Professor Michael Holst is a distinguished scholar and leader in computational mathematics and mathematical physics, currently serving as Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of California, San Diego and Chair of the Mathematics Department. He earned his Ph.D. in Numerical Analysis from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 and began his academic career as a von Karman Instructor at Caltech from 1993 to 1997, followed by a brief appointment at UC Irvine before joining UC San Diego in 1998. His career trajectory has been marked by significant interdisciplinary expansion, including his appointment to the Physics Department in 2009 and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute in 2023, reflecting his growing influence across multiple scientific domains. Holst holds the prestigious Chancellor's Associates Endowed Chair at UCSD and has established himself as a pivotal figure in bridging mathematical theory with practical applications in physics and computational science.
Holst's research has profoundly impacted the field of numerical analysis through his fundamental contributions to solving partial differential equations, particularly in developing multilevel methods for the Poisson-Boltzmann equation and advancing mathematical modeling techniques. His scholarly work has accumulated over 19,788 citations according to Google Scholar, demonstrating substantial influence across mathematics, physics, and computational science. He has coauthored a graduate textbook on applied analysis and partial differential equations with Ivar Stakgold that has become a standard reference in the field, while his research on numerical differential equations has been supported continuously by major funding agencies including NSF, NIH, DOE, AFOSR, and DTRA. This sustained research excellence has established him as a primary authority in developing mathematical frameworks that address complex problems in scientific computing and mathematical physics.
Beyond his research accomplishments, Professor Holst has been instrumental in shaping the next generation of mathematical scientists, having served as primary supervisor for 19 completed doctoral students and mentored 29 postdoctoral researchers at UCSD, along with guiding 27 undergraduate honors students, many of whom have gone on to prestigious doctoral programs worldwide. He plays a leadership role in multiple interdisciplinary research institutes including the Center for Computational Mathematics and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, where he contributes to cutting-edge work at the intersection of mathematics and astrophysics. As a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics since 2016, Holst continues to advance collaborative research initiatives that address fundamental challenges in computational mathematics while expanding the application of mathematical physics to emerging scientific domains.
