Constantine Michael Dafermos ( Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Δαφέρμος; born May 26, 1941,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

) is a

Greek-American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest es ...

applied mathematician. He received a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the

National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...

(1964) and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in Mechanics from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

under the direction of

Jerald Ericksen Jerald LaVerne Ericksen (December 20, 1924 – June 11, 2021) was an American mathematician specializing in continuum mechanics. Biography Ericksen was born in Portland, Oregon. His father Adolf worked at a Portland creamery and became adept at ...

(1967). He has been an Assistant Professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

(1968-1971) and an Associate Professor (1971-1975) and Professor (1975-) in the Division of Applied Mathematics at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Since 1984, he has been the Alumni-Alumnae University Professor at Brown. In recent years, his research has focused on nonlinear hyperbolic systems of

conservation law In physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves over time. Exact conservation laws include conservation of energy, conservation of linear momentum, c ...

s whose solutions spontaneously develop singularities propagating as shock waves. In particular, he is studying the interplay between

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...

and analysis in the theory of these systems and he is analyzing the fundamental role of

entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...

as a stabilizing agent. In 2012 he became a fellow 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, ...

. In 2016 he was elected to the

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 ...

Awards

*Honorary Doctorate, University of Athens, 1987. *Honorary Doctorate, National Technical University (Greece), 1991. *Honorary Doctorate, University of Crete, 2001. *SIAM W.T. and Idalia Reid Prize, 2000. * Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, 2016 Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics 2016
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Affiliations

*Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2001-. *Correspondent Member, Academy of Athens, 1988-. *Honorary Professor, Academia Sinica, China, 2004-. *Member, Board of Governors, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), 1995-.

Notes

Sources

*Brown University, The Division of Applied Mathematics (http://www.dam.brown.edu/) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dafermos, Constantine Greek mathematicians National Technical University of Athens alumni Brown University faculty Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Living people 1941 births Scientists from Athens Johns Hopkins University alumni Cornell University faculty Greek emigrants to the United States