Catherine A. Micek

Contact Information Address: University of Minnesota School of Mathematics 127 Vincent Hall 206 Church St. S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455 Office: 520 Vincent Hall Phone: (612) 624-2329 Email: mice0012(at)umn(dot)edu

My thesis advisor is Carme Calderer, and my research focuses on the analysis and development of mathematical models and numerical methods for polymer gels used in biomedical applications. My work incoroporates a variety of mathematical fields, including non-linear elasticity, partial differential equations, and finite element methods.

A poster of some of my research.

I have been a Teaching Assistant for a variety of courses here at the University of Minnesota, including all the courses of the Calculus sequence (Calc I, Calc II, Multi-variable Calculus, and Differential Equations & Linear Algebra) and MATH 4242, an upper-division applied linear algebra course.

• Industrial Problems: Modeling with Corning, Inc.

  I participated in the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications Mathematical Modeling in Industry Workshop during August of 2009. I spent 10 days working with 5 other mathematicians and a physicist, Dr. Douglas Allan, from Corning, Inc. to analyze stress-induced birefringence in glass. Atlhough we didn't solve the problem completely, we were able to provide some insight into the problem.

  The presentation I gave reporting our results and also our final team report. (The incorrect temperature distribution in the presentation is corrected in our final manuscript.)

• Scientific Writing for the General Public: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

  I participated in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's 2003 Summer Institute on Atmospheric, Hydrospheric, and Terrestrial Sciences (program details here and 2003 participants pictured here). I worked in the Atmospheric Experiments Lab in the Solar System Exploration Division with a chemist, Dr. John Haberman. My project was to design and build (from scratch) an informative, user-friendly website for the public about the science behind the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer aboard the Cassini-Huygens probe.

  My original website, as well as its updated version.

• Mentoring and Outreach: Women in Math at the University of Minnesota.

  During the 2008-09 school year, I was the Women in Math Graduate Coordinator for the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. My job was to foster community amongst female undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students and faculty through a variety of professional development events. Some highlights from the year include: starting an Association for Women in Mathematics student chapter, hosting a graduate student panel discussion for undergraduates about graduate school, and hosting Dr. Alice Chang as the Institute of Technology's Distinguished Women Scientist and Engineer Speaker.

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