Hundreds Gather for Annual SIAM TX-LA Section Meeting

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), in partnership with the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, hosted the 8th annual SIAM Texas-Louisiana Sectional Meeting September 26 – 28, 2025. The three-day event drew 352 participants and featured a dynamic program of plenary lectures, parallel sessions, an undergraduate conference, and a graduate student poster session.

Four distinguished plenary speakers headlined the conference:

• Robert P. Lipton, Louisiana State University
• Robert Ghrist, University of Pennsylvania
• Jean-Luc Guermond, Texas A&M University
• Xiaoye Sherry Li, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Their talks were interwoven with hundreds of mini symposia exploring innovative topics in applied and computational mathematics, data science, and applications across science and engineering.

Conference co-organizer Jesse Chan, associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at UT and principal faculty at the Oden Institute, recalled a memorable moment from Guermond’s plenary. “He quoted Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, which I found to be both funny and accurate: ‘Fluid dynamicists were divided into hydraulic engineers who observed what could not be explained, and mathematicians who explained things that could not be observed.’  It reminded me of how wide the gap can be between disciplines. It also made me grateful as a mathematician who knows very little about fluid dynamics compared with my engineering colleagues to be working at in institute dedicated to bridging these gaps.”

A highlight of the opening evening was a well-attended career panel, drawing graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs. Panelist David Fridovich-Keil, assistant professor in aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at UT and core faculty at the Oden Institute, reflected on the event’s impact.  "We received great questions about what different industry, government, and academic career paths look like, how to find good internships and mentors, and how to be an effective mentor. Afterwards, the other panelists and I stuck around to respond to follow-up questions. The career panel serves a very important purpose in conferences like this and is an accessible way for attendees to make connections in an informal atmosphere.”

Saturday evening featured a lively poster session with 41 presentations, followed by a banquet. Four graduate students were recognized with Best Poster Awards: 

• Boluwatife Awoyemi, Texas Tech University. “Mapping Coexistence and Exclusion in Hybrid Timescale Systems: A Numerical Approach.”
• Asikul Islam, University of Houston. “Efficient Numerical Methods for Multispecies Tumor Growth Simulations.”
• Bobby Shi, University of Texas at Austin. “Efficient Tensor Decomposition via Moment Matrix Extension.”
• Damon Spencer, Rice University. “A New Approach for Solving the Mixed Integer PDE Constrained Source Inversion Problem.”

Throughout the conference, co-organizer Krishnanunni C G, a graduate research assistant at the Oden Institute, was inspired by the variety of research, as he peeked into various sessions. “Each time, I was reminded of what makes SIAM conferences so special — the breadth of topics presented from applications in biology and machine learning to mechanics and imaging. It reminded me once more of the far-reaching impact of applied mathematics across disciplines.”

Chan extended special thanks to the UT local organizing committee and the many volunteers whose efforts contributed to a successful conference experience, with particular recognition to Tan Bui-Thanh, Oden Institute faculty member, and Karen Rumpf, research administrator at the Oden Institute. Additional thanks goes to the SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section Officers and Organizing Committee.

Established in 2016, The Texas - Louisiana Section of SIAM provides a platform for mathematicians working in both industry and academia to come together in a networking and collaborative environment. The 2026 SIAM TX-LA Conference will be held at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.