Annalisa Buffa (born 14 February 1973) is an Italian mathematician, specializing in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

and

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to ho ...

s (PDE). She is a professor of mathematics at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and holds the Chair of Numerical Modeling and Simulation.

Education and career

Buffa received her master's degree in computer engineering in 1996 and received her PhD in 2000, with supervisor

Franco Brezzi Franco Brezzi (born 29 April 1945 in Vimercate) is an Italian mathematician. Education Brezzi graduated in 1967 at the Università di Pavia under the supervision of Enrico Magenes. He was full professor of Mathematical Analysis at the Politecni ...

, from the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

with thesis ''Some numerical and theoretical problems in computational electromagnetism''. From 2001 to 2004 she was a Researcher, from 2004 to 2013 a Research Director (rank equivalent to Professor), and from 2013 to 2016 she was the Director at the Istituto di matematica applicata e tecnologie informatiche "E. Magenes" (IMATI) of the CNR in

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

. In 2016 she was promoted to Full Professor of Mathematics. She holds the Chair of Numerical Modeling and Simulation at EPFL. She has been a visiting scholar at many institutions, including the at the University of Paris VI, the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

, the

ETH Zürich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ra ...

, and the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

(Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, ICES).

Contributions

Buffa's research deals with a wide range of topics in PDEs and numerical analysis: "isogeometric analysis, fully compatible discretization of PDEs, linear and non linear elasticity, contact mechanics, integral equations on non-smooth manifolds, functional theory for Maxwell equations in non-smooth domains,

finite element Finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural analysis, heat tran ...

techniques for Maxwell equations, non-conforming domain decomposition methods, asymptotic analysis, stabilization techniques for finite element discretizations."

Recognition

In 2007 Buffa was awarded the Bartolozzi Prize. In 2015 she was awarded the "for her spectacular use of deep and sophisticated mathematical concepts to obtain outstanding contributions to the development of computer simulations in science and industry" (Laudatio). In 2014, she was an Invited Speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

with talk ''Spline differential forms''. In 2008, she received an ERC Starting Grant and in 2016 an ERC Advanced Grant. She became a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 2016.

Selected works

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

ICM2014 VideoSeries IL15.4: Annalisa Buffa on Aug18Mon – YouTubeImportance of Industry: Annalisa Buffa, 2015 ICIAM Collatz – YouTube
* Website of th
Chair of Numerical Modeling and Simulation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffa, Annalisa 1973 births Living people 21st-century Italian mathematicians Italian women mathematicians Numerical analysts University of Pavia alumni 21st-century women mathematicians Members of Academia Europaea Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne