Margaret Beck
Curriculum Vitae

Mailing address: Office Number: CM G.15
School of Mathematics and Computer Science Phone: +44 (0)1314 513206
Heriot-Watt University E-mail: M.Beck -at- hw.ac.uk
Edinburgh http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~mb341
EH14 4AS
Scotland

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Education

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• Ph.D., Mathematics, Boston University, May 2006.
  Advisors: Tasso J. Kaper and C. Eugene Wayne. Thesis title: "Topics in stability theory for partial differential equations."
  
• B.A., Mathematics, Colorado College, May 2000.
  Advisor: Marlowe Anderson.
  

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Employment

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• Lecturer, Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
  September 2011 - Present.
  
• Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, Boston, MA.
  Tenure-track; September 2009 - Present.
  
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, RI.
  Visiting researcher as part of of an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, August 2008 - July 2009.
  
• Research Fellow, Department of Mathematics, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
  Visiting researcher as past of an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, June 2007 - August 2008 and September - December 2006.
  
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA.
  During the program in Dynamical Systems, January - May 2007.
  

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Awards, Fellowships, and Grants

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• Sloan Research Fellow, September 2012 - August 2014.
  
• US National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, 2011.
  
• NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences "Standard Grant," PI of award number DMS-1007450, July 2010 - June 2013.
  
• NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, DMS-0602891, Fall 2006 - July 2009.
  
• Red Sock Poster Award, SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, May 2005.
  
• GAANN Fellowship, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, September 2004 - May 2006 and January - December 2001.
  
• Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award, Center for Excellence in Teaching, Boston University, 2003.
  
• Cajori Prize, Department of Mathematics, Colorado College, 2000.

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Preprints and Publications

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• "Metastability and rapid convergence to quasi-stationary bar states for the 2D Navier-Stokes Equations," with C. E. Wayne. To appear at Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sec. A.
  
• "Burgers equation," entry in the Encyclopedia of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Springer (2012).
• "Toward nonlinear stability of sources via a modified Burgers equation," with T. Nguyen , B. Sandstede and K. Zumbrun. Phys. D 241, 382-392 (2012).
  
• "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity," with C. E. Wayne. SIAM Rev. 53, no. 1, 129-153 (2011).
  
• "Stability of travelling wave solutions for coupled surface and grain boundary motion," with Z. Pan and B. Wetton. Phys. D 239, 1730-1740 (2010).
  
• "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks," with B. Sandstede and K. Zumbrun. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 196, 1011-1076 (2010).
  
• "Nonlinear stability of semi-discrete shocks for two sided schemes," with H. J. Hupkes, B. Sandstede, and K. Zumbrun. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 42, no. 2, 857-903 (2010).
  
• "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity," with C. E. Wayne. SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. 8, no. 3, 1043-1065 (2009)
  
• "Snakes, ladders, and isolas of localised patterns," with J. Knobloch, D. Lloyd, B. Sandstede, and T. Wagenknecht. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 41, 936-972 (2009).
  
• "Nonlinear convective stability of traveling fronts near Turing and Hopf instabilities," with A. Ghazaryan and B. Sandstede. J. Differential Equations 246, 4371-4390 (2009).
  
• "Electrical waves in a one-dimensional model of cardiac tissue," with C. K. R. T. Jones, D. Schaeffer, and M. Wechselberger. SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst 7, no. 4, 1558-1581 (2008).
  
• "Invariant manifolds and the stability of traveling waves in scalar viscous conservation laws," with C. E. Wayne. J. Differential Equations 244, 87-116 (2008).
  
• "A geometric construction of traveling waves in a bioremediation model," with A. Doelman and T. J. Kaper. J. of Nonlinear Sci. 16, 329-349 (2006).
  
• "A geometric theory of chaotic phase synchronization," with K. Josic. Chaos 13, 247-258 (2003).
  

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Presentations and Conference Participation

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Invited Minicourse Instructor

• Gave four lectures on linear stability theory during workshop for PhD students, preceding SIAM conference Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures in Seattle, USA, June 2012.

Conference and workshop organization

• On organizing committee of SIAM conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, held at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, June 13-16, 2012.
• Co-organizer of workshop entitled "Dynamics in infinite-dimensions: ergodic theory and PDEs," held at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK, 21-25 May 2012.

Invited panelist

• Panel entitled "Past and Future Directions in Applied Dynamical Systems," at the conference ``Geometric Methods for Infinite-Dimensional Dynamical Systems," Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, November 2011.
• Panel entitled "Women and Mathematics," at the SIAM conference on Dynamical Systems and PDE, Barcelona, Spain, May 2010.

Minisymposium organizer

• Equadiff 2011, Loughborough University, August 1-5, 2011.
  Minisymposium title: "Dynamical systems techniques for fluids."
  
• SIAM Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 2011
  Minisymposium title: ``Nonlinear Waves: From Spectral Study to Nonlinear Dynamics"
  
• SIAM Conference on Emerging Topics in Dynamical Systems and PDE, Barcelona, Spain, May 2010.
  Minisymposium title: "Coherent structures in fluids."
  
• SIAM Conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, Universita di Roma, July 21-24, 2008.
  Minisymposium title: "Interaction of Coherent Structures."
  
• Equadiff 2007, Technical University of Vienna, August 6-10, 2007.
  Minisymposium title: "Nonlinear patterns and waves."
  
• SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 28 - June 1, 2007.
  Minisymposium title: "Nonlinear stability and long-time asymptotics of nonliear waves."
  

Invited Speaker

• "First Central Region Conference on Numerical Analysis and Dynamical Systems," University of Kansas, 3-5 May 2013.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach workshop "Dynamics of Patterns," Oberwolfach, Germany, 16-22 Dec 2012.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Minnesota, Dynamics and Patterns Seminar, Nov 26, 2012.
  Talk title: "The Maslov Index as a stability index and a related Riccati equation."
  
• Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), workshop "Dynamical Systems in Studies of Partial Differential Equations," Minneapolis, MN, USA, September 24, 2012.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Cambridge, Geometric Analysis and Partial Differential Equations seminar, 14 May 2012.
  Talk title: ``Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Bath, Applied Mathematics Seminar, 24 April 2012.
  Talk title: ``Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Chile, Dynamical Systems seminar, 12 March 2012.
  Talk title: ``Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Edinburgh, Analysis Seminar, 13 Feb 2012.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Warwick, Applied Mathematics Seminar, 1 Feb 2012.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states for the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• University of Strathclyde, Mathematics Colloquium, 16 November 2011.
  Talk title: "Metastability in the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
• University of Edinburgh, Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar, 13 October 2011.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states in the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
• Equadiff 2011, Loughborough University, 1-5 August 2011.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Metastability and global invariant manifolds for Burgers equation (and some newer results on 2D Navier-Stokes)."
  
• BIRS workshop "Localized Multi-Dimensional Patterns in Dissipative Systems: Theory, Modeling, and Experiments," Banff, Canada, July 24-29, 2011.
  Talk title: "Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states in the 2D Navier-Stokes equation."
  
• SIAM Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 2011
  Minisymposium talk title: ``Nonlinear Stability for a Model of a Source-type Defect"
  
• UCLA, Participating Analysis Seminar, April 2011.
  Talk title: "Toward nonlinear stability of sources via a modified Burgers equation."
  
• SIAM Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, Philadelphia, PA, USA, August 2010.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Nonlinear stability of semidiscrete shocks for two-sided schemes."
  
• Coherent structures in evolutionary equations, Lorentz Center, Leiden, NL, July 2010.
  Plenary talk title: ``Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity."
  
• SIAM Emerging Topics in Dynamical Systems and PDE, Barcelona, Spain, May 2010.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Nonlinear convective stability of travelling fronts near Turing and Hopf instabilities."
  
• Linköping University, Colloquium, March 5, 2010.
  Talk title: "Understanding metastability using invariant manifolds."
  
• Joint Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) and Stockholms Universitet (SU) Colloquium, March 3, 2010.
  Talk title: "Understanding metastability using invariant manifolds."
  
• Georgia Institute of Technology, PDE Seminar, January 26, 2010.
  Talk title: "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity."
  
• SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 17-21, 2009.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity."
  
• Duke University, Applied Mathematics and Analysis Seminar, December 8, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• Wesleyan University, DnA (Dynamics n' Analysis) Seminar, December 2, 2008.
  Talk title: "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity."
  
