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Suzanne Shontz Grad Student Center for Applied Mathematics 657 Frank H.T. Rhodes Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-4195 shontz@cam.cornell.edu Full Curriculum Vitae

About Me

While a student at the University of Northern Iowa, I participated in many research programs. My first research program was at the Geometry Center at the University of Minnesota. There I studied M-curves (using combinatorial algebraic geometry) with Jesus DeLoera and Rick Wicklin. I also participated in math REU programs at the University of Kentucky and Cornell University. At the University of Kentucky, I worked with Peter Perry on a project involving numerical linear algebra and medical imaging. My project at Cornell University was in computing homoclinic bifurcations with John Hubbard. In addition, I did analytical chemistry research in mass spectrometry with Curt Hanson at the University of Northern Iowa.

But, it wasn't all about schoolwork. I participated in many activities at the university in order to meet other students. While at the university, I participated in: the UNI Symphonic Band (clarinet), Phi Eta Sigma, Kappa Mu Epsilon, Golden Key National Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, Omicron Delta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the UNI Math Club, the American Chemical Society student chapter, the UNI Physics Club, the College of Natural Sciences Dean's Student Advisory Committee, and various other groups.

I'm currently a fifth (and final!) year Ph.D. student at Cornell University in the Center for Applied Mathematics . I passed my Admission to Candidacy Exam and finished Master's degrees in both Applied Math and Computer Science at Cornell in Fall 2001. While at CAM, I'm being supported by an National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC) Fellowship. Sandia National Lab-CA is my sponsor. For photos of my classmates, see Classmate Photos . The research I'm doing is described below. There's also a link to the coursework I've completed. I'm also involved in the College of Engineering's Graduate Student Association, EGSA at Cornell. Previously, I have held the offices of secretary, treasurer, and media relations for this group.

Teaching

Research

I'm also interested in other areas of numerical analysis such as numerical optimization. During Summers 1999 and 2000 I worked on a numerical optimization project (written in C++ and MPI) in the Computational Sciences and Mathematics Research Group at Sandia National Lab. My mentor both summers was Patty Hough. I gave a talk about the research I did at Sandia in the Mathematical Sciences Graduate Student Seminar Series on 9/14/00 at Cornell. Click here for the abstract. I also presented this research at the Applied Mathematics Days Conference that was held at Rennslaer Polytechnic Institute on 10/20/00-10/21/00. Click here for the abstract. Slides from these talks are available by contacting me.

I also gave a talk on Women and Graduate School in the Mathematical Sciences Graduate Student Seminar Series on 2/8/01 at Cornell. Click here for the abstract and here for the summary. The ideas for this talk/informal discussion grew out of a workshop called, "Connecting Women in Mathematics to Industry", I attended at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) in September 2000.

During Summers 2001 and 2002, I did research in mesh smoothing with Lori Freitag and Todd Munson in the MCS Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Patrick Knupp also collaborated with us. During Summer 2001, we studied global mesh smoothing with the goal of creating an algorithm of our own that would be competitive with local mesh smoothing algorithms. This research resulted in a conference paper at the 11th International Meshing Roundtable. Click here for a sample of our research. This past summer, we studied patch-based mesh smoothing and compared our results to those of the previous summer.

I spent part of the Summer of 2003 at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM working with Lori Freitag, Patrick Knupp, and Todd Munson on global and local mesh smoothing. This extends our work from the previous couple of summers.

My other research interests include numerical analysis (all areas), parallel computing, scientific computing, computational medicine, and mathematical physiology.

Courses

Educational Favorites

Mathematics:

Computer Science:

Mesh Generation:

Numerical Analysis:

Cardiology:

Last Updated: 8/20/03