Research Group

Research Blurb

Welcome to the Rossmanith Research Lab! We work on problems in computational mathematics with application to problems in radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, plasma physics, and astrophysics. If you are interested in collaborations, please contact us. If you are a student interested in joining our group, we welcome graduate students with a strong background or interest in applied and/or computational mathematics through the ISU Graduate Program in Applied Mathematics.

The main focus of our work is on the development, analysis, and implementation of numerical methods for problems that can be described, either fully or partially, by a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs). We work on a variety of mathematical models from radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, plasma physics, and astrophysics, including the following hyperbolic systems: (1) Radiative Transfer, (2) Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), (3) Euler-Maxwell, (4) Vlasov-Poisson and Vlasov-Maxwell, and (5) the Einstein equations of general relativity. We work on several types of numerical methods including: (1) Wave Propagation Schemes, (2) Residual Distribution Schemes, (3) Discontinuous Galerkin Schemes, and (4) WENO Schemes.

Papers

• List of papers from Google Scholar
• List of preprint papers from arXiv.org

Current Students (BS, MS, and PhD)

• Dauda Gambo (MS+PhD, ISU, 2024 - Present)
  • Research topic: DG schemes for multifluid problems
• Joanna Held (PhD, ISU, 2022 - Present)
  • Research topic: Radon transform methods for radiative transfer models
• Yifan Hu (PhD, ISU, 2021 - Present)
  • Research topic:  DG schemes for simulating laser wakefield acceleration
• Ian Pelakh (PhD, ISU, 2018 - Present)
  • Research topic:  Lax-Wendroff DG Schemes for magnetohydrodynamics

Former Students (PhD)

• Preeti Sar (PhD, 2024, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation: Asymptotic preserving schemes for the kinetic Boltzmann-ES-BGK equation
  • First Job: Postdoc at Oak Ridge National Lab (Oak Ridge, TN)
  • Current Job: Postdoc at Oak Ridge National Lab (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Sam Van Vleet (PhD, 2022, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Genuinely Multi-Dimensional, Maximum Taylor Discontinuous Galerkin Schemes for Solving Linear Hyperbolic Systems of Conservation Laws
  • First Job: Postdoc at University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
  • Current Job: Postdoc at University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
• Caleb Logemann (PhD, 2021, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Nonconservative Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Shallow Water Moment Models
  • First job:  Postdoc at Sandia National Lab (Albuquerque, NM)
  • Current job:  Scientist at Sandia National Lab (Albuquerque, NM)
• Makrand Khanwale (PhD, 2021, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Energy-Stable and Conservative Numerical Schemes for Simulating Two-Phase Flows using Cahn-Hilliard Navier-Stokes Equations
  • Co-major:  Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics
  • Co-advisor:  Prof. Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
  • First job:  Postdoc at Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
  • Current job:  Postdoc at Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
• Christine Vaughan (PhD, 2021, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Spectral Element Moment-Closure Methods for Kinetic Vlasov Models of Plasma
  • Co-major:  Applied Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering
  • Co-advisor:  Prof. Alberto Passalacqua
  • First job:  Operational Analyst at Physicians Health Plan (East Lansing, MI)
  • Current job:  Operational Analyst at Physicians Health Plan (East Lansing, MI)
• Minwoo Shin (PhD, 2019, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Hybrid Discrete (H$^T_N$) Approximations to the Equation of Radiative Transfer
  • First job:  Postdoc at University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
  • Current job:  Scientist at Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea)
• Pierson Guthrey (PhD, 2017, ISU)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Regionally Implicit Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Solving the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell System
  • First job:  Postdoc at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
  • Current job:  Computational Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (Livermore, CA)
• Scott Moe (PhD, 2017, U. Washington)
  • Co-adivsed with Prof. Randall J. LeVeque
  • PhD Dissertation:  High Order Shock Capturing Methods with Compact Stencils for use with Adaptive Mesh Refinement and Mapped Grids
  • First job:  Senior design engineer at AMD (Bellevue, WA)
  • Current job:  Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
• Yongtao Cheng (PhD, 2014, UW-Madison)
  • PhD Dissertation:  A Mixed Fluid-Kinetic Solver for the Vlasov-Poisson Equations
  • First job:   Postdoc in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
  • Current job:   Applied Research Scientist at Meta (Menlo Park, CA)
• Bertram Taetz (PhD, 2012, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
  • Co-advised with Prof. Christiane Helzel
  • PhD Dissertation:  Unstaggered Constrained Transport Methods for Ideal Magnetohydrodynamic Equations
  • First job:  Senior Researcher, Department Augmented Vision, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
  • Current job:  Group Leader and Senior Researcher, Department Augmented Vision, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
• David Seal (PhD, 2012, UW-Madison)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Vlasov Models of Plasma
  • First job:  Postdoc at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
  • Current job:  Software Engineer at Rocket Software (Madison, WI)
• E. Alec Johnson (PhD, 2011, UW-Madison)
  • PhD Dissertation:  Gaussian-Moment Relaxation Closures for Verifiable Numerical Simulation of Fast Magnetic Reconnection in Plasma
  • First job:  Postdoc at the Centre for Mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics KU-Leuven (Leuven, Belgium)
  • In Memoriam

