The Cullen-Peck Scholar Award recognizes research accomplishments led by College of Sciences faculty at the associate professor or advanced assistant professor level. The award recognizes innovative research that is in a direction that is relatively new to the faculty member. The Cullen-Peck award is made possible by a generous gift to the College of Sciences from alumni Frank H. Cullen (B.S. in Mathematics with Honors 1973, M.S. in Operations Research 1975, Ph.D. Industrial Engineering 1984) and Libby Peck (B.S. in Applied Mathematics 1975, M.S. in Industrial Engineering 1976).
Associate Professor Molei Tao's research is primarily concerned with control systems characterized by multiple scales, geometric structures, and randomness. Prof. Tao's group addresses both scientific curiosity and engineering practicality, from studying extrasolar and Solar planetary dynamics, the engineering problems of energy transfer and harvest, rare events quantification, the resonant control of microscopic systems, to the interplay between dynamics and machine learning.
Previous recipients of the Cullen-Peck Scholar Award include: