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Founding Director
Professor Richard Ewing
November 24, 1946 - December 5, 2007
Dr. Ewing was distinguished professor of mathematics and applied mathematics, and founding director of the Institute for Scientific Computation.
Dr. Ewing earned his Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. He served on the editorial boards for a number of major national and international scientific journals. Ewing held the Mobil Technology Company Chair in Computational Science, TEES Distinguished Research Chair and was a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at Texas A&M. He received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Bergen, Norway and an honorary guest professorship from Shandong University, China. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award from Germany and was elected as a foreign member of the Academia Europaea.
Dr. Ewing was a world-renowned
scientist in mathematics, engineering and computational sciences. He
received widespread recognition for his research on numerical methods
for PDE (partial differential equations), preconditioning techniques,
adaptive computational methods, and upscaling for fluid flows in
porous media. His work focused on the mathematical modeling of
multiphase flows and transport in petroleum reservoirs and subsurface
aquifers. Over the years, he made profound discoveries and key
contributions to his field of research and authored and co-authored
over 330
publications.
Ewing served as co-principal
investigator for the multi-million dollar Grand Challenge Project
funded by the Department of Energy, which involved five universities
and three national laboratories. He was also a co-principal
investigator on the Disaster Relief and Emergency Medical Services
(DREAMS™) project, with $10 million annual funding, and the National
Science Foundation Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for
Teaching and Learning, which is a $10 million, five-year project.
Along with his research activities, Dr. Ewing contributed to the advancement of education and the scientific community for many years as the Vice President for Research at Texas A&M. In this capacity, he provided leadership and coordination of the development, implementation, operation and assessment of programs to support creative scholarship, graduate studies, and sponsored research throughout Texas A&M.
With a vision and commitment to international education and research, Dr. Ewing led Texas A&M University and the ISC to forge a number of long-term strategic research alliances with many foreign partners including Mexico, China, and Qatar.
In November 2003, he was heavily involved in the first China-U.S. Relations conference hosted at Texas A&M University. The highly successful conference led to several research agreements between Chinese and Texas A&M researchers. The conference has become a biannual event, with the 2007 edition being held in Washington, DC in October.
Also in 2003, Texas A&M opened a branch campus in Doha, Qatar, and