Sean Reiter
Why did you choose the Mathematics Department at Virginia Tech?
I actually did my B.S. in mathematics at Virginia Tech, as well. I came back for graduate school because of the people here and my advisors. I am very fortunate to have two wonderful advisors in Dr. Embree and Dr. Gugercin. I actually always planned to be a high school math teacher. I tried that for about a year, but missed doing math too much. So, I came back to pursue a M.S. degree. I initially thought I would pursue a Ph.D. elsewhere, but I stuck around because of the culture, and because I wanted to continue working with Dr. Embree and Dr. Gugercin. They've contributed more than I can express in words to my personal and mathematical growth. Overall, the culture around the math department at VT is very inclusive and warm. I also have a soft spot for Blacksburg, and so it wasn’t a hard decision to stay.
What is your research area?
Broadly speaking: I work in applied and computational mathematics. More specifically: My research focuses on theoretical and computational aspects of the dimensionality reduction (or "model reduction") and data-driven modeling of large-scale dynamical systems.
I am co-advised by Dr. Serkan Gugercin and Dr. Mark Embree.
Essentially, mathematical models in the form of systems of differential equations (or "dynamical systems") have become essential tools for understanding, forecasting, and controlling many complex physical phenomena. But, these models are often either a. Expensive to simulate because they are high order (i.e., they consist of a very large number of equations) due to the need for very accurate predictions, or; b. Only implicitly available in the form of data. Model reduction is dynamical system approximation: The goal is to compute much lower-order, reduced models, that can be used in place of the large-scale system in whatever application is at hand. Data-driven modeling aims to learn the system dynamics directly from data; these can be obtained in a lab, or from "black box" numerical simulations.
I'm currently in the process of writing my dissertation, the working title is: "Recent Advances in Model-order Reduction, Data-driven Modeling, and Real-time monitoring of Structured Dynamical Systems".
What are some of the ways that you've become involved in the Mathematics Department as a graduate student?
With some other grads in the VT math department, I helped found the Mathematics Graduate Student Organization (GSO). The GSO was founded to serve as a formal liason and facilitate communication between the students and faculty of the mathematics department. One of things we do is host a periodic "Town Hall" where graduate students come together to discuss current issues we are facing. It also serves to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the current graduate student climate, that the department can use to improve the graduate student experience.
As an extension of the GSO, we host an informal event, the "Department Graduate Student, Staff, and Facultea Time" every week in McBryde. This was originally started by the Graduate Program Coordinator Andy Norton, and later taken over by me. The purpose of the event is to provide an informal space for students, staff, and faculty in the math department to casually mingle over tea or coffee, and baked goods. There are a good mix of students and faculty (I think the food tends to draw more graduate students than faculty, though) and we hope to see wider involvement in the future!
What advice do you have for math grad students?
The piece of advice I would give is to choose your advisor carefully. (In my opinion, this can be more impactful than choosing where to go to graduate school.) Your advisor is one of the largest determining factors in your graduate school experience.
What are you doing when you aren't working on research?
My favorite hobbies are road running, coffee, and cooking! VT/Blacksburg/the surrounding area have lots of beautiful places to run. I used to be a barista at a coffee shop in town that was a favorite for a large portion of the math department.
What is a fun fact that most might not know about you?
I think if I wasn't a mathematician, I might have ended up being a chef. My favorite food is a Thai dish called Pad Kra Pao (which I think translates to "Basil stir fry").