.S. degree in mathematics from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in 1970. He then received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1971 and 1973, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis advisor was

Ralph S. Phillips Ralph Saul Phillips (23 June 1913 – 23 November 1998) was an American mathematician and academic known for his contributions to functional analysis, scattering theory, and servomechanisms. He served as a Professor of mathematics at Stanford ...

. He began his scientific career as an instructor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences from 1973 to 1975. Prior to returning to the Courant Institute in 1994, he held professorships at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

during 1984–1994, the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

during 1978–1984, and the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

during 1976–1978. At Courant Institute, Majda has been instrumental in setting up the
Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science
which aims to promote cross-disciplinary research with modern applied mathematics in

climate modelling Numerical climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the cl ...

and prediction.

Honors and awards

*The

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

for Seminal Contribution to Research - 2016 *Lagrange Prize of ICIAM - 2015 * Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics - 2013 *Honorary Doctorate of Science and Honorary Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai, China - 2008 *Medal of the College de France - 2007 *The New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences - 2004 *Honorary Doctorate of Science,

- 2000 *Gibbs Lecturer of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

- 1995 *National Academy of Sciences Prize in Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis - 1992 * John von Neumann Lecture Prize of

SIAM Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

- 1990 *Medal of the College de France - 1982 Majda was a member of

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, and

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-02-02.

Books

*
Information theory and stochastics for multiscale nonlinear systems
' with Rafail V. Abramov, Marcus J. Grote,

, 2005. *
Vorticity and Incompressible Flow
' with Andrea L. Bertozzi,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2008. *
Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Theories for Basic Geophysical Flows
' with Xiaoming Wang,

, 2009. *
Filtering Complex Turbulent Systems
' with John Harlim,

, 2012. *
Introduction to Turbulent Dynamical Systems in Complex Systems
', Springer, 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Majda, Andrew J. Purdue University alumni Stanford University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Princeton University faculty Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Fluid dynamicists PDE theorists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 1949 births 2021 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Mathematicians from Indiana People from East Chicago, Indiana