Former Students (MS)

• Joanna Held (MS, 2023, ISU)
  • MS Thesis: Chebyshev Radon Transform Methods for Solving Multidimensional Linear Hyperbolic Systems
  • First job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
• Ian Pelakh (MS, 2023, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  A Limiting Strategy for Locally-Implicit Lax-Wendroff Discontinuous Galerkin Methods
  • First job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
• Jill Vesta (MS, 2022, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  Asymptotic-Preserving Spectral Element Moment Closure Method for the Boltzmann-BGK Equation
  • First job: Computer Scientist at Sandia National Lab (Albuquerque, NM)
  • Current job: Computer Scientist at Sandia National Lab (Albuquerque, NM)
• Preeti Sar (MS, 2021, ISU)
  • Co-advised with Prof. Rana Parshad
  • MS Creative Component:  Two Mechanisms of Pattern Formation in Ecological Systems
  • First job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job: PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
• Sam Van Fleet (MS, 2020, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  A Lax-Wendroff Discontinuous Galerkin Scheme for Linear Hyperbolic Systems
  • First job:  PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job:  Postdoc at University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
• Caleb Logemann (MS, 2019, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  An Implicit-Explicit Discontinuous Galerkin Scheme using a Newton-Free Picard Iteration for a Thin-Film Model
  • First job:  PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job:  Scientist at Sandia National Lab (Albuquerque, NM)
• Christine Wiersma (MS, 2019, ISU)
  • MS Thesis: A Locally-Implicit Lax-Wendroff Discontinuous Galerkin Scheme with Limiters that Guarantees Moment-Realizability for Quadrature-Based Moment Closures
  • First job:  PhD Student at ISU (Ames, IA)
  • Current job:  Operational Analyst at Physicians Health Plan (East Lansing, MI)
• Lindsey Peterson (MS, 2018, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  An Asymptotic-Preserving Spectral Method based on the Radon Transform for the PN Approximation of Radiative Transfer
  • First job:  Mechanical Engineer at Honeywell (Kansas City, MO)
  • Current job:  Mechanical Engineer at Honeywell (Kansas City, MO)
• Erica Johnson (MS, 2017, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  A High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Method for a Quadrature-Based Moment-Closure Model
  • First job:  Data Analyst at Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department (San Antonio, TX)
  • Current job:  Research Computer Scientist at Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, TX)
• Milo Taylor (MS, 2016, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  An Implementation of the Relativistic Hydrodynamic Equations in Conservative Form using DoGPack
  • First job:  Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (Laurel, MD)
  • Current job: Research Scientist II at Georgia Tech Research Institute (Atlanta, GA)
• Anna Lischke (MS, 2015, ISU)
  • MS Thesis:  Asymptotic-Preserving Space-Time Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for a Class of Relaxation Systems
  • First job:  PhD Student in the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University (Providence, RI)
  • Current job:  Senior Engagement Manager at Keystone Strategy (San Francisco, CA)
• Juan Brandi (MS, 2013, ISU)
  • MS Creative Component:  Parallel Implementation of the Quasi-Steady Wave Propagation Method for the Shallow Water Equations
  • First job:  Cabela's Bank (Lincoln, NE)
  • Current job:  Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA)

Former Students (BS)

• Boqian Shen (BS, 2017, ISU)
  • Undergraduate Research:  A Particle-Based Numerical Method for Solving Vlasov Models in Plasma Simulations
  • Gradudate school:  Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University
• Scott Moe (BS, 2011, UW-Madison)
  • Undergraduate Research:  Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Discontinuous Galerkin Methods
  • Gradudate school:  Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington

Former Students (REU)

• Summer 2019 Mathematics REU at Iowa State University
  • Eappen Nelluvelil (Rice University)
  • Megan Duke (Oeltjenbruns) (Wayne State College)
  • Jacob Spainhour (Florida State University)
• Summer 2017 Mathematics REU at Iowa State University
  • Camille Schuetz (Felton) (University of Wisconsin Platteville)
  • Mariana Harris (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM))
  • Stefan Nelson (Minnesota State University Moorehead)
  • Ian Pelakh (University of Florida)
• Summer 2015 Mathematics REU at Iowa State University
  • Alan Medinger (Lewis & Clark College)
  • Rachel Solan (Nevin) (Augustana College)
  • Emma Talis (Marist College)
  • Jae-Jae Young (Iowa State University)