Dr. Amer Rasheed has been promoted to Associate Professor and granted tenure at the Department of Mathematics.

Dr. Amer works in the area of mathematical modeling, finite element methods, differential equations and their applications to a diverse range of problems particularly in fluidics. He has published important work in these disciplines, continues to supervise graduate students and is a highly-respected teacher. He has also been working as the Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Mathematics (CASM) for many years.

We congratulate Dr. Amer Rasheed for the recognition of his work.

A glimpse at Dr. Amer’s work can be seen here:  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=40kWu8IAAAAJ&hl=en 

As the timeless title of the physicist Eugene Wigner’s article suggests “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”, it is prudent to think that mathematics is the language in which the Universe whispers its quietest secrets. The Department of Mathematics has organised a series of online seminars to disseminate mathematical knowledge, which is open for anyone to attend.

These sessions commemorate the memory of John Conway, a highly passionate mathematician who recently passed away. In his career, John Conway made significant contributions to mathematics in the fields of group theory, number theory, algebra, geometric topology. theoretical physics, combinatorial game theory and geometry. He had won numerous, highly honorable prizes in his field including the Berwick Prize (1971), Polya Prize (1987), Nemmers Prize (1998) and the Leroy P. Steele (2000).

Link to past and upcoming seminars: https://bit.ly/3r8bVMY

I would like to share the story of an assignment for the course of Applied/Numerical Linear Algebra that has intrigued several of my students. The purpose of this assignment was to make it more enjoyable for students the basis of any numerical algorithm for solving a linear system of equations—and simultaneously add a fun element to learning the aspects of matrix rank and dimensionality reduction. The application chosen was that of image compression.

Here is how it began: students took their own selfie images (now carefully preserved for posterity) and converted them as a matrix of coefficients using Python packages. Face features and peculiarities are defined by their face contours, intensity, and size. Some have complex ‘stark’ features, and some have ‘flat’ features. The complexity of each face is reflected in the extent to which the dimensions of the image matrix can be reduced using underlying concepts of rank reductions and compression of an image. Every artistic touch or the complexity of each face will increase the rank vis-à-vis the complexity of their face matrix. Here is a visual of what one of the students got.

I asked them to compare the features using reduced rank/dimensions and define a parametric understanding to link the two together (using a numerical method, such as singular value decomposition).

Our curiosity extended beyond the content that was covered in class. We asked ourselves: Can we see human and animal feature complexity with the same lens of numerical linear algebra? Why not? After all, numbers are numbers. And an image is a projected version of 3D space into a 2D space. The gray values give the image its depth/shape. For comparison, I used an image of my feathered friend with seemingly complex shades of gray in its furry feathered pattern. It turned out that the rank / dimensionality was also reduced by a factor 10 until which the original and compressed image looked the same to the human eye.

Homework, assignments, and assessments—the words are enough to make a student ‘yawn’ and feel as if they’re going through torture. Certainly not the case when students reconstruct their faces bit by bit until they recreate a compressed version of themselves. They now understand that what they see in the mirror is nothing but a projection of themselves and not their entire true self. Reality is truly different from how we perceive it to be, and there are many instances when we can smartly get rid of excess data.

Analyzing data as coefficient matrices of real number and the formal methods to smartly arrange and get rid of unnecessary data is what we learn in a class of applied linear algebra. Is mathematics really around us in ways we never imagined? Each time we try to understand the world and our existence, we hear a Gaussian whisper in our ears: ‘See, I told you so’.

Dr. Imran Anwar has joined the Department of Mathematics as Associate Professor and Chair. 

Imran completed his PhD from the Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (SMS), GC University Lahore in 2008. He has always been spirited about teaching mathematics and motivating students to solving problems, thinking critically and feeling excited about the subject. Being in a leadership role at the SMS, Imran curated study circles, public lectures and instilled a deep fascination for the mathematical universe, into the minds of numerous students, even outside the institution.

Imran is an algebraist and combinatorist, a rare discipline when viewed from Pakistani standards. His work on f-ideals, f-graphs, and simplicial complexes is fundamental and pioneering. His PhD work revolved around inventing a proof for Stanley's conjecture. Coming from a post-graduate institution named after Pakistan's most accomplished mathematician, and his interests in stoking mathematical curiosity, we are hopeful that Imran's contributions to education and research in SBASSE and LUMS will be something to look forward to.

Last, our gratitude to Dr. Haniya Azam for her services in past few months and leading the Department in these particularly unusual times. It hasn't been easy with all the new challenges posed by the global crisis. Immense thanks to her.

Dr Imran Anwar says that “A student should always stay curious”; read his interview published in the Spectra Magazine: https://spectramagazine.org/interviews/dr-imran-anwar-a-student-should-always-stay-curious/ .

Prof. Steve Berry's shyness, charm and humility came together with a solid grasp on chemical thermodynamics, potential landscapes and phase equilibria, some of the most complex phenomena in chemical physics. These potential landscapes steer the thermodynamics and kinetics of chemical and physical processes and also control whether a material forms a glass or a crystal or something in between, how a protein folds and unfolds and consequently how life emerges. Steve Berry, a distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago, had in his lifetime trained hundreds of scientists and generations of chemists in the nuances and intricacies of equilibrium and departures therefrom, the properties of the micro and the macro and where the twain shall meet, and how molecules tumble and collide to generate macromolecules and how they eventually disintegrate. Furthermore, his penchant to describe molecular statistics, thermodynamics and kinetics in a simple, meaningful and insightful manner always left deep impressions on his many listeners.

However, many wouldn't know that Prof. Steve Berry harbored a deep passion and commitment for the furtherance of science around the world. Who would know this any better than the people who saw the birth and growth of the School of Science and Engineering at LUMS, in Pakistan? Steve was among the founders and members of the Advisory Board and played a crucial role in inspiring the School's young Faculty, and especially the chemists. His regular visits to Pakistan and Lahore for participating in the School's advisory meetings not only gave many of us a chance to brush shoulders with him, but also to listen to his words of wisdom on science, education, leadership and also provided us with immense confidence in launching an interdisciplinary program of education where cross-pollination of ideas from diverse fields now routinely takes place.

Syed Babar Ali, the founder of the School, whom after the School is also named, expressed his condolences, "The School of Science and Engineering at LUMS will always remain extremely grateful to Steve Berry for his excellent contributions during the meetings of the Advisory Board that he attended. He was the founding member of the advisory board; and we will miss him. He was a great mentor, advisor and a friend of LUMS and SSE. May God bless his soul."

Steve Berry has left an indelible mark on our School. My thoughts and wishes, and the thoughts and wishes of all of my colleagues here at SBASSE LUMS, go to Steve's family, friends and our colleagues at the University of Chicago.