This recognition was given by the most important mathematical society of the world

Andreas Griewank, Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences and Information Technology, was named a SIAM Fellow. SIAM, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, is one of the most important mathematical societies of the world, with more than 14 thousand members, and over 500 institutional members. Andreas would be one of the only seven scientists to receive this fellowships on a southamerican university, and the first one to receive it on an Ecuadorian University. Currently the Universities are Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil), Universidade Federal de Río de Janeiro (Brazil), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Universidad Yachay Tech (Ecuador) plus the Instituto de Matemática Pura y Aplicada (Brazil).

SIAM’s creation is based in the need to concentrate the effort of using applied mathematics for industry and to demonstrate the general value of applied mathematics. By now the organization has grown to the point of being one of the most important scientific organizations of the world. Spawned by its success, many sister organizations have sprung up around the world and are joined together in the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Each year, this society appoints a fellow generation. This year, 28 fellows were chosen, among them are faculty of institutions like MIT, Cornell University, University of Tel Aviv and others.

Becoming a SIAM Fellows is the result of an outstanding career with substantial contributions and scientific leadership in the field of mathematics and its applications. In Andreas’ case, it was granted for his work in algorithmic differentiation and nonlinear optimization. Andreas has made many funamental contributions, and wrote the book of reference which was published by SIAM in 2001 and in a second edition in 2008.

For Andreas, this is an achievement that causes much pride and surprise at the same time. To be named a SIAM Fellow, aside from having an outstanding career, you must actively contribute to the society. Andreas feels the selection committee has been quite generous in the second regard, probably recognizing his activities in the developing world, especially now at Yachay Tech University. While he has been a member on the SIAM Board and Council he never edited a SIAM Journal and even been quite intensely involved in a competing optimization journal. He ensures that his next steps are to actively continue his research, hopefully writing another book and form a one more generation of graduate students. So far he has supervised 23 PhD and many more Master students. Finally, he highlights that this recognition belongs partly to the students and peers that have collaborated with him throughout his career as well.

With Andreas’ selection, the Dean is now the second SIAM Fellow member of Yachay Tech University. Carlos Castillo-Chavez, chairman of the university, was appointed SIAM Fellow in 2010.