On July 19, 2018, Applied Mathematics professor, Mark Ablowitz (pictured on the left), received an honorary Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa, from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. The honorary degree was awarded for Ablowitz’ “exceptional contributions to the science of nonlinear phenomena.” According to Ablowitz’ website, he has made a multitude of significant contributions to the field, as ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) Web of Science considers him to be one of the most highly cited researchers in Mathematics.
In receiving his honorary degree, Ablowitz presented a talk to the graduates of the Kent Mathematics Department (pictured left, below). Albowitz was introduced by Peter A. Clarkson (pictured right, below), Professor of Mathematics at Kent University, and his talk was titled ‘Turning Points – Life Decisions.’ In honor of this event, the Kent Mathematics Department organized a meeting on nonlinear mathematics.
Ablowitz moved to the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1989 to begin a new Program in Applied Math. The Program began with 4 tenure track faculty and a few instructors; it became a Department in 1996. Today the Applied Math Department has 22 tenure track faculty, 9 instructors, and more than 70 graduate students and 200 undergraduate majors.