Andrew J. Majda is the Morse Professor of Arts and Sciences at the Courant Institute of New York University. He was born in East Chicago, Indiana on January 30, 1949. He received a B.S. degree from Purdue University in 1970 and a Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1973.

Majda’s primary research interests are modern applied mathematics in the broadest possible sense merging asymptotic methods, numerical methods, physical reasoning and rigorous mathematical analysis.

 

He is well known for both his theoretical contributions to partial differential equations and his applied contributions to diverse areas such as scattering theory, shock waves, combustion, incompressible flow, vortex motion, turbulent diffusion, and atmosphere ocean science.

 

Majda is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous honors and awards including the National Academy of Science Prize in Applied Mathematics, the John von Neumann Prize of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the Gibbs Prize of the American Mathematical Society. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. He has been awarded the Medal of the College de France, twice, and is a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He has received an honorary doctorate from his undergraduate alma mater, Purdue University. He has given plenary one hour lectures at both ICM (Kyoto 1990) and the first ICIAM (Paris 1987).

 

Majda began his scientific career as a Courant Instructor at the Courant Institute from 1973-1975. Prior to returning to the Courant Institute in 1994, he held professorship at Princeton University (1984-1994), the University of California, Berkeley (1978-1984), and the University of California, Los Angeles (1976-1978). In the past several years at the Courant Institute, Majda has created the Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science with a multi-disciplinary faculty to promote cross-disciplinary research with modern applied mathematics in climate modeling and prediction. Majda's current research interests include multi-scale multi-cloud modeling for the tropics, reduced stochastic and statistical modeling for climate, and novel mathematical strategies for prediciton and data assimiliation in complex multi-scale systems.

 

Majda’s published books include “Compressible Fluid Flow and Systems of Conservation Lawas in Several Space Variables" by Springer-Verlang, "Vorticity and Incompressible Flow” with A. Bertozzi by Cambridge University Press, Majda’s lecture notes for the Courant Lecture Note Series of the American Math. Society “Introduction to PDE’s and Waves for the Atmosphere and Ocean,” also for the CRM monograph series “Information theory and Stochastics for Multiscale Nonlinear Systems,” with M. Grote and R. Abramov, by American Mathematical Society, and recently, “Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Theories for Basic Geophysical Flows” with Xiaoming Wang by Cambridge University Press. He has a new forthcoming book with John Harlim, "Filtering Turbulent Signals in Complex Systems" by Cambridge University Press. (Dec. 2011 or Jan. 2012).