Incoming natural sciences faculty bring expertise in probability theory, genetics, fluid dynamics
Meet the new group of faculty members joining the mathematics, biological sciences and quantitative and computational biology departments at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences this fall.
Evgeni Dimitrov | Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Academic focus: Probability theory.
What are your hobbies? Going for walks, reading books and, since the pandemic, assembling jigsaw puzzles.
If you could invite one person to dinner, living or dead, who would you select? What would be on the menu? My wife. Salmon for her and steak for me.
Pranava Jayanti | Assistant Professor (RTPC) of Mathematics
Academic Focus: I study the dynamics of fluids from a mathematical perspective. The Navier-Stokes equations (among many other models) govern the flow of fluids, and the first thing that a mathematician wonders when presented with any equations is: Are these solvable and, if yes, how might those solutions behave?
It is interesting that most of the time we don’t write down a solution to show that something can be solved — we can prove that a solution exists without actually knowing what it is! This kind of work, seemingly abstract, actually aids physicists in their pursuit of better models of the physical world.
If you could invite one person to dinner, living or dead, who would you select? What would be on the menu? Probably Rafael Nadal, my favorite tennis player! If I have to cook, I’ll stick to something simple, like a mixed veggie curry and some lentils (with rice/naan on the side). If we are eating out, it will be either Thai (curries) or Korean (bibimbap).
If time-travel was possible, what era would you head to and why? At the expense of sounding destructive, I have always been fascinated by the destructive power of the asteroid that ended the dinosaur era. I would like to visit that time and watch the collision unfold (from a safe viewing distance!).
Read any good books lately? The ones that I found really entertaining were Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain and Sphere, and Dan Brown’s Origin.
Jeffrey Moore | Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Academic Focus: My laboratory investigates the brainstem circuits that control ethologically relevant orofacial behaviors in rodents (face and mouth movements to help us understand their behavior). Our research combines developmental, molecular, systems and theoretical neurobiological approaches to create a unique multidisciplinary research program aimed at uncovering neuronal circuit mechanisms that link sensation, learning and cognition to observable motor actions. This research is yielding important insights into neural computations that are central to the vertebrate plan.
Matthew Pennell | Associate Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology
Academic Focus: I try to figure out how to extract information about evolution from phylogenetic trees, the genealogies that depict how different entities are related.
Learn about other faculty who joined USC Dornsife this fall >>