Fengyan Li, assistant professor of mathematical sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has won a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Li will use the five-year, $582,112 award to design, analyze, and implement computer algorithms for solving complex mathematical problems arising in sciences and engineering. In particular, she will apply and study a type of numerical analysis called discontinuous Galerkin methods.

“We are exceptionally proud to have Professor Li on our faculty,” said Acting Dean of Science David Spooner. “This prestigious award recognizes her as one of the most accomplished junior faculty in the nation in her field. Above and beyond her extensive research program, she has taught every semester since she arrived at Rensselaer and continues to involve both graduate and undergraduate students in her research, making her both a strong researcher and mentor on this campus.”

Li’s current work involves the development of the local-structure-preserving discontinuous Galerkin method as well as central discontinuous Galerkin methods for Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Her research has applications in many areas including weather forecasting, pollution control, energy physics, communication, image processing, and computer vision. 

Li, who joined Rensselaer in 2006, received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computational mathematics from Peking University, and her doctorate in applied mathematics from Brown University. She is currently a member of the Rensselaer Multiscale Science and Engineering Center. Results from Li’s research have been published in the Journal of Computational Physics, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, Journal of Scientific Computing, Mathematics of Computation, Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Analysis, and Numerische Mathematik, and they have been presented at numerous national and international conferences. She was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 2008.

The CAREER Award is given to faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers and is one of NSF’s most competitive awards, placing emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives.

Funding to Li from the NSF was awarded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). To date, Rensselaer has received nearly $7.3 million in funding through the ARRA. For a full list of the awards visit: http://www.rpi.edu/news/arra/index.html.