Mary Wheeler
American mathematician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Fanett Wheeler (born December 28, 1938)[1] is an American mathematician. She is known for her work on numerical methods for partial differential equations, including domain decomposition methods.
Rice University (PhD)
Mary Fanett Wheeler | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 28, 1938 |
| Education | University of Texas (BS, BA, MA) Rice University (PhD) |
| Known for | numerical methods for PDEs, domain decomposition |
| Awards | Theodore von Kármán Prize Humboldt Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Numerical Analysis Partial Differential Equations Scientific Computation |
| Workplaces | Rice University University of Houston University of Texas |
| Thesis | A Priori L2 Error Estimates for Galerkin Approximations to Parabolic Partial Differential Equations (1971) |
| Henry H. Rachford, Jr. Jim Douglas, Jr. | |
Doctoral students | |
In 1998, Wheeler was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for "the computer simulation of subsurface flow and the underlying mathematical algorithms".[2]
In 2009 she was awarded the Theodore von Kármán Prize by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).[3]
Personal background
Mary Fanett Wheeler was born on December 28, 1938, in Cuero, Texas.[1] She earned a double major in social sciences and mathematics from the University of Texas in 1960, and a Master's degree in 1963.[1] She did her masters thesis on the Peaceman-Rachford method, and later went on to do her Ph.D. under Rachford at Rice University in 1971.[4]
Professional background
Wheeler studies finite element analysis and porous media problems with applications in engineering, oil-field exploitation, and the cleaning up of environmental pollution.[4] Her early work consisted of fundamental contributions to finite element methods and numerical analysis.[4] She then moved into porous media problems, using her numerical expertise to study problems in the oil industry such as managing oil-field extraction.[4] She also studies environmental problems such as cleaning up underground reservoirs, spills of toxic waste, and carbon dioxide sequestration.[4] In addition, Wheeler has worked with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on environmental impact in the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and Florida Bay.[4]
On the matter of pure versus applied math, Wheeler has been noted to say "To me it is important to see your work used. I do abstract things as well, and I don't know if I will live to see them applied."[4]
Wheeler worked at the Rice University from 1971 to 1995, with a two-year hiatus at University of Houston from 1988 to 1990.[4] In 1995 she moved to the University of Texas at Austin (UT) where she served as the director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling[5] at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.[6] She retired from UT in 2024.[7]
Wheeler is a Professional Engineer registered with the State of Texas since 1999.[8] In 1989, she gave the prestigious Noether Lecture for the Association for Women in Mathematics in Phoenix, Arizona.[9] Her talk was titled "Large Scale Modeling of Problems Arising in Flow in Porous Media".[9]
Awards
- Noether Lecture (1989)
- Theodore von Kármán Prize (2009)
- Humboldt Prize (2011)
Memberships
- Fellow, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
- Society of Petroleum Engineers
- Fellow, International Association for Computational Mechanics
- National Academy of Engineering
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences