People
Faculty
Boyce Griffith
Professor, Departments of Mathematics and Biomedical Engineering
Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Physical Sciences
Associate Chair for Research, Department of Mathematics
Member, Carolina Center for Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics, Computational Medicine Program, and McAllister Heart Institute
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Curriculum Vitae (updated August 31, 2025)
Citations (Google Scholar)
PhD, Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 2005
BS, Computer Science, Rice University, 2000
BA, Computational and Applied Mathematics and Mathematics, Rice University, 2000
Research Scientist
David Wells
PhD, Mathematics, Virginia Tech, 2015
MS, Applied Mathematics, Virginia Tech, 2013
BS, Applied Mathematics, Virginia Tech, 2011
BS, Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2011
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Marshall Davey
PhD, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2024
MPhysiol, North Carolina State University, 2016
BS, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2014
Lianxia (Michael) Li
PhD, University of Wyoming, University of Wyoming, 2023
MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Wyoming, 2021
PhD, Hydraulics and River Engineering, Sichuan University, 2007
BEng, Water Conservancy and Hydro-Power Engineering, Zhengzhou University, 2002
Research Assistant
Paul Ahern
BA, Exercise and Sports Science, and BS, Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2024
Graduate Students
Shreya Balaji
PhD student, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Bryn Barker
PhD student, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Nicholas Cantrell
PhD student, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Michael Facci
PhD student, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Adam Gokcan
PhD student, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Masod Sadipour
PhD student, Biomedical Engineering, UNC-Chapel Hill
Undergraduate Students
Michael Cox
BS student, Physics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Reiyah Jacobs
BS student, Mathematics and Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
Wyatt Kmetz
Riya Murugesan
BS student, Biology and Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
Alumni
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Qi Sun, 2022-2025
First and present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University
David Wells, 2018-2023
First and present position: Research Scientist, Department of Mathematics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Saad Qadeer, 2018-2020
First position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Computational Mathematics Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Present: Staff Scientist, Computational Mathematics Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Charles Puelz, 2017-2018
First position: Courant Instructor, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
Present: Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston
Simone Rossi, 2016-2022
First position: 3D Software Engineer, Align Technology
Present position: Software Engineering Team Lead, Align Technology
Ebrahim M. Kolahdouz, 2015-2021
First position: Associate Research Scientist, Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation
Amneet P. S. Bhalla, 2014-2016
First position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Applied Numerical Algorithms Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Present: Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University
Vittoria Flamini, 2011-2014
First position: Industry Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering
Present: Governance and Performance Coordinator, European Food Safety Authority, and Visiting Research
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University
Jordan Fisher, 2011-2012
First position: Project Manager, U.S. Security and Exchange Commission
Present: Co-founder and CEO, Standard AI
Paul E. Hand, 2009-2010
First position: Instructor, Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Present: Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Northeastern University
Graduate Students
Cole Gruninger
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2025
Thesis title: Advances in the Immersed Boundary Method: Viscoelastic Flows, Orthogonality-Preserving Regularization, and Robust Implicit Solvers
First and present position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Fordham University
Laryssa Abdala
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Spring 2025
Thesis title: Electro-Fluid-Mechanical Computational Models of the Human Heart
First and present position: 3D C++ Software Engineer, Align Technology
Kirsten Giesbrecht
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2024
Thesis title: Elucidating Mechanosensitive Pathways in Cardiogenesis Through Combined Experimental and Numerical Approaches
First and present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC School of Medicine
Edward Terrell
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2024
Thesis title: An Efficient and Accurate Integrator for Nearly- and Fully-Incompressible Nonlinear Elastodynamics
First and present position: Principal Transformational Physicist, Northrop Grumman
Marshall R. Davey
PhD, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Spring 2024
Thesis title: Construction of a Four-Chambered, Fluid-Structure Interaction Model of the Heart with Validation Studies of Physiologic Left Heart Performance
First and present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
Jordan A. Brown
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2023
Thesis title: Modeling Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Patient-Specific Anatomies: Fluid-Structure Interaction Models Using the Immersed Finite Element-Difference Method
First and present position: Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Belmont University
Keon Ho Kim
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2023
Thesis title: Immersed Peridynamics Method
First and present position: Peter O’Donnell Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow, Oden Institute, University of Texas at Austin
Robert Hunt (jointly advised by R. Camassa and R. M. McLaughlin)
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2021
Thesis title: Part I: Diffusion-Induced Flows and Particulate Aggregation. Part II: Experiments and Modeling of Replacement Aortic Valves. Part III: Enhanced Diffusion in Wall-driven Shear Flows
First and present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Engineering, Brown University
Benjamin Vadala-Roth
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2020
Thesis title: Stabilization of the Hybrid Immersed Boundary Method
First position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Present: Senior Software Engineer, PTC
Fuhui Fang (jointly advised by M. G. Forest)
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2020
Thesis title: Numerical Advances for Fluid-Structure Interactions in Entangled Polymer Solutions with Applications to Active Microbead Rheology
First and present position: Senior Data & Applied Scientist, Microsoft
Jae Ho (Mike) Lee
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2020
Thesis title: Simulating In Vitro Models of Cardiovascular Fluid-Structure Interaction: Methods, Models, and Applications
First position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Computational Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Present: Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Old Dominion University
Yanni Lai
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2019
Thesis title: Multigrid Methods for the Bidomain Equations
First and present position: Applied Scientist, Amazon
Aaron Barrett
PhD, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Summer 2019
Thesis title: An Adaptive Viscoelastic Fluid Solver: Formulation, Verification, and Applications to Fluid-Structure Interaction
First and present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah
Donald Duo Zhao (jointly advised by J. F. Prins)
MS, Computer Science and Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2015
First position: Software Engineer, Google
Present: Senior Software Engineer, Google
Undergraduate Students
Nicholas Mann, 2023-2025
BS, Mathematics and Statistics and Analytics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2025
First position: PhD student, Statistics, North Carolina State University
Preetam Tanikella, 2023-2025
BS, Biostatistics and Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2025
Anh Nguyen, 2022-2025
BS, Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2025
First position: PhD student, Engineering Sciences, Harvard University
Sophie Liu, 2022-2025
BS, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2025
First position: Mental Health Outreach Specialist, AmeriCorps
Paul Ahern, 2022-2024
BA, Exercise and Sports Science, and BS, Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2024
First position: Research Assistant, UNC-Chapel Hill
Henry Shugart, 2022-2023
BS, Statistics and Analytics, and BA, Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill
First position: PhD student, Statistics and Data Science, The Wharton School
Ryan Armstrong, 2019-2020
BS, Physics and Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2020 (honor thesis advisee)
First position: Software Engineer, Epic Systems
Thomas Whitehead, 2019-2020
BS, Mathematics and Statistics and Analytics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2020 (honor thesis advisee)
First position: PhD student, Statistics and Data Science, Cornell University
Marc Rovner, 2018-2019
BS, Applied Mathematics and Statistics and Analytics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2019
First position: Data Engineer, LexisNexis
Raveena Kshatriya, 2017-2018
BA, Computer Science and Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2018
First position: Technology Analyst, AIG
Elijah DeLee, 2016-2018
BS, Applied Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2018 (honors thesis advisee)
First position: Quality Engineer, RedHat, Inc.
Ali Hasan, 2015-2017
BS, Applied Mathematics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2017 (honors thesis advisee)
First position: Researcher, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Skyler Jones, 2014-2016
BS, Mathematics and BA, Communication Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2017
First position: MD student, University of Alabama School of Medicine
Visiting Faculty
Dan Yang, 2019-2020
Associate Professor, School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Visiting Graduate Students
Jianhua Qin, 2019-2020
PhD student, Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology
Research Rotation Students
Mikaela Pabon, 2019
BS student, Department of Physics, University of West Florida
Michael Chambers, 2017-2018
MD student, UNC School of Medicine