{"id":169207,"date":"2021-02-16T06:59:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T11:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=169207"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:49:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T18:49:50","slug":"two-clas-faculty-receive-first-makuch-awards-in-mathematics-and-data-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/02\/two-clas-faculty-receive-first-makuch-awards-in-mathematics-and-data-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Two CLAS Faculty Receive First Makuch Awards in Mathematics and Data Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has announced the first two recipients of the Makuch Faculty F<\/span>und\u00a0<\/span>award\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>Mathematical<\/span>\u00a0and Data Sci<\/span>ences.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The awar<\/span>d\u00a0<\/span>provide<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0$<\/span>9<\/span>,<\/span>000<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>each\u00a0<\/span>for\u00a0<\/span>faculty\u00a0<\/span>in the College in the departments of mathematics or statistics<\/span>\u00a0to use for their research.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>ward ho<\/span>nors\u00a0<\/span>facult<\/span>y<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>who\u00a0<\/span>demonstrate<\/span>\u00a0significant contributions to the fields of math or data science, and\u00a0<\/span>whose work has a\u00a0<\/span>significant<\/span>\u00a0impact on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>students.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ovidiu Munteanu<\/span><\/a>, associate professor of mathematics, and\u00a0<\/span>Yuwen Gu,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>assistant professor of statistics<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>are<\/span>\u00a0t<\/span>h<\/span>e Makuch Faculty Fellows for 2021-23.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gu\u2019s current research focuses on\u00a0<\/span>solving problems that arise from \u201cbig data,\u201d or\u00a0<\/span>large<\/span>–<\/span>scale<\/span>\u00a0datasets. He is\u00a0<\/span>developing robust regression methods<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>including\u00a0<\/span>m<\/span>odern<\/span>\u00a0optimization algorithms<\/span>, to analyze\u00a0<\/span>large-scale data<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>By expanding the scope of statistical applications to real world problems, Gu supplies scientists and practitioners with more statistical methods for handling increasingly challenging problems in biology, economic<\/span>s<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>and other\u00a0<\/span>natural and social<\/span>\u00a0sciences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am really honored to receive this award and I appreciate Dr. Makuch’s generous gift,\u201d Gu says.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>The award will help me focus on the development of new statistical methods for handling challenging problems, especially in which data of<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0big scale and complex\u00a0<\/span>structure are present. It will also provide me with the necessary equipment for carrying out the empirical studies for my research.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Munteanu works in\u00a0<\/span>d<\/span>ifferential<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>g<\/span>eometry<\/span>, a field of mathematics that studies curved objects called manifolds. His current research sheds new light on\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>non-linear partial differential equation called the Ricci flow, which has been used by mathematicians to classify manifolds. His research\u00a0<\/span>may help better understand the geometry of four-dimensional manifolds, which is important because of their role in Einstein’s theory of gravity — that what we perceive as gravity is the curvature of space and time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very honored to receive the first Makuch Award,\u201d Munteanu says. \u201cThis recognition will give me the resources and energy I need to carry on my research program. I would like to thank Professor Makuch for his very generous gift to the University of Connecticut that provides invaluable support to researchers like me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The awards are made possible by Robert Mak<\/span>u<\/span>ch \u201972 (CLAS), a\u00a0<\/span>professor of biostatistics at Yale University<\/span>, recognized for his\u00a0<\/span>statistical and regulatory consultations to the pharmaceutical industry and to national and international governmental regulatory\u00a0<\/span>agencies<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0After earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in mathema<\/span>tics at UConn, he\u00a0<\/span>earn<\/span>ed<\/span> a master\u2019s and Ph.D. degree from Yale, <\/span>and he\u00a0<\/span>has served\u00a0<\/span>on\u00a0<\/span>the UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Advisory Board<\/span>\u00a0since 20<\/span>12.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0awards\u00a0include\u00a0a two-year title and funds for faculty to advance their research.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":169209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2404,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2214],"class_list":["post-169207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-data-science","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 16:31:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169210,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169207\/revisions\/169210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/169209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169207"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=169207"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=169207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}