Maria Cristina Villalobos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- University of Texas at Austin (BS)
- Rice University (PhD)
Maria Cristina Villalobos | |
|---|---|
| Born | McAllen, Texas, US |
| Alma mater |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
| Thesis | The behavior of Newton's method on two equivalent systems from linear and nonlinear programming (2000) |
| Doctoral advisor | Richard A. Tapia |
Maria Cristina Villalobos is an American applied mathematician at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she is Myles and Sylvia Aaronson Endowed Professor of mathematics, associate dean of sciences, and director of the Center of Excellence in STEM Education.[1] Her research interests include mathematical optimization, control theory, and their application to retinitis pigmentosa treatment and to antenna design.[2]
Villalobos was born in McAllen, Texas and grew up in Donna, Texas, both in the Rio Grande Valley,[3] the oldest of three children of two immigrants from Mexico,[4] and the first in her family with a college education.[3][5] After participating in engineering programs at the University of Texas–Pan American as a high school student, she did her undergraduate studies in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, also including summer research programs at Rice University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Sandia National Laboratories.[4]
She went to Rice University for graduate study in mathematics,[3] and completed her doctorate there in 2000. Her dissertation, The Behavior of Newton's Method on Two Equivalent Systems from Linear and Nonlinear Programming, was supervised by Richard A. Tapia.[6][7]
