2024

Sebastian Mizera

Princeton University

Areas: Education, Physics, Quantum Field Theory, Theoretical Physics

Sebastian Mizera is a theoretical physicist studying quantum field theory and gravitational physics. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and an affiliate at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science and the Institute for Advanced Study. His research aims to understand the nature of interactions between fundamental objects, ranging from elementary particles to black holes. He is particularly interested in how physical principles, such as causality, locality and unitarity, are encoded in the analytic structure of asymptotic observables in quantum field theory.

Wolfram Language is the bedrock of symbolic computations in the field of theoretical high-energy physics. Mizera employs it in his daily research on quantum field theory, but also in higher education. Recently, he incorporated Wolfram Language in the graduate course Physics of the Analytic S-Matrix given at the Higgs Centre School of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh. The software was used to illustrate complex concepts behind scattering theory on hands-on examples.

2024

Robert Feger, Thomas Kephart, Robert Saskowski

Developers of LieART

Areas: Gravity, Particle Physics, Physics, Quantum Entanglement, Research and Analysis, Software Development, String Theory, Theoretical Physics

Robert Feger, Cocreator of LieART and Researcher, Deutscher Wetterdienst
Robert Feger is a researcher and developer at the Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany’s national meteorological service, specializing in thunderstorm and convection detection in weather radar data. As a particle theorist, he used Wolfram extensively in his PhD studies on heavy-quark physics at the University of Siegen. During his postdoctoral fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service at Vanderbilt University, Feger worked on grand unified theories based on special unitary groups. His research required fast and demanding calculations in group theory. Initially created as a group theory toolbox for personal use, Feger, mentored by Tom Kephart, created LieART, a Wolfram application for Lie algebras and representation theory. LieART has been appreciated by particle physicists and mathematicians for its user-friendly interface and computational power covering all classical and exceptional Lie algebras. It can also be used as a group theory teaching tool as the output and visualizations, e.g. of Dynkin diagrams and weight and root systems, are akin to textbooks—all enabled by the very same core principles of Wolfram.

Thomas Kephart, Cocreator of LieART and Professor of Physics, Vanderbilt University
Thomas Kephart is a particle theorist and has worked on formal aspects of gauge theories, particle physics models and group theory. Some topics include chiral gauge anomalies, topological defects and extensions of the standard model, including grand unification, family symmetry, discrete symmetry and string-inspired models. Wolfram has been an indispensable tool in his research for many years. The applications have ranged from particle physics model building to the classification of quantum entanglement to theoretical biophysics.

Many branches of science seem poised for great advances as machine learning, artificial intelligence and quantum computing converge. Most recently, in a study of coherent states from the solar corona, Kephart has used AI to write Wolfram Language code to analyze the signal-to-noise ratio expected in detectors. He also finds Wolfram a great help in mentoring students, as by learning to use it, they can quickly make useful contributions to research projects.

Robert Saskowski, Cocreator of LieART and Researcher, Tianjin University
Robert Saskowski is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Joint Quantum Studies at Tianjin University studying string theory and related topics. He specializes in higher-derivative supergravity and precision holography. His undergraduate thesis involved working on LieART, a powerful Wolfram application for doing computations with Lie algebras and their representation theory, and implementing branching rules therein.

2023

Peter Taborek

Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine

Areas: Computer-Aided Education, Education, Engineering, Physics

Peter Taborek’s research is in experimental condensed matter physics, and he teaches mathematical methods for the physical sciences to undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry and engineering. Most of the standard textbooks for this subject were written before the era of personal computers and do not equip students with the tools of modern technical problem solving. To remedy this situation, Taborek has developed his own e-textbook, MathematicaHandbook, which is written entirely in Wolfram Notebooks.

The text covers traditional topics, such as complex analysis, linear algebra and ordinary and partial differential equations, but explains and illustrates concepts using computer algebra, graphics and numerics. This text has been used for over a decade and includes many figures, animations and live code so students can perform computations while learning course concepts. Student learning requires numerous practice problems with grading and feedback. For a large undergraduate class, this is labor-intensive, so Taborek has developed a web-based platform to deliver homework problems, which are graded using calls to Wolfram Cloud APIs.

2023

Sander Huisman

Professor, Physics of Fluids, University of Twente

Areas: Data Analysis, Physics, Software Development, Software Engineering

Sander Huisman has been using Mathematica since 2003 for the processing of all his data, creating figures and visualizations and doing complicated fits and optimizations. Furthermore, he uses Mathematica’s interactive capabilities to generate illustrative examples in his fluid mechanics classes. He also uses it recreationally for the production of generated art for the yearly GENUARY event. He is also a contributor to the Wolfram Function Repository, having created over one hundred functions.

