Robert M. Miura (September 12, 1938 - November 25, 2018) was a Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Sciences and of Biomedical Engineering at

New Jersey Institute of Technology {{Infobox university , name = {{nowrap, New Jersey Institute of Technology , image = New Jersey IT seal.svg , image_upright = 0.9 , former_names = Newark College of Engineering (1930–1975)Ne ...

(NJIT) in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.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 ...

. He earned his MA (1964) and PhD (1966) from

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 ...

. Following his PhD, Miura was a postdoctoral fellow at the Courant Institute at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, 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-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

Research

Miura's research has spanned many subjects in the mathematical sciences. His earliest contributions were on the topic of conservation laws for nonlinear wave equations. Miura discovered an inverse scattering transformation known as the Miura Transformation for analytically solving the modified Korteweg–de Vries equation. This work helped establish the theory of

solitons In mathematics and physics, a soliton or solitary wave is a self-reinforcing wave packet that maintains its shape while it propagates at a constant velocity. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium ...

. Miura’s research interests focused on developing mathematical models in neuroscience for cell dynamics. He works with biologists to help them understand how and why a type of depressed brain activity induced in animals spreads as a slow, pathological wave. Robert, along with collaborator Henry Tuckwell, formulated one of the first models of spreading depression using the continuum approach. In recent years, he has expanded on this work in order to understand not just ion, but also energy homeostasis in the brain.

Life

Miura spent 26 years at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, as a professor of mathematics. He joined NJIT in 2001. He was married to Kathryn Bannai and was a father of four children.

Honors

* ''Fellow'' of

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

(1995). * ''Fellow'' of

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(2005). *

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 ...

for Seminal Contribution to Research,

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, ...

(2006) * ''Fellow'' of

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 ...

(2009). *''Fellow'' of

(2012).List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-02-06.

References

External links

"Homepage : Robert M. Miura ""Mathematics Genealogy Project - Robert Mitsuru Miura""NJIT : Mathematical Sciences -- Our People - Robert M. Miura""NJIT : Experts Database -- For the Media - Robert M Miura"Miura transformation at DispersiveWiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miura, Robert M. 1938 births 2018 deaths Vanderbilt University faculty Academic staff of the University of British Columbia University of Washington faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Princeton University alumni New Jersey Institute of Technology Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada