The 2015 SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession goes to Carlos Castillo-Chavez of Arizona State University.
Castillo-Chavez is being recognized for his extraordinary mentoring that has helped bring numerous underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students at all levels to the mathematical sciences; for his extensive research record in mathematical biology and epidemiology; for his distinguished service on numerous national committees and advisory boards at SIAM, the Mathematics Institutes, US National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, and elsewhere; and for his lifelong commitment to successfully promoting diversity in the applied mathematics community.Castillo-Chavez is Regents Professor and Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology and Distinguished Sustainability Scientist at Arizona State University. He also serves as executive director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI), founding director of the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center (MCMSC), executive director of the Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science (SUMS), and Director of STEM Programs for Underrepresented Minorities at ASU.
Castillo-Chavez received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. Prior to moving to ASU in 2004, he spent 18 years as a professor at Cornell University in the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology. He is a Fellow of SIAM and the American Mathematical Society.His research is at the interface of the mathematical and natural and social sciences with emphasis on the role of dynamic social landscapes in disease dispersal; environmental and social structures in dynamics of addiction and disease evolution; and dynamics of complex systems at the interface of ecology, epidemiology, and the social sciences.
The SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession, established in 1985, became an annual prize in 2003, and is awarded to an applied mathematician who has made distinguished contributions to the furtherance of applied mathematics on the national level.The recipient of the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession receives a framed, hand-calligraphed certificate.
Castillo-Chavez will receive his award at the SIAM Prizes and Awards Luncheon, which will be held 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 13, at the 8th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM 2015) in Beijing, China at the China National Convention Center.
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