2023

Tyson Jones and Simon Benjamin

Tyson Jones, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford
Simon Benjamin, Professor of Quantum Technologies, University of Oxford

Areas: Physics, Programming, Software Development, Software Engineering

Tyson Jones is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, studying first-generation quantum computers and their simulation via high-performance classical computing in the areas of quantum computing, high-performance computing, scientific simulation and software development. He is also a senior quantum software engineer at Quantum Motion Technologies and a consultant for the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre.

Jones’s doctoral work included the creation of QuESTlink, an open-source WSTP-powered package for simulating quantum computers, integrating the QuEST project’s hardware-accelerated numerics with Mathematica’s powerful symbolic engine. QuESTlink combines a plethora of Wolfram facilities, novel algorithms and high-performance computing techniques behind an intuitive API, enabling research-frontier computation through only a few lines of code.

Simon Benjamin , principal investigator (PI), is a professor of quantum technologies with the Materials Department at the University of Oxford. He leads a group of 17 applied theorists who look at diverse aspects of quantum computing, including architectures, fault tolerance and algorithms that are robust against hardware imperfections. His team created QuEST, a world-leading tool for classical emulation of quantum devices.

2023

Sandipan Bandyopadhyay

Associate Professor, IIT Madras

Areas: Computational Thinking, Education, Physics

Sandipan Bandyopadhyay is an educator and researcher in the fields of mechanisms and robotics. He specializes in theoretical and computational kinematics, in particular in the domain of spatial parallel manipulators, such as the Stewart platform.

Bandyopadhyay’s research involves highly demanding symbolic computations, for which he finds a trusted partner in Mathematica. In at least 20 of his journal publications, the symbolic capabilities of Mathematica have played a significant role. Moreover, the flexibility of Wolfram Language has allowed him to develop algorithms and modules to explore deeper into algebraic geometry and kinematics and create customized tools for analyzing problems using hyper-complex numbers, such as dual numbers and dual quaternions. He uses the dynamic visualization capabilities of Mathematica to bring virtual robots to life, enabling his students to manipulate them and develop a better understanding of complicated motions of constrained multibody systems.

2021

James C. Wyant

Professor Emeritus of Optical Sciences and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona

Areas: Biomedical Research, Education, Physics, Software Engineering

James C. Wyant was the founding dean of the College of Optical Sciences. He was also the founder of the WYKO Corporation. His company is known for having manufactured and sold phase-shifting interferometers for testing optics that later were used for measuring the shape of the recording heads used in computer hard-disk drives. At one point, every major manufacturer of hard-disk drives globally purchased WYKO instruments to test the recording heads of their drives. He founded another company in 2002 known as 4D Technology. There, he developed single-shot phase-shifting interferometers that, unlike other interferometers, give accurate results in the presence of vibration and air turbulence, thus making them very useful in manufacturing environments.

2021

Scot Martin

Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Data Analysis, Data Science, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Physics

Scot Martin is currently a Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and has previously held positions as an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a NOAA Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate and Global Change at MIT. His research focuses on engineering solutions to the major environmental challenges presently facing the world. Scot’s laboratory works specifically on problems of air and water pollution and their effects on climate change. His current research has a focus on connections among plant emissions of volatile organic compounds, particle-phase secondary organic material and climate. Martin is currently working to complete a book on aerosol science and technology and is developing a HarvardX course on thermodynamics.

2021

Dr. Carol Johnstone

Senior Scientist, Particle Accelerator Corporation

Areas: Applied Mathematics, Biomedical Research, Computational Physics, Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematical Biology, Optimization, Physics

Dr. Johnstone is an internationally recognized senior accelerator physicist at Fermilab and Particle Accelerator Corporation. Her work was initially created to solve a simple set of approximate, thin lens optics equations simultaneously with geometric orbit equations. These constraint equations provided physical and field parameters that insured stable machine performance in novel accelerators for high energy physics research, such as the muon collider or Neutrino Factory. Her work evolved into a powerful new methodology for advanced accelerator design and optimization, which has since been applied to innovations in accelerators for radioisotope production, cancer therapy, security and cargo scanning, radiopharmaceuticals and green energy production. Dr. Johnstone’s efforts have resulted in the creation of a now-patented design for a non-scaling fixed-field gradient accelerator. Her work has also helped lead to the now-under-construction National Center for Particle Beam Therapy and Research in Texas, which will be the most advanced cancer therapy center in the US.

