SkyWatch The Mathematical and Computational Physics Group (MCP)

Michael Holst directs the MCP Research Group, which is a collection of research scientists, postdocs, doctoral students, masters students, and undergraduate students from the Mathematics and Physics Departments at UCSD. Other CCoM faculty are often involved in the research. The group is supported by NSF, DOE, NIH, DOD, and other funding awards for research projects in several areas of computational mathematics and mathematical physics. The research areas covered by the group include:

General Research Areas: Numerical Analysis, Applied Analysis, Partial Differential Equations, Mathematical Physics.

Specific Areas of Interest: Adaptive Finite Element Methods, Geometric PDE, Biophysics, General Relativity.

Information about the MCP Group: The group has active on-going research projects and has published in the following areas:
  • Numerical Analysis and Approximation Theory
  • Theory of Sobolev-Slobodeckij and related function spaces
  • Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Nonlinear PDE
  • Geometric PDE/Global Nonlinear Analysis/General Relativity
  • Navier-Stokes, Euler, MHD, Elasticity
  • Electrostatics and Solvation Models in Biophysics
  • Reaction-Diffusion Models in Physics and Biophysics
  • Computational Geometry and Mesh Generation Algorithms
  • Parallel Computing Algorithm Design and Analysis
The MCP group meets in subgroups for research discussions at various times during the week, and also takes part in the weekly CCoM and CSME seminars. The research program of the group centers around mathematical and/or numerical analysis problems in partial differential equations (PDE), usually involving PDE systems arising in either biophysics (PDE models of biological systems) or astrophysics (PDE problems in general relativity). Our analysis-oriented research involves the intersection of ideas and techniques from nonlinear PDE, linear and nonlinear functional analysis, differential geometry, and global nonlinear analysis. Our numerical analysis-oriented research typically involves a further combination of these techniques with modern approximation theory, iterative algorithms for linear and nonlinear equations, finite element-type numerical methods, and modern parallel computers. Our simulation-based work often involves the use and/or development of The Finite Element ToolKit (FETK). Graduate students in the group usually pursue their M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees in the Mathematics or Physics Departments with Michael Holst, with a formal Specialization in Computational Science through the graduate Program in Computational Science, Mathematics, and Engineering (CSME).

E-Mail Lists (IMPORTANT): If you are working with Michael Holst as an MS or Ph.D. student, or as postdoctoral fellow, then you are a member of the ``MCP Group''. Emails will be periodically sent out about group meetings and other events to the MCP-L email list (see below). You should try to attend the CCoM and CSME seminars that are usually held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am in 2402 AP&M. The seminar titles and abstracts for all CCoM and CSME seminars are posted on the CCoM/CSME Seminar website. The seminars are are also announced on one or more of the following email lists; if you are in the MCP group, you should self-subscribe to all three of the following email lists by clicking on the links below:
Current and former MCP senior research scientists working with Holst:
  1. Ivar Stakgold (Ph.D. 1949, Harvard; Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Sciences, University Delaware)
  2. Herb Keller (Ph.D. 1954, NYU; Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics, Caltech)
  3. Lee Lindblom (Ph.D. 1974, Physics, University of Maryland)
  4. Mai H. Nguyen (Ph.D. 1995, Computer Science, UC San Diego)
  5. Manuel Tiglio (Ph.D. 2000, Physics, University of Cordoba, Argentina)
Coffee Current and former MCP postdoctoral researchers working with Holst:
  1. Feng Wang (Ph.D. 1997, PSU Mathematics; founder of Math Zoom Academy)
  2. Steve Bond (Ph.D. 2000, Mathematics, University of Kansas; now at Sandia National Laboratory)
  3. Hugh MacMillan (Ph.D. 2001, Mathematics, University of Colorado; now at the non-profit Food & Water Watch)
  4. Jason Suen (Ph.D. 2002, Chemical Engineering, MIT; now at UCLA)
  5. Jennifer Erway (Ph.D. 2006, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Wake Forest)
  6. Olivier Sarbach (Ph.D. 2000, Mathematical Physics, ETH; now at University Michoacana)
  7. Long Chen (Ph.D. 2005, Mathematics, Penn State; now at UC Irvine)
  8. Axel Malqvist (Ph.D. 2005, Applied Mathematics, Chalmers University; now at Chalmers University)
  9. BenZhuo Lu (Ph.D. 2002, Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China; now at Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  10. Gabriel Nagy (Ph.D. 1995, Theoretical Physics, University of Cordoba, Argentina; now at Michigan State University)
  11. Daniel Reynolds (Ph.D. 2003, Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University; now at SMU)
  12. Yuhui Cheng (Ph.D. 2007, Physical Chemistry, UCSD; now at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
  13. Zeyun Yu (Ph.D. 2006, Computer Science, UT Austin; now at University Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
  14. Yongcheng Zhou (Ph.D. 2006, Mathematics, MSU; now at Colorado State University)
  15. Gantumur Tsogtgerel (Ph.D. 2006, Mathematics, Utrecht; now at McGill University)
  16. Evelyn Lunasin (Ph.D. 2007, Mathematics, UC Irvine; now at US Naval Academy)
  17. Ryan Szypowski (Ph.D. 2008, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Cal Poly Pomona)
  18. Yunrong Zhu (Ph.D. 2008, Mathematics, Penn State University; now at Idaho State University)
  19. Ari Stern (Ph.D. 2008, Applied and Computational Math., Caltech; now at Washington University)
  20. Andrew Gillette (Ph.D. 2011, Mathematics, UT Austin; now at University of Arizona)
  21. Sara Pollock (Ph.D., 2012, Mathematics, UCSD; now at University of Florida)
  22. Pete Kekenes-Huskey (Ph.D., 2007, Chemistry, Caltech; now at Loyola University)
  23. Chris Tiee (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, UCSD; now at helm.ai)
  24. Caleb Meier (Ph.D., 2012, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Parsons Corporation)
  25. John Moody (Ph.D., 2016, Mathematics, UCSD; now at VIASAT)
  26. James Dilts (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, University of Oregon; now at Stellar Science)
  27. Evan Gawlik (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, Stanford University; now at University of Hawaii)
  28. Ali Behzadan (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, UCSD; now at CSU Sacramento)
  29. Martin Licht (Ph.D., 2017, Mathematics, University of Oslo; now at EPFL)
Current and former MCP doctoral students working with Holst (some co-advised with others):
  1. Burak Aksoylu (Ph.D. 2001, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Wayne State)
  2. Nathan Baker (Ph.D. 2001, Chemistry, UCSD, joint w/ J.A. McCammon; now at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
  3. Kaihsu Tai (Ph.D. 2002, Chemistry, UCSD, joint w/ J.A. McCammon and Palmer W. Taylor; now at ECA/Helsinki)
  4. Kevin Scully (Ph.D. 2003, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Aerospace Corp.)
  5. Liz Fenwick (Ph.D. 2005, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Far-Tech, Inc.)
  6. Ryan Szypowski (Ph.D. 2008, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Cal Poly Pomona)
  7. Caleb Meier (Ph.D., 2012, Mathematics, UCSD; now at Parsons Corporation)
  8. Sara Pollock (Ph.D., 2012, Mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at University of Florida)
  9. Jonny Serencsa (Ph.D., 2012, Mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at Workday)
  10. Houdong Hu (Ph.D., 2014, Physics/CSME, UCSD; now at Microsoft)
  11. Adam Mihalik (Ph.D., 2014, Mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at Citadel LLC)
  12. Ali Behzadan (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, UCSD; now at CSU Sacramento)
  13. Shi (Fox) Cheng (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at Beijing Startup)
  14. Chris Tiee (Ph.D., 2015, Mathematics, UCSD; now at helm.ai)
  15. John Moody (Ph.D., 2016, Mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at VIASAT)
  16. Joe Salamon (Ph.D., 2016, Physics, UCSD, joint w/ M. Leok; now at Mira Costa College)
  17. Francesca Grogan (Ph.D., 2017, mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at PNNL)
  18. Jor-el Briones (Ph.D., 2022, mathematics/CSME, UCSD; now at UCSD)
  19. Justin Laughlin (Ph.D. 2022, MAE/CSME, UCSD, joint w/ P. Rangamani; now at LLNL)
  20. Mohammad Ali Ebrahimi (mathematics/CSME doctoral student, UCSD; advanced to candidacy)
MadHack Current and former MCP undergraduate students working with Holst:
  1. John Kleint (2002, Mathematics, UCSD; CalIT2 Summer Research Program) ←CMU PhD
  2. James Noble (2003, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [Distinction])
  3. Ronald Page II (2006, Mathematics, UC Berkeley; UC STARS/UC LEADS Summer Research Program) ←CSU East Bay MS
  4. Patrick Sanan (2006, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate Research Student) ←Caltech PhD
  5. Brian Nguyen (2006, Mathematics, UCSD; CalIT2 Summer Research Program) ←Cal Univ Sci Med MD
  6. Jonathan Kommemi (2006-2008, Mathematics, UCSD; CalIT2 Program, Math Honors Thesis [Highest Distinction]) ←Cambridge PhD
  7. Erik Eldridge (2007-2008, Computer Science, CSU San Marcos; CTBP Academic Year and Summer Internships)
  8. Jennifer Webster (2007-2008, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [Distinction])
  9. Cynthia Wood (2008, Mathematics, UCSD; CAMPS Summer Internship)
  10. Kathryn Farrell (2008-2009, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [High Distinction]; Silagi Award) ←UT Austin PhD
  11. Nicholas Miller (2008-2010, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis) ←Purdue PhD
  12. Jessica Lee (2009, Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz, Undergraduate Research Student)
  13. Hayley Miles-Leighton (2009-2010, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [Distinction]) ←UCSD/SDSU PhD
  14. Jeanesse Cochran (2012, Mathematics, UC Irvine, Undergraduate Research Student)
  15. Michael Olsen (2014-2015, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [High Distinction]) ←Stanford MFA
  16. Brian Whiteaker (2015-2016, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student)
  17. Tamara Kozareva (2015-2017, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student)
  18. Sanyri Sanchez (2015-2017, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student)
  19. Brian Tran (2016-2018, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [Highest Distinction]; Silagi Award)←UCSD PhD
  20. Raina Borum (2017-2018, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student) ←UCSD PhD
  21. Joseph Gilby (2017-2018, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student)
  22. Laura Thapa (2017-2018, Mathematics, UCSD; Math Honors Thesis [High Distinction])
  23. Ishan Timalsina (2016-2019, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate RTG Research Student)
  24. Andrew Nguyen (2019-2020, Mathematics/MAE, UCSD; Undergraduate Research Project)
  25. Justin Oshiru (2019-2020, Mathematics/MAE, UCSD; Undergraduate Research Project)
  26. Meagan Rowan (2019-2020, Mathematics/MAE, UCSD; Undergraduate Research Project)
  27. Wenmeng Ning (2019-2021, Mathematics, UCSD; Undergraduate Research Student)
Current and former MCP High School students working with Holst:
  1. Maven Holst (2018--, Canyon Crest Academy; Summer Research Project; now at Caltech) ←2019 ISEF Qualifier, Physical Sciences Category
  2. Ben Faktor (2019--, Canyon Crest Academy; Summer Research Project; now at UCSB) ←2020 ISEF Qualifier, Physical Sciences Category