New Ulam scholar makes numbers fit

Titi said he's been interacting with scientists at the Lab since the late 1980s. In 1997, he was an Orson Anderson Fellow Scholar for the Lab's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP).

"The United States is a great land of opportunities, in particular, for science," he said. "This is the leading country in science. It's everyone's dream to come here, to avail themselves of the scientific resources and opportunities the United States has to offer."

A citizen of Israel, Titi recently accepted a position as full professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He said he would be the first ethnic Palestinian citizen of Israel to be a professor in that scientific institute.

Titi said he will share the one-year appointment with another scholar, occupying the position for a little more than six months.

While Titi is at the Lab, he will pursue his research interest concerning the theory and numerical analysis of nonlinear particle differential equations, their statistical and long-time dynamical properties. Essentially, he will be applying his mathematical tools to study models that arise in ocean dynamics, combustion theory and nonlinear fiberoptics, or the study Navier-Stokes equations, which govern the motion of viscous fluids.

Titi said he has strong ties and collaborations in the Lab, and he plans to remain as a consultant to the Lab. In the future, he will commute between Israel, California and New Mexico. While a Ulam Scholar, Titi will be conducting a research seminar on nonlinear partial differential equations, turbulence theory and statistical solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations at the CNLS.

The Stanislaw M. Ulam Distinguished Scholar is an annual award that enables a noted scientist to spend a year carrying our research at CNLS. The position honors the memory of Ulam, a Polish-American mathematician who is considered a father of nonlinear science.

A number of the Ulam scholars from 1985 to the present have made significant contributions to Los Alamos efforts in nonlinear science, and many continue to collaborate with researchers in Laboratory technical divisions.

-- Michael Carlson

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