2021

Bruno Autin

President, Les Trois Platanes

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Computational Physics, Physics, Software Development

Bruno Autin started his professional life in the Laboratoire de Recherches Générales de la Compagnie Française Thomson Houston, where he studied the amplification of acoustic microwaves in cadmium sulfide. He strove to replace classical traveling wave tubes by tiny crystals, the scaling factor being the ratio between sound and light velocities. In 1967, he began working at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), where his research turned quickly towards subnuclear physics with the development of very-high-energy accelerators. Bruno started with the first proton collider, the Intersection Storage Rings (ISR), and became introduced to the design and operation of the magnetic systems of accelerators and colliders. The basic theory had been established by Ernest Courant, but matching the architecture of colliders to particle detectors was largely a process of trial and error depending on numerical computations. Finding this to be unsatisfactory, he started testing symbolic languages. The first achievement was the shape of the CERN antiproton source calculated with Veltman’s Schoonschip. The saga of the antiprotons continued both at CERN and at Fermilab. Then, during a sabbatical year at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he worked on the design of the Advanced Synchrotron Light Source, he tested the first release of Mathematica, which was packed with the NeXT computer. Having symbolics, numerics, graphics and the notebook interface convinced him to build two packages: Geometrica for geometry and BeamOptics for the investigation of optical systems adapted to projects such as beam emittance optimization for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), muon colliders, neutrino factories and medical synchrotrons. Now retired from CERN, he follows the progress of particle physics and writes particle accelerator documentation for Wolfram Research.

2020

Omar Olmos

Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Areas: Computational Physics, Data Science, Education, Machine Learning, Mathematics Courseware Design, Physics

Omar Olmos is north regional director of science and engineering for the Monterrey Institute of Technology, where he uses Mathematica for a range of education and research tasks. In addition to developing interactive examples, tutorials and other student resources, he uses Wolfram Language machine-learning analytics to predict student performance. Omar has also used Mathematica to model electromagnetic waves interacting with nanostructures, performing numeric experimentation to study new nanoscale optical effects.

2020

Guy F. de Téramond Peralta

Universidad de Costa Rica

Areas: Computational Physics, Education, Physics

Guy F. de Téramond Peralta is a theoretical physicist focusing on hadron structure, nuclear forces and group structure of grand unified theories. He uses Mathematica throughout his research, including ongoing contributions to light-front holographic QCD, a novel approach to hadron structure and dynamics. Guy’s work spans several decades and is widely cited in the physics community; he currently serves as a professor of physics at the University of Costa Rica.

2019

Mihai Vidrighin

R&D Lead, PsiQuantum

Areas: Electrical Engineering, Image Processing, Physics, System Modeling

Mihai Vidrighin is a researcher in photonics who has used Mathematica extensively throughout his career. During his PhD thesis, he used Mathematica to run simulations and data analytics involving quantum thermodynamics, and he continues to recommend the system to colleagues. He currently leads a team developing a photonics component for generating single photon pairs with new accuracy and scale. In this project, he has used the Wolfram Language to build an extremely comprehensive model for nonlinear and quantum optics to describe photon-pair generation and quantum optics circuits. Vidrighin has also written several Wolfram Language packages for quantum optics simulation and electron microscope image processing.

2018

Nicholas Mecholsky

Research Scientist, Vitreous State Laboratory
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Catholic University of America

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Image Processing, Machine Learning, Nuclear Engineering, Optimization, Physics, System Modeling

Nicholas Mecholsky is a research scientist and professor focusing on optimization and physical modeling. In addition to demonstrating high-level math and physics concepts to his students with the Wolfram Language, he has utilized it in research publications on subjects ranging from animal flocks to autonomous cars to thermoelectric transfer. He is currently involved in a joint project with the US Department of Energy and Vitreous State Laboratory using Wolfram Language image processing and machine learning to model, analyze and predict crystallization phenomena in nuclear tank waste. The project has significantly improved the efficiency of vitrification (transformation into glass), helping to make safer nuclear waste storage a reality.

2017

Dr. Marco Thiel

Professor, Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology
Professor, Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics

Areas: Complex Systems, Education, Mathematical Biology, Physics

Marco Thiel is a professor at the University of Aberdeen who uses Wolfram technologies in various domains, including education and research. A true evangelist, he has introduced hundreds of students and industry professionals alike to the Wolfram Language, and is an active user on Wolfram Community. For the last two years, Dr. Thiel has been using the Wolfram Language to develop algorithms and analyze sensor data of subjects in clinical dementia trials. The analysis is performed on large datasets through the external devices of subjects, and predictive tools, which determine changes in brain connectivity as dementia develops, are created. In his classes, Dr. Thiel utilizes CDF documents to create interactive lecture notes for his students. Using real-world data, students are able to connect topics they learn in other courses through simulations done in real time, instilling computational thinking into students long after they finish the course.

