Xu Named Distinguished Professor of Mathematics

6 July 2007 —Jinchao Xu, professor of mathematics, has been named Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Penn State. This title is presented in recognition of his exceptional record of teaching, research, and service to the University community. The honor is designated by the Office of the President of Penn State based on the recommendations of colleagues and the Dean.

Xu studies numerical methods for partial differential equations, especially fast iterative methods for solving large-scale algebraic systems that arise from the numerical approximation of mathematical models in science and engineering. One major research interest is the theoretical analysis, algorithmic development, and practical application of multigrid methods. These methods combine classical iterative techniques with multiscale structures obtained from a given application to yield a class of optimally efficient methods that are far superior to the classic iterative techniques alone.

Xu has published more than 100 scientific papers about his research and, according to the Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI's) Highly Cited Authors in Mathematics, is among the most highly cited mathematicians in the world. He has been invited to present a plenary lecture at the 6th International Congress for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) held in Zurich in July 2007. The ICIAM, held every 4 years, is the largest international conference for industrial and applied mathematics. He serves on editorial boards for many major journals in computational mathematics, including the Journal of Computational Mathematics, Mathematics of Computation, Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Analysis, Mathematical Models and Methods in Applied Sciences, the Journal of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Advances in Computational Mathematics, Journal of Computational Physics in China, the International Journal of Numerical Analysis and Modeling, and the Journal of Selected Articles from Chinese Universities: Mathematics. He is also a co-editor of many conference proceedings and research monographs.

In 1995, Xu's research accomplishments were recognized with the first Feng Kang Prize for Scientific Computing from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Xiangtan University in China. He received a Schlumberger Foundation Award in 1993 and the Natural Science Award from the National Academy of Science in China in 1989. He received the Liu Memorial Award at Cornell in 1988. In honor of his achievements in computational-mathematics research and teaching, he received the Humboldt Award for Senior U.S. Scientists in 2005. He also received a Research Award for National Outstanding Youth (Class B) in 2006 in China.

Xu earned his bachelor's degree at Xiangtan University in 1982 and his master's degree at Peking University in 1984, both in China. He earned his doctoral degree at Cornell University in 1989. He joined Penn State in 1989 as assistant professor of mathematics. He was promoted to associate professor in 1991 and to professor in 1995. He has been Changjiang Professor in Peking University since 1999 and Furong Professor in Xiangtan University since 2003. He is the director of the Center for Computational Mathematics and Applications at Penn State and of the Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics at Xiangtan University in China. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

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