Athanassios Spyridon Fokas ( el, Αθανάσιος Σπυρίδων Φωκάς; born June 30, 1952) is a

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, with degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Medicine. Since 2002, he is Professor of Nonlinear Mathematical Science in the

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

(DAMTP) at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Education

Fokas earned a BS in

Aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...

from

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

in 1975 and a PhD in

Applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

from

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1979. His dissertation, ''Invariants, Lie-Backlund Operators and Backlund Transformations'', was written under the direction of Paco Axel Lagerstrom. He subsequently attended the

Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) is the University of Miami's graduate medical school in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1952, it is the oldest medical school in the state of Florida. Campus The University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller Sch ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, earning his medical degree in 1986.

Career

After medical school, Fokas was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an enr ...

in 1986. From there, he moved to

in 1996 to a Chair of Applied Mathematics. Since 2002, he holds the Professorship of Nonlinear Mathematical Science (2000) in the

at the University of Cambridge, a professorship established in the year 2000 for a single tenure. He was elected a Member of the Academy of Athens in 2004 and a professorial fellow of

Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It ...

in 2005.

Research contributions

Fokas has written about symmetries, integrable nonlinear PDEs, Painleve equations and random matrices, models for leukemia and protein folding, electro-magneto-enchephalography, nuclear imaging, and relativistic gravity. Also, he has introduced a new method for solving boundary value problems known as the Fokas method. I. M. Gelfand, a mathematician, who has also written about biology, in the citation for the Aristeion prize, wrote ''Fokas is now a very rare example of a scientist in the style of the Renaissance".

Awards

Fokas received the

Naylor Prize Naylor may refer to: People * Bernie Naylor (1923–1993), Australian rules footballer * Bo Naylor (born 2000), Canadian baseball player * Brian Naylor (racing driver) (1923–1989), British racing driver * Brian Naylor (broadcaster) (1931–2 ...

from the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

in 2000.Prize winners.

. Accessed July 19, 2010 He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009).

Personal

Fokas is married to Regina Karousou-Fokas with whom he has two children, Anastasia and Ioanna. He also has a son, Alexander, from his first marriage to Allison Pearce.

Books

* M J Ablowitz and A S Fokas, ''Complex Variables: Introduction and Applications'', Cambridge University Press, second edition (2003) * A S Fokas, A R Its, A A Kapaev and V Yu Novokshenov, ''Painlevé Transcendents: A Riemann-Hilbert Approach'', AMS (2006) * A S Fokas, '' A Unified Approach to Boundary Value Problems '', CBMS-SIAM (2008) * A S Fokas and B. Pelloni, eds, Unified Transform for Boundary Value Problems: Applications and advances, SIAM (2015).

References

External links

Home Page at Cambridge University
*
ISI Highly Cited Researchers - AS Fokas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fokas, Athanassios S 1952 births Living people Academics of Imperial College London 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Greek mathematicians Alumni of Imperial College London California Institute of Technology alumni Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine alumni Clarkson University faculty Academics of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) People from Argostoli