2017

Chris Reed

Aerospace Corporation

Areas: Aerospace, Applied Mathematics, Authoring and Publishing, Physics

Dr. Reed is an applied mathematician at Aerospace Corporation who uses Mathematica to identify and create various aerospace solutions specific to rocket and satellite design and testing. A certified instructor at Aerospace Corp., he has introduced many colleagues to Wolfram technologies through his classes, where it has become a staple for experimentation. Dr. Reed has two approved patents that involve solving nonlinear boundary-value problems and rely on the Wolfram Language’s modeling and visualization capabilities.

2015

Grant Bunker

Chair, Department of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology

Areas: Education, Molecular Biology, Physics

Grant Bunker first used Mathematica at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1988 as a beta tester. Since then, he has given numerous talks on Mathematica, encouraging a variety of academic organizations to adopt it in education. Also a longtime commercial user, Bunker founded Quercus X-ray Technologies, LLC, maker of X-ray filtering devices produced with core algorithms developed in the Wolfram Language. Bunker has plans to adopt Mathematica Online for the approximately 3,000 iPads issued to students at IIT—one of the largest campus-coordinated curriculum efforts involving tablets to date in the US.

2015

Mark Adler

Project Manager, Low Density Supersonic Decelerator Project

Areas: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics

Mark Adler is best known for his work in the field of data compression as the author of the Adler-32 checksum function, and as co-author of the zlib compression library and gzip. He was also the Spirit Cruise Mission Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission and is an instrument-rated private pilot, a certified scuba diver, and an amateur theater actor. Mark has used Mathematica for decades, including during his work on the Mars Exploration Mission. Using NDSolve and numeric integers, the team simulated entry through a variety of changing conditions to mitigate risk and more accurately predict a successful landing.

2014

Rodrigo Murta

St Marche Supermercados

Areas: Data Mining and Analysis, Economics, Finance, Interface Design, Physics, Population Dynamics, Risk, Risk Analysis

Rodrigo Murta is Retail Intelligence Manager for St Marche Supermercados, a high-end supermarket chain, and the first customer to purchase Mathematica Enterprise Edition in Brazil. He uses Mathematica as a hub for all of the company’s data, workflows, computation, and processing, and EnterpriseCDF to construct reports for store managers and company executives. He is currently experimenting with a web-based report interface that provides even greater access to intelligence reports.

2014

John Michopoulos

Naval Research Laboratory

Areas: Control, Control Engineering, Materials Science, Modeling Dynamical Systems with Mathematica, Physics, System Modeling

John Michopoulos uses Mathematica in his professional research with composite materials and has been published in the International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering, Composite Structures, and the Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering. He applies the global optimization capabilities of Mathematica to solve inverse problems and better understand the physics of materials and composite material designs.

2014

Prof. Richard J. Gaylord

University of Illinois

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Authoring in Mathematica, Biology, Computer Science, Computer-Aided Education, Education, Physics

Richard Gaylord is one of Mathematica’s earliest users and is a self-described evangelist for the Wolfram Language. He taught computer programming in the Wolfram Language at many universities, companies, government agencies, and scientific conferences for more than 25 years. He has co-authored several texts, including An Introduction to Programming with Mathematica, and three other books on programming computer simulations in a wide variety of fields using the Wolfram Language. Gaylord has made a three-part video explaining the fundamentals of the Wolfram Language.

2013

Rolf Mertig

GluonVision GmbH

Areas: Actuarial Sciences, Data Mining and Analysis, Mathematica Consulting, Physics

Rolf Mertig is a physicist working in different fields as a software consultant. His specialties include efficient webMathematica programming and programmatic CDF generation. Through his own consulting company, GluonVision GmbH based in Berlin, Germany, he works with companies and universities in order for them to get the most out of Mathematica, webMathematica, and CDF.

2013

Stefan Braun

Managing Director of SmartCAE

Areas: Aerospace, Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Control, Data Mining and Analysis, Engineering, Finance, Financial Risk, High-Performance and Parallel Computing, Image Processing, Industrial Engineering, Interface Design, Materials Science, Mathematica Consulting, Mechanical Engineering, Pharmaceutical, Physics, Risk Analysis, Signal Processing, Structural Engineering

Stefan Braun is recognized for using Mathematica in industrial applications. He has used Mathematica and the SmartCAEFab in more that 150+ industrial projects in different application areas. SmartCAE’s software solutions allow practical users to simulate complex applications problems, with a lot of parameters, without being a simulation or Mathematica expert.

2011

Steve Bush

The Procter & Gamble Company

Areas: Computer Graphics and Visual Arts, Industrial Engineering, Physics

In Steve Bush’s role developing household consumer items at The Procter & Gamble Company, he’s involved in the physics behind products as well as their economic feasibility. His work with Mathematica includes developing sophisticated tools for computer-aided design and optimizing the orifice size needed to maximize jet momentum, as well as setting up an efficient workflow from idea to prototype.

Hear Steve Bush talk about optimizing face gear surfaces »