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 Math professor aims to make FSU top in the Southeast

Max Gunzburger

By Dave Fiore

Max Gunzburger, a new Francis Eppes professor at FSU, said he thinks FSU can be the top university in the Southeast United States in the field of research into applied computer science and applied mathematics.

And Gunzberger will help make it happen, according to DeWitt Sumners, a Lawton distinguished professor and chairman of the math department.

"Max Gunzburger is a world-class applied mathematician, especially in the areas we are working on here," Sumners said. "He is an international figure. His research gives him very high visibility, and he is really good in developing Ph.D. students and conducting important research."

Gunzburger comes to FSU from Iowa State University, where he was chairman of the math department.

Although his academic home is the math department, in the Love Building, Gunzburger will be spending much of his time nearby, at the FSU School of Computational Science and Informational Technology, or CSIT, in the Dirac Science Library.

CSIT performs basic research in applied computer science and applied numerical mathematics and also overlaps those areas with traditional disciplines.

"CSIT cuts across artificial barriers to solve modern problems that don't come in neat [academic] packages," Sumners said. "The researchers work together to attack problems in a new way."

That kind of challenge helped lure Gunzburger to Tallahassee.

"The math department and CSIT both offer good opportunities to make contributions," Gunzburger said. "There are many universities that are putting together centers of this sort, but most are ineffective because the universities are not backing it properly."

"The primary thing is that here, if you are willing to work hard, you will have the resources to get something done," he said. "FSU will be the premier university in this field in the Southeast."

Gunzburger said that a key to FSU's future success is the commitment of all involved.

For those who are not math professors, the research side of applied and computational mathematics may be hard to understand, so Gunzburger breaks it down to simpler terms.

"What I do is design, analyze and implement algorithms of problems in many areas such as aerodynamics and superconductivity," he said. "We take meaningful phenomena and use computers in a really big way to solve problems.

"An algorithm is a recipe for solving problems-a description on the computer. Software is the implementation of the recipe. Our role is to develop the recipe and then analyze and implement it. We help develop testing software to make sure it works, and to see if it is better than existing recipes that the computers use."

Gunzburger said his time at Florida State has been encouraging so far.

"Everything has been very positive," he said. "People have high expectations of me, but that's good. They all seem sincere about providing me help. The administration, up and down the line from where I sit, has been very supportive. That is very important to get things done. Having ideas is great, but you need resources to get things done. They support the development of good ideas and innovations."

Tallahassee is somewhat of a family affair for Gunzburger. His wife, Janet Peterson, will also teach at CSIT and the math department, and his daughter is a doctoral candidate in biology.

"I have always liked Tallahassee. I always thought this was a place I could live, and now I finally get the chance."
Sumners said Gunzburger's experience will be invaluable to the department in research and training, getting grants, designing new courses and helping students and faculty develop fresh ways to do things.

Gunzburger said he embraces those challenges and would like to add a couple more.

"In the short term, my main goal is to help FSU develop a group of computational mathematicians of the first rank, with the expectations of that group putting FSU on the map," he said. "At the same time, I want to develop a graduate degree program at CSIT.

"It won't be meant to compete with the separate disciplines, but to complement them, working hand in hand."

The best part of his new job, he says, is the group of students he will teach. "Even though I will be continuing my research, I get my greatest satisfaction from advising students. It's what I enjoy most about university work."

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