From the Chair, Distinguished Prof. Frank Giraldo

The focus of the Applied Math department is to educate officers to learn how to think rigorously and logically; I cannot think of a better discipline that can serve this purpose. As a service department, we have the privilege of educating many of the students that come through the doors of NPS and we take this responsibility seriously. The dedication of our faculty to this mission facilitates taking students with diverse educational backgrounds to complete a Masters degree in STEM-related fields in a short turn-around time.

In 2024, in my third year as chair of the Applied Mathematics department we continue to focus on improving the educational mission of the department which includes increasing our student numbers (which allows us to offer upper level graduate courses to the university at large) and support the three certificate programs. Five Army students arrived this summer that will then serve a two-year rotation at West Point as Math instructors. Two additional Navy students enrolled this year including one Bowman scholar and a PhD student who will go to Annapolis as a Permanent Military Professor (PMP) upon graduation. The primary goal for this year is to form a solid transition plan for the next Chair of Applied Mathematics and to hire TT faculty to replenish our ranks and allow us to meet the mission.

In 2023, in my second year as chair of Applied Mathematics, I continue to build on the past success of the department. As a service department, we have worked closely with the STEM-related departments that needed new courses (e.g. we created 3 new courses this year). We hired two additional lecturers in order to be able to meet the mission. This brings the sum total to 10 tenure-track faculty, one Permanent Miltiary Professor (PMP), and 6 lecturers. We have been able to support two (of the three) certificates in Applied Mathematics and saw our second Navy student who will return to Annapolis as a mathematics instructor; we currently have one PMP situated at USNA already, with one Navy PhD student who will be a PMP in the Operations Research department at NPS upon graduation. For the first time in my recollection, we had department funds to send a few of our faculty to conferences (some domestic and others international).

In 2022 as the new chair of the Applied Mathematics department, I recognized all faculty that served in so many roles before me. My predecessor, Wei Kang served as chair for the past three years until October 1, 2021. Clyde Scandrett served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science (GSEAS) for the past six years until June 30, 2021. Ralucca Gera served for three years as the Associate Provost for Education until spring 2021. I would also like to acknowledge our lecturer Gabriela Stanica who served as the Faculty Council representative until fall 2021; she still serves as the alternate. David Canright served on the PhD committee until his retirement in fall 2021 and Chris Frenzen served for over a decade until fall 2021. Finally, Beny Neta served as the program manager for the Scientific Computing certificate until his retirement in fall 2021. Thank you all for your service to the department and our students.