World leaders in applied mathematics will meet in Concepción

Next January, the UdeC will host a new version of the prestigious WONAPDE congress, which every three years brings together some two hundred specialists.

With ten internationally recognized and prestigious plenary speakers, the WONAPDE 2024: Seventh Chilean Workshop on Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations, organized by a group of researchers from the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the Universidad de Chile, who are also members of the Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering (CI²MA) of the host university, will be held at the central campus of the Universidad de Concepción (UdeC) from January 15 to 19, 2024.

This congress has been held for two decades, gathering every three years around two hundred specialists in numerical analysis of partial differential equations around the realization of activities such as plenary conferences and thematic mini-symposia, among others.

“This is a congress created here at UdeC and it has consolidated as one of the most important conferences in Numerical Analysis in the world,” explained the academic of the Department of Mathematical Engineering of UdeC, Manuel Solano Palma. “The first version of WONAPDE was in 2004 and it has been held every three years (with a pause due to the pandemic). During these 20 years, a great effort has been made to continue with the organization of this already traditional congress and to maintain its prestige”.

“Many people are fond of WONAPDE, because in addition to the scientific quality of the talks, it generates a very pleasant atmosphere of camaraderie,” he added.

Meanwhile, his colleague from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC), Jessika Camaño Valenzuela, explained that “as in previous WONAPDEs, we expect the participation of around two hundred people, with talks of a very good level and different opportunities for sharing”.

“WONAPDE also stands out”, he added, “for being a congress with a good number of participants in the sense that interaction among them is not difficult, thus generating a very pleasant and welcoming atmosphere”.

WONAPDE 2024 will feature 18 mini-symposia and ten plenary talks, which will be given by:

Fioralba Cakoni, Rutgers University, Estados Unidos Stefan Diehl, Lund University, Suecia Paola Goatin, INRIA, Francia Nilima Nigam, Simon Fraser University, Canadá Vanja Nikolic, Radboud University, Países Bajos

Ilaria Perugia, University of Vienna, Austria Ricardo Ruiz-Baier, Monash University, Australia Abner Salgado, University of Tennessee, EE.UU. Ivan Yotov, University of Pittsburgh, Estados Unidos Sara Zahedi, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Suecia

Stefan Diehl, researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has attended all versions of WONAPDE since 2013 and emphasized that “it is one of the best organized conferences I have attended in all aspects. It is good that the number of participants is not too large. One of the main reasons for my participation is the close collaboration I have with Professor Raimund Bürger from Concepción, in the joint supervision of several PhD students at both universities”.

The scientist defines himself as “an applied mathematician who investigates all aspects of the chain: modeling of real processes in industry or biological sciences by means of equilibrium laws; mathematical analysis of direct and inverse problems; creation of numerical schemes and their analysis; and dissemination of our results to applied sciences, mainly mineral processing, wastewater treatment and chemical engineering”.

In this regard, his goals for participating in WONAPDE 2024, relate to the fact that “the right size of the conference and the excellent programming, which leaves plenty of time during lunches and coffee breaks, provide excellent opportunities throughout the week to meet with old and new colleagues, partly for socializing and partly for scientific discussions. Although we have a lot of digital meetings nowadays, it is essential to meet live from time to time”.

Sara Zahedi, an academic at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and a 2016 awardee of the European Mathematical Society for her significant contributions to the development of Numerical Analysis, is a specialist in “the development, analysis and implementation of computational methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) defined in time-dependent domains”.

“PDEs,” she detailed, “on dynamically changing geometries model, for example, the dynamics of incompressible and immiscible fluids. A key challenge in such simulations is to accurately and efficiently solve such PDEs while preserving physical quantities and identities such as mass”.

Although he has not participated in WONAPDE meetings before, he said that, after reviewing the information available from previous events, “I look forward to meeting many interesting talks and research discussions, as well as new colleagues and collaborators”.

WONAPDE 2024 is sponsored by the Universidad de Concepción, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Matemática, Centro de Modelamiento Matemático (FB 210005), Proyecto Anillo de Matemática Computacional para Procesos de Desalinización DSALT (ACT 210087), and Proyecto Anillo MMCF Nuevos modelos de flotación en la industria minera (ACT 210030).

By Iván R. Tobar Bocaz, CMM journalist.

Posted on Oct 14, 2023 in News