Pearl Flath

Research interests
Uncertainty quantification, large-scale inverse problems, computational geosciences, subsurface flow modeling.

Current research
Uncertainty quantification for contaminant transport: estimation and propagation of uncertainty in a contaminant field via inverse theory. The four images below show the propagation of a contaminant through a city:



The contours of the variance in an initial contaminant field found by inversion from sensor measurements.

About me:

• MA in Computational and Applied Mathematics, The University of Texas at Austin, 2007
• BA in Applied Mathematics, minor in Physics, Columbia University, 2005

• Founder and President (Fall 2005-Summer 2008) of Austin Student Chapter of SIAM at The University of Texas at Austin
• Department of Homeland Security Graduate Fellowship, 2005-2008
• UT Austin CAM Fellow
• NSF Graduate Student Travel Award to the 9th US National Congress on Computational Mechanics, July 2007
• SIAM Student Chapter Certificate of Recognition, 2007
• Columbia University Rabi Scholar, 2001-2005
• Founding President of the Columbia University Chapter of SIAM

• SIAM Membership Committee
• Member of AWM
• Women in Mechanical Engineering coffee hour

• "An inverse problem framework for uncertainty quantification for transport of contaminants" Sandia Student Symposium, Aug. 2006
• "Uncertainty estimation for large-scale ill-posed inverse transport problems," SIAM CS&E Conference, Feb. 2007
• Poster, ME Graduate Student Departmental Open House, Feb. 2007
• Organized the first annual Texas Applied Mathematics Meeting for Students (co-hosted by the SIAM chapters of UT Austin and Rice University), Feb. 2007.
• "Fast algorithms for uncertainty estimation and propagation in large scale linear dynamical systems" USNCCM 9, July 2007
• Poster prize, "Fast algorithms for uncertainty estimation and propagation in large scale linear dynamical systems," SXSVD: Gene Golub Day. Feb 29, 2008.
• Organized the UT delegation to the second annual Texas Applied Mathematics Meeting for Student at Rice University, March 2008
• "Fast algorithms for uncertainty estimation and propagation in large scale linear dynamical systems," Texas Applied Mathematics Meeting for Students 2008
• "Fast algorithms for uncertainty estimation in large scale linear dynamical systems," SIAM CS&E Conference, March 2009
• "Fast algorithms for uncertainty estimation in large scale linear dynamical systems," Texas Applied Mathematics Meeting for Students 2009

• At the SIAM CSE07 Conference
• Student Chapter Certificate of Recognition
• Poster

• Summer 2006: DHS internship at Sandia National Lab with Bart van Bloemen Waanders. Uncertainty quantification for inverse problems in contaminant transport.
• January-August 2005: SULI internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with Dr Richard Ward, Dr Kwai Wong, and Kara Kruse. Worked to implement a model of blood flow through a section of artery with moving walls in Dr Wong's parallel finite element solver, PICMSS, for the Virtual Soldier Project.
• Summer 2004: Columbia University, with Dr David Keyes. Developed derivative-based optimization capability for parameter identification in an empirical model of wind-aided wildland firespread using level sets, in conjunction with a U.S. Forest Service-sponsored simulation program.
• Summer 2003: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, with Dr Richard Seager. Explained the apparent upper limit on sea surface temperature as consistent with the balance between incoming solar radiation and heat lost from the ocean through evaporation, conduction, ocean currents, and thermal longwave radiation. The standard meteorological equations for these phenomenon were combined with the average values of variables in the warm pool in order to derive the correct sea surface temperature.
• Summer 2002: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, with Dr Richard Seager. Investigated factors affecting the formation of subtropical anticyclones through analysis of the output of computational climate models.
• Summer 2001: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, with Dr Richard Seager and Dr Adam Sobel. Investigated the dependence of atmospheric heating in the tropical lapse rate on sea surface temperature and surface wind speed variations through statistical analysis of data.

• Languages: Catalan, Spanish.
• Hobbies: reading, seidokan aikido, embroidery.
• Places I've lived: Durham, NC. Singapore. Raleigh, NC. Highland Park, NJ. Mobile, AL. Bellaterra, Spain. Columbus, OH. St Paul, MN. New York, New York. Oak Ridge, TN. Albuquerque, NM. Austin, TX.