Brief description:
 

Björn Birnir is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). He served as the UCSB coordinator for nonlinear science from 1985-1990. He is currently the director of the Center for Nonlinear Science at UCSB and the PI on a three-year award from NSF to analyze and control the instabilites in the flow of air through a jet engine. His current research interest are: the qualitative analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs); dynamical systems theory; computational science; nonlinear phenomena in quantum mechanical systems; and applications of the above. He is the author of over 50 publications.
 

Education:

B.S. (Physics) Union College, Schenectady N. Y., June 1976.

M.S. (Mathematics) Courant Institute, New York University, February 1978.

Postgraduate (Mathematics) Oxford University Mathematical Institute, 1979-1980.

Ph.D (Mathematics) Courant Institute, New York University, October 1981.

Professional Record:

Assistant Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, 1981-1983.

Research Associate, University of California, Berkeley, 1983-1984.

Research Scientist, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 1984-1985.

Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1985-1988.

Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1988-1992.

Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992-present.

Director, Center for Nonlinear Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1998-present.

Associate Editor, Journal of Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, 1997-present.

Honors:

Inviteded Plenary Address, SIAM/MAA Meeting Los Angeles 1990.

Inviteded Plenary Address, The 21st. Congress of Scandinavian Mathematicians, Sweden 1992.

Inviteded Plenary Address, The 16th. Congress of Scandinavian Science Teachers, Sweden 1996.

Best yearly paper award, with T. Smith and G. Merchant, The International Association for Mathematical Geology, 1997.

Ph.D Students and Postdocs:

Peter Smereka (1989): Temporal and spatial structure in periodically forced bubble clouds.

Bryan Galdrikian (1994): Nonlinear and nonperturbative dynamics in quantum wells.

Ken Nelson (1995): The existence of smooth attractors of damped and driven wave equations.

Rainer Grauer (1989-1990): Nonlinear dynamics of PDE's.

Nils Svanstedt (1993-1995): Homogenization of fluid equations.

Bryan Galdrikian (1995-1996): Parallell computations of quantum structures.

LiHong Wang (1996-1997): Quantum structures and laser optics.

Höskuldur Hauksson (1998): Stability and control of jet engine flow.

Kristinn Johnsen (1996-1997): Dynamical quantum theory.

Niklas Wellander (1996-1997): Homogenization of Maxwell's equations.

George Merchant (1997-): Erosion and scaling.

Adriano Batista (1998-): Quantum bifurcations.

Selected Publications:

Complex Hill's equation and the complex period Korteweg-de Vries equations, Comm. Pure Applied Math., 39, 1-49, 1986.

Chaotic solution of KdV I: Rational solutions, Physica D, 19, 238-254, 1986.

Coauthor P. Smereka. Existence theory and invariant manifolds of driven bubble clouds, Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics , 43 , 363-413, 1990.

Coauthor B. Galdrikian, Period doubling and strange attractors in quantum wells, Phys. Rev. Lett. , 29 , April 1996, 3308-3311.

Coauthor R. Grauer, An explicit description of the global attractor of the damped and driven sine-Gordon equation, Communications of Mathematical Physics , 162 , 539-590, 1994.

Coauthors H. McKean and A. Weinstein. The Isolated Character of the Sine-Gordon Breather, Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics , 47 , 1043-1051, 1994.

Coauthors T. R. Smith, G. E. Merchant, Towards an elementary theory of drainage basin evolution: I. The theoretical basis, Computers and Geosciences , 23 , 8, 811-822, 1997.

Coauthors T. R. Smith, G. E. Merchant,Towards an elementary theory of drainage basin evolution: II. A computational evaluation, Computers and Geosciences , 23 , 8, 823-849, 1997.

 

 

Collaborators:

S. J. Allen, D. Armbruster, M. Buys, B. Galdrikian, S.B. Giddings, R. Grauer, J.A. Harvey, H. Hauksson, K. Johnsen, C. Kening, K. Nelson, K. Nordstrom, H. McKean, G. E. Merchant, G. Ponce, M. Sherwin, P. Smereka, T. R. Smith, A. Strominger, N. Svanstedt, L. Vega, A. Weinstein.
 

Advisors:

Graduate: Henry P. McKean; Postdoctorate: Jerrold E. Marsden.