Published: April 1, 2019 By

Daniel AppeloAssociate Professor Daniel Appelo is one of four researchers chosen by the Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Foundation to be a visiting professor at a University in Sweden.   

The Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Foundation started a research program in mathematics in 2014. They created this program because, according to the chairman, Peter Wallenberg Jr., “new mathematics helps us to understand the links between genetics and disease, for example, or how climate change affects life on Earth. Mathematical development and knowledge are also decisive if Sweden is to keep up with the ongoing digital revolution, including artificial intelligence and automation.” Given the important applications of mathematics, the foundation funds mathematical research and allows top researchers at Sweden to explore different parts of the world while allowing foreign top mathematics researchers to explore Sweden. The foundation believes that this will facilitate the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and concepts which will prove integral to the advancement of mathematics.  

Daniel Appelo was one of four chosen to be a professor at Uppsala University – which is ranked among the world’s top 100 Universities and is the oldest University in Sweden (founded in 1477). Appelo will be researching computer models for wave propagation at Uppsala. Such models can be used to determine, for instance, the amount of ground movement during an earthquake in a place where a bridge will be built, or describing the seabed in shallow waters. While high accuracy is desired for such important applications, increasing accuracy makes for increasingly complicated equations. Complications are compounded when considering buildings, topography, or the differences in sound propagation velocity caused by variations in air temperature or water salinity. Appelo will work at Uppsala over the summer and Uppsala will fund his housing and travel.