2020

Mike Weimerskirch

University of Minnesota

Areas: Education, Mathematics, Mathematics Courseware Design, Software Development

Mike Weimerskirch is a mathematics professor who incorporates Mathematica heavily in his education workflow. After using Mathematica in his own graduate-school courses, he began applying it as a professor to help improve his students’ understanding in mathematics courses. As the director of educational innovation for the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota, he has helped build the Minnesota Online Learning System (MOLS) for generating and grading homework and quizzes. In addition to providing a better educational interface for faculty and students, the system has improved placement exam outcomes and helped increase the number of students that successfully complete freshman mathematics courses.

2020

William J. Turkel

The University of Western Ontario

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Computational Humanities, Education

William J. Turkel is a professor of history at The University of Western Ontario in Canada, whose research and teaching focuses on computational methods, digital humanities and the histories of science, technology and environment. He is a cofounder of the Programming Historian website and the author of Digital Research Methods with Mathematica, now in its second edition. He has been using Mathematica in his research since the mid-1990s and has been teaching courses with the language for eight years.

2020

Ariel Sepúlveda

Pronto Analytics Inc.

Areas: Business Analysis, Image Processing, Industrial Engineering, Software Development

Ariel Sepúlveda is the founder and president of Pronto Analytics, an organization dedicated to helping other organizations standardize the generation of analyses and reports for supporting decision-making processes. He is an industrial engineer who has used Wolfram technology throughout his educational and professional career. He has used the Wolfram Language in many fields, including quality control, retail analytics, image processing and manufacturing applications. Ariel’s most recent project is D4CR, a Wolfram Language–powered application that interprets natural language queries to analyze data and generate standardized reports.

2020

Gustavo Restrepo

Exergétika Bogotá

Areas: Chemical Engineering, Energy Engineering, Fluid Dynamics, Industrial Engineering Economics, System Modeling, Systems Engineering

Gustavo Restrepo is a chemical engineer and entrepreneur who has used Wolfram technology extensively in the energy industry. During his PhD studies in industrial thermal engineering, he used Mathematica to model a thermochemical heat recuperation system to optimize energy efficiency. Working as a process engineer, he used Mathematica for many optimization problems involving separation vessels, heat transfer systems and heavy oil transport. In 2017, he cofounded Exergétika, where he is developing a Wolfram System Modeler package with hydrodynamic components for modeling networks and associated control loops, among other applications, to implement computational thinking in engineering.

2020

Omar Olmos

Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Areas: Computational Physics, Data Science, Education, Machine Learning, Mathematics Courseware Design, Physics

Omar Olmos is north regional director of science and engineering for the Monterrey Institute of Technology, where he uses Mathematica for a range of education and research tasks. In addition to developing interactive examples, tutorials and other student resources, he uses Wolfram Language machine-learning analytics to predict student performance. Omar has also used Mathematica to model electromagnetic waves interacting with nanostructures, performing numeric experimentation to study new nanoscale optical effects.

2020

Dr. Ambar Jain

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal

Areas: Education, Mathematics, Mathematics Courseware Design

Ambar Jain is a professor, researcher and developer who uses Mathematica and the Wolfram Language in all spheres of his profession. In 2015, he founded the Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education in Science, where he developed Examineer, an assessment engine for educators by educators. Examineer uses the Wolfram Language in the backend for authoring e-learning and assessment content and delivering them in the form of quizzes. He has also co-created a course for physics undergraduates titled Physics through Computational Thinking that uses Mathematica for teaching computational thinking using examples from physics. Many of his students use the Wolfram Cloud for performing physics computations. He is also engaged in several research projects where he uses the Wolfram Language for symbolic calculations, numeric computations and machine learning.

2020

Greg Hurst

United Therapeutics Corporation

Areas: 3D Printing, Biomedical Research, Computer Science, Materials Science, Software Development

Greg Hurst is a mathematician and software developer who has used Wolfram technology heavily throughout his educational and professional career. He recently used the Wolfram Language to create novel algorithms for designing an artificial human lung that can be 3D printed using biocompatible materials such as collagen. Greg is constantly evangelizing Wolfram technology to his colleagues at United Therapeutics Corporation and elsewhere.

2020

Virgilio Gomez Jr.

Quality Aspirators

Areas: Biomedical Research, Image Processing, Mechanical Engineering

Virgilio Gomez Jr. is a mechanical engineer who frequently uses Mathematica for research and development. As a graduate student, he used Mathematica to implement closed-form solutions for three-dimensional vibrations of elastic bodies. In his time as a research development mechanical engineer at Quality Aspirators, he has used Wolfram Language image processing in several projects, most recently for quantifying the aerosol spray generated during a certain dental procedure. This work aided in the design and testing of Safety Suction, a device for removing blood- and bacteria-carrying particles from the air to create a more hygienic environment, helping reduce the spread of COVID-19.

2020

Branden Fitelson

Northeastern University

Areas: Computational Humanities, Education, Philosophy, Probability Theory, Software Development

Branden Fitelson is a distinguished professor of philosophy at Northeastern University, where he teaches logic and formal epistemology courses using Mathematica. He developed the PrSAT package (a user-friendly decision procedure for probability calculus), which is used by various researchers and teachers around the world. Branden has used Mathematica for computational research in philosophy since the early 1990s, and he consistently encourages and inspires others to do the same.

2020

Guy F. de Téramond Peralta

Universidad de Costa Rica

Areas: Computational Physics, Education, Physics

Guy F. de Téramond Peralta is a theoretical physicist focusing on hadron structure, nuclear forces and group structure of grand unified theories. He uses Mathematica throughout his research, including ongoing contributions to light-front holographic QCD, a novel approach to hadron structure and dynamics. Guy’s work spans several decades and is widely cited in the physics community; he currently serves as a professor of physics at the University of Costa Rica.

2020

Pedro Paulo Balbi de Oliveira

Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie

Areas: Complex Systems, Computer Science, Education, Electrical Engineering, Software Development

Pedro Paulo Balbi de Oliveira is a professor at Brazil’s Mackenzie Presbyterian University who has made extensive use of Mathematica in his research on cellular automata and evolutionary computation. This has led to the continuous development of a cellular automata toolbox, which spun off a cellular multi-agent research system and a package to represent families of cellular automata. As a whole, these efforts have provided the core computational basis for the publication of over 80 research papers and for about 50 postgraduate and undergraduate student degrees.

2020

Tomás de Camino-Beck

LEAD University

Areas: 3D Printing, Biomedical Research, Complex Systems, Computer Graphics and Visual Arts, Image and Signal Processing, Internet of Things, Software Development

Tomás de Camino-Beck is a professor, researcher, entrepreneur and music producer who has contributed to the fields of mathematical biology, satellite imaging, cellular automata and epidemiological modeling, among others. He has used Mathematica for teaching a range of mathematical subjects and hands-on maker activities like 3D printing and microcontroller programming, as well as for projects in generative design and music video creation. Most recently, he has helped develop several educational videos and a Wolfram Language–powered website for demonstrating agent-based COVID-19 models in conjunction with the Costa Rican news agency El Financiero.

2020

Dr. Kenneth Bogen

Areas: Biomedical Research, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Molecular Biology, Risk Analysis

Kenneth T. Bogen, DrPH, DABT, is a nationally recognized, board-certified consulting toxicologist and former University of California environmental scientist who has done extensive work in environmental health risk assessment, with over one hundred published (including award-winning) scientific journal publications in the field. Since 1988, he has developed RiskQ, a comprehensive package for efficient, symbolic, documented statistical and data analysis in the Wolfram Language. Dr. Bogen has used RiskQ and Mathematica in a broad range of research and applied assessment topics including zinc-ion diffusion and cytotoxicity in the nasal cavity, nickel biokinetic modeling, multi-route exposure assessment, biologically based and mode-of-action-informed cancer risk modeling, physiologically based organophosphate pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling, and applications of environmental, occupational and consumer product-related toxicology and epidemiology.