Biografía

Hugo Leiva, PhD. from Georgia Tech, USA.

Hugo Leiva was born in Anaco, an oil town of Anzoategui State, in Venezuela. There, in Anaco, there were many oil companies and, therefore the middle class of that town was formed mostly by oil engineers, which makes that the dream of all Anaco children to become a petroleum engineer. Also, Hugo father worked in one of those oil companies where he had an accident and died at the age of only 28 years, and at that time Hugo Leiva was a child of only one year old. Thus, when Hugo turns fourteen, his mother, Teotiste Leiva and his three brothers and a sister, decided to move to Caracas where Hugo finished high school in a night high school because he had to work during the day in order to contribute to the sustenance of the home like all the brothers did. After Hugo finished high school in 1976, he decides to make his dream true, to become a petroleum engineer, but by considering mathematics as the last option in the list of careers, he was chosen to study mathematics, which filled him with a lot of nostalgia and tried to change many times to the career he was dreaming for. Anyway, noting that his grades were excellent, he recognized his mathematics talent and continued on it until December 1980 when he graduated in Central University of Venezuela with the highest honors as a Licenciado en Matemáticas. Immediately, Hugo Leiva was hired as a teacher in UCV and received a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to finish a master degree in Control Theory and Optimization under the direction of Dr. Zolta Varga from University of Budapest. In 1985, he got a position at the Andes University (ULA) where he began teaching and research activities, and in 1990 he got a scholarship from ULA to go to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA, where he finished his PhD in differential equations and non-autonomous dynamical systems in 1995, with the highest honors, outstanding performance. Hugo Leiva, after completing his PhD in Georgia Tech, returns to Venezuela to continue his teaching, research and extension work at the Andes University, particularly training many young people at the undergraduate, masters and doctorate levels, being tutor of 7 doctoral theses and author of more than 100 papers in international and prestigious journals.

 

Research Interest

Differential Equations, Control Theory, Optimal Control and Functional Analysis.

 

Teaching positions

Louisiana State University, USA, Visiting Professor 2015-2016.

Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. Instructor. (1981-1985).

Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida – Venezuela. (1985-1987).

Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida – Venezuela. Associate Professor. (1987- 1993). Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida – Venezuela. Full Professor (since 1996) .

Georgia Tech – USA. -Visiting Prof.  (2001-2003).

UNAM- Visiting Prof.  (2009).

 

Awards and Recognitions

1.National Science Award Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury. (Polar Prize) 2001.

2. Feature Review (Feature Article). It is a special edition for the best articles of Mathematical Review. This recognition was given to a work of forty-eight (48) pages, which has following characteristics. Title: Existence and roughness of the exponential dichotomy for skew-product semi-flow in Banach spaces. J. Differential Equations. Volume. 120 (1995), No. 2, pages 429-477.

3. National Award for Best scientific Work in Mathematics – CONICIT-1999. H. Leiva “Exponential Dochotomy for a Non-Autonomous System of Parabolic Equations” J. of Dynamics and Differential Equations, Vol.10.N º. 3, 1998

4. Regional Award for best scientific work in mathematics – FUNDACITE, Mérida – 1999. H, Leiva “Existence of Bounded Solutions of a Second Order System with Dissipation” J. of Math. Anal. And Applications 237, 288 – 302 (1999).

 

Selected Publications

Existence and roughness of the exponential dichotomy for skew-product semi-flow in Banach spaces. J. Differential Equations. Volume. 120 (1995), No. 2, pages 429-477  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022039685711175