• Drexel University, PDE/Applied Math Seminar, November 21, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• University of Oxford, Oxford Centre for Nonlinear PDE, Lunchtime Seminar Series, October 23, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• University of Oxford, Oxford Centre for Nonlinear PDE, Lunchtime Seminar Series, October 17, 2008.
  Talk title: "Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity."
  
• SIAM Conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, Universita di Roma, July 21-24, 2008.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• University of Edinburgh, Applied Mathematics Seminar, May 23, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• University of Surrey, Informal Seminar, May 7, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlienar stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• University of Liverpool, Applied Mathematics Seminar, April 30, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• SIAM Student Conference, University of Oxford, April 25, 2008.
  Talk title: "Snakes, ladders, and isolas of localised patterns."
  
• University of Oxford, Differential Equations and Application Seminar, April 24, 2008.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• The Geometry and Analysis of Dynamical Systems, North Caronlina State University, February 22-23, 2008.
  Conference to Celebrate the Mathematical Contributions of Xiao-Biao Lin and Stephen Schecter. Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• SIAM Conference on Analysis of Partial Differential Equations, Phoenix, AZ, USA, December 10-12, 2007.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shock waves."
  
• Boston University, Dynamics Seminar, October 1, 2007.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shock waves."
  
• Indiana University, Institute Seminar (Institute for Scientific Computing and Applied Mathematics), September 26, 2007.
  Talk title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shock waves."
  
• Equadiff 2007, Technical University of Vienna, August 6-10, 2007.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Invariant manifolds and the stability of traveling waves in scalar, viscous conservation laws."
  
• Universidade do Porto, Dynamical Systems Seminar, April 13, 2007.
  Talk title: "Invariant manifolds and the stability of solutions to PDEs."
  
• University of Houston, Nonlinear Dynamics Seminar, March 5, 2007.
  Talk title: "Invariant manifolds and the stability of traveling waves in scalar, viscous conservation laws."
  
• University of Surrey, Informal Seminar, September 27, 2006.
  Talk title: "Invariant manifolds and the stability of traveling waves in scalar, viscous conservation laws."
  
• SIAM Conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, University of Washington, September 9-12, 2006.
  Minisymposium talk title: "A geometric analysis of traveling waves in a bioremediation model."
  
• SIAM Conference on Analysis of Partial Differential Equations, Boston, MA, USA, July 10-12, 2006.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Invariant manifolds and the stability of traveling waves in Burgers equation."
  
• SIAM Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, USA, July 10-14, 2006.
  Minisymposium talk title: "A geometric analysis of traveling waves in a bioremediation model."
  
• CWI Amsterdam, July 29, 2005.
  Talk title: "A geometric construction of traveling waves in a bioremediation model."
  
• SIAM Conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, University of Central Florida, October 2-5, 2004.
  Minisymposium talk title: "Matched asymptotics for a bioremediation model."
  
• Boston University, Dynamics Seminar, September 27, 2004.
  Talk title: "Matched asymptotics for a bioremediation model."
  
• SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 27-31, 2003.
  Minisymposium talk title: "A geometric theory of chaotic phase synchronization."
  
• Dynamics Seminar, Boston University, December 9, 2002.
  Talk title: "A geometric theory of chaotic phase synchronization."
  
• Boston University, Center for Biodynamics Retreat, May 17, 2002.
  Talk title: "Phase locking of chaotic oscillators."
  

Poster presentations

• Geometric Analysis, Elasticity and PDE, Heriot-Watt University, June 23-27, 2008.
  Conference to celebrate the 60th birthday of John Ball. Poster title: "Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks."
  
• MSRI, Berkeley, CA, "Connections for Women: Dynamical Systems," January 18-19, 2007.
  Poster title: "A geometric analysis of traveling waves in a bioremediation model."
  
• SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, USA, May 22-26, 2005.
  Poster title: "A geometric construction of traveling waves in a bioremediation model."
  

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Professional Service

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• Member of US National Science Foundation grant review panel, 2011 and 2013.
  
• Vice Chair, SIAM Activity Group on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, Jan 1, 2013 - Dec 31, 2014.
• Administrative activities withing the Heriot-Watt University Department of Mathematics
  
  • CANPDE Crash Courses organizer: series of mini-courses organised by the Centre for Analysis and Nonlinear PDEs in collaboration with the Oxford Centre for Nonlinear PDE, aimed mostly at PhD students and young researchers. Organized minicourses in April 2012, November 2012, and April 2013.
    
• Administrative activities within the Boston University Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  
  • Hiring committee: for postdoctoral fellow in Stochastic Analysis (2011)
    
  • RULE committee: involved in restructuring of departmental introductory calculus classes (2010)
    
  • Graduate committee: evaluated applications and wrote/graded qualifying exams (2009-11)
    
  • Website Committee: involved in redesign of departmental webpage (2009-2010)
    
  • Member of PhD committee: second reader of thesis for graduating PhD student (2010)
    
• Article Referee: Reviewed articles for Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, Memoirs of the AMS, SIAM Journal of Mathematical Analysis, SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, SIAM Journal of Applied Dynamical Systems, Physica D, Nonlinearity, Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems B, SIAM Undergraduate Research Online, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and Mathematics and Computers in Simulation.
  
• Refereed book proposal for DeGruyter, November 2010, for SIAM, May 2011, and for Oxford University Press, October 2011.
• Seminar co-organizer
  • Boston University Dynamics Seminar, September 2009 - August 2011
  • Joint Brown and Boston University PDE Seminar, September 2009 - August 2011
  • Boston University Graduate Student Dynamics Seminar, January 2004 - December 2005
• Author of article for DS Web Magazine: Wrote short article about the workshop "Coherent Structures in Evolutionary Equations" at the Lorentz Center for the online publication of the SIAM activity group on Dynamical Systems, September 2010.
• Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews of the American Mathematical Society.
• Member of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (EMS), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
  

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Academic Visits and Short Courses Attended

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• Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Minneapolis, USA.
  September 4 - December 8, 2012. Invited long-term visitor to the program "Infinite dimensional and stochastic dynamical systems and their applications."
• Visitor, Institut Mittag-Leffler, Sweden.
  March 1-14 and May 22-30, 2010. Invited participant in the semester-long program on Dynamics and PDEs; gave two talks in the program seminar.
• Host for Visitor, Boston University.
  Spring 2010. Organized visit of Bob Rink, from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who spent sabbatical at Boston University.
• Visitor, Oxford Centre for Nonlinear PDE.
  October 13-25, 2008. Academic visit hosted by John Ball; gave two talks in the lunchtime seminar series.
• Multidimensional Localized Structures.
  July 18-19, 2008. Workshop preceding the SIAM conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures, Universita di Roma.
• Biomathematics, Bioengineering and Clinical Aspects of Blood Flow.
  July 23 - August 9 2002, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA. Participated in two-week course devoted to the mathematical study of blood flow.
  

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Teaching Experience

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• Invited Minicourse Instructor: Gave four-lecture minicourse on linear stability theory as part of the workshop entitled "The stability of coherent structures and patterns," preceding the SIAM conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures in Seattle, WA, USA, June 2012.
• Undergraduate project supervisor: supervised the final year thesis for 3 undergraduate students at Heriot-Watt University during the Spring 2012 semester.
• Reading group co-organizer: weekly seminar for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty.
  • Boston University, Boston, MA, Fall 2009; Topic: the Evans Function.
  • University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, Fall 2007; Topic: PDEs and Energy Estimates.
• Course instructor
  • Topology (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University, Autumn 2011.
  • Multivariate Calculus (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Spring 2011.
  • Ordinary Differential Equations (graduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Fall 2010.
  • Discrete Dynamical Systems (graduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Spring 2010.
  • Linear Algebra (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Fall 2009.
  • Linear Partial Differential Equations (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, University of Surrey, Spring 2008.
  • Calculus II (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Fall 2003.
  • Differential Equations (undergraduate course), Department of Mathematics, Boston University, Summer 2003.
• Teaching Fellow
  • Multivariate Calculus, Boston University, USA, Spring 2003 and Fall 2004
  • Applied Mathematics for the Social and Management Sciences, Boston University, USA, Fall 2003
  • Calculus for the Life and Social Sciences I, Boston University, USA, Spring 2002

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