NSF RTG Conference: Materials and Optimization

Salt Lake City skyline with Wasatch mountains This conference is part of the NSF RTG: Optimization and Inversion for the 21st Century Workforce and brings together researchers on the mathematical aspects of materials science and optimization. The conference will also honor the academic careers of our recently retired colleagues Andrej Cherkaev and Graeme Milton.

Where: CSC 208 (Crocker Science Center), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
When: October 16-18, 2026

Plenary Speakers

Kaushik Battacharya, Mechanics and Materials Science, Caltech
Andrej Cherkaev, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah
Robert Lipton, Department of Mathematics, Louisiana State University
Graeme Milton, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah
Michael I. Weinstein, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Columbia University

Invited Speakers

Guillaume Bal, Department of Statistics and Mathematics, University of Chicago
Maxence Cassier, Fresnel Institute, France.
Grzegorz Dzierżanowski, Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology
Leonid Gibiansky, QuantPharm LLC
Davit Harutyunyan, Department of Mathematics, University of California Santa Barbara
Christian Kern, Mathematics, University of Utah (formerly).
Ornella Mattei, Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University.
Owen Miller, Applied Physics, Yale University
Knut Solna, Department of Mathematics, University of California Irvine
Aaron Welters, Department of Mathematics and Systems Engineering, Florida Tech

Important deadlines

Title/Abstract submission: ~~July 31st 2026~~ August 15 2026
Application for travel award: ~~July 31st 2026~~ August 15 2026
Registration fee payment: ~~August 31st 2026~~ September 15 2026

Contributed Talks and Application for Travel Awards

To propose a talk and/or apply for a travel award, please use this form. With this form you can:

Submit the title and abstract for a contributed talk. Contributed talks are 20min (15min + 3min questions).
Apply for a travel award. A limited number of travel awards are available for postdocs and students ($300 + waved registration fee). In addition to filling the form above, the following materials need to be sent before the deadline directly via email to fguevara@math.utah.edu:
- A résumé (PDF)
- A personal statement (1 page, PDF). Please include a brief description of your research and any information that may be relevant to this travel award.
- A letter of recommendation to be sent directly by the letter writer, also to fguevara@math.utah.edu

Talks and travel awards will be reviewed by the scientific committee. A decision on your talk and/or travel award will be given 1-2 weeks after the deadline. The applicant is responsible for making sure that the application materials are submitted before the deadline.

Conference Registration

To pay for the registration and/or banquet fee please use this form.

The registration fee is $150 and includes coffee breaks and 2 lunches.
There is an optional conference banquet on Saturday October 17, for $75/person.
The registration fee is waived for invited speakers and for those receiving travel awards.

The deadline to pay the registration and/or banquet fee is ~~August 31st 2026.~~ September 15 2026. Thank you!

Lodging

The conference will take place on the University of Utah campus (building TBA) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our campus is acccesible via public transportation (UTA). We recommend any hotel that is within walking distance to a lightrail (TRAX) station. The lightrail station closest to the conference venue is Stadium on the red line. The interval between lightrail trains is usually 15 minutes on weekdays and longer during weekends. For lodging on campus, consider the University of Utah Guest House.

Conference Program (tentative)

Friday October 16, 2026

8:30am - 9:00am – Welcome
9:00am - 10:00am – Waves and spectral degeneracy, Michael I. Weinstein, Columbia University
10:00am - 10:30am – Coffee break
10:30am - 12:35pm (Chair: TBA)
- 10:30am – 10:55am – Pseudo-magnetism in a strained discrete honeycomb lattice, Xuenan Li, Purdue University
- 10:55am – 11:20am – Double-Incommensurate Twisted Trilayer Graphene: A Momentum Space Tight-Binding Model, Kenneth Beard, University of Utah
- 11:20am – 11:45am – Mechanical Modeling of Graphene, Brandon Burkhardt, Arizona State University
- 11:45am – 12:10pm – Continuum model for twisted bilayer graphene with strain and relaxation, Tianyu Kong, University of Chicago
- 12:10pm – 12:35pm – Intrinsic Wettability Prediction from Surface Characterization Using Machine Learning, Behnam Azadpour, Brigham Young University
12:35pm - 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm - 2:30pm – A mathematical journey, Graeme Milton, University of Utah
2:30pm - 3:00pm – Coffee break
3:00pm - 5:05pm (Chair: TBA)
- 03:00pm – 03:25pm – Tight bounds on the elastic properties of three-dimensional composites, Christian Kern, University of Utah
- 03:25pm – 03:50pm – Optimal bounds and optimal structures for three-dimensional three-phase composites containing an ideal conductor, Leonid Gibiansky, QuantPharm LLC
- 03:50pm – 04:15pm – Optimal near-field antennas: Quasistatic bounds and the advantage of a third material, Owen Miller, Yale University
- 04:15pm – 04:40pm – Classification and scattering theory aspects of topological insulators, Guillaume Bal, University of Chicago
- 04:40pm – 05:05pm – High Frequency Analysis of Electromagnetic Metamaterials, Robert Viator, Denison University
- 05:05pm – 05:30pm – Broadband Quasistatic Passive Cloaking: Bounds and Limitations in the Near-Field Regime, Aaron Welters, Florida Tech

Saturday October 17, 2026

9:00am - 10:00am – Fracture as an initial boundary value problem, Robert Lipton, Louisiana State University
10:00am - 10:30am – Coffee break
10:30am - 12:35pm (Chair: TBA)
- 10:30am – 10:55am – Crack propagation for linear elastic materials with non-interpenetration, Kerrek Stinson, University of Utah
- 10:55am – 11:20am – JKO-Based Framework for a Nonlinear Fokker-Planck Type Model of Grain Growth, Batuhan Bayir, University of Utah
- 11:20am – 11:45am – Developable Surfaces and Wave Propagation in Space–Time Materials: A Geometric Correspondence, Ornella Mattei, San Francisco State University
- 11:45am – 12:10pm – Optimum design of plates under simultaneous membrane and bending loads, Grzegorz Dzierzanowski, Warsaw University of Technology
- 12:10pm – 12:35pm – Boundary integral formulation for electromagnetic homogenization problems in composites, Zhaosen (Tim) Su, University of Utah
12:30pm - 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm - 2:30pm – Some Optimization Problems in Continuum Mechanics, Andrej Cherkaev, University of Utah
2:30pm - 3:00pm – Coffee break
3:00pm - 5:05pm (Chair: TBA)
- 03:00pm – 03:25pm – Fracture vs bending in shells, Davit Harutyunyan, University of California Santa Barbara
- 03:25pm – 03:50pm – Randomized Kaczmarz for Reduced-Channel Neonatal EEG Analysis, Laurel Weber, University of Utah
- 03:50pm – 04:15pm – Active Exterior Cloaking of Microswimmers in Stokes Flow, Holly VanLooy, University of Utah
- 04:15pm – 04:40pm – Not All Laminates Are Straight: Material Scarcity Reveals the Necessity of Curvature, Ray Adams, Shadow company
6:00pm - 9:00pm – Conference Banquet

Sunday October 18, 2026

9:00am - 10:00am – Forward and inverse problems in materials characterization, Kaushik Bhattacharya, Caltech
10:00am - 10:30am – Coffee break
10:30am - 12:35pm (Chair: TBA)
- 10:30am – 10:55am – Scattering by a rough surface and source imaging, Knut Solna, University of California Irvine
- 10:55am – 11:20am – Geometric spectral properties of electromagnetic waveguides, Maxence Cassier, Fresnel Institute
- 11:20am – 11:45am – Data-Conditioned PINNs for Inverse Modeling of Sea Ice, Asher Merrill, University of Utah
- 11:45am – 12:10pm – Computational Topology and Geometry of Arctic Melt Ponds, Natasha Smith, University of Utah
- 12:10pm – 12:35pm – Analysis of Bifurcations in Ferromagnetic Elastica subjected to External Forcing, Likhit Ganedi, University of Utah

Contact Info

For questions please contact fguevara@math.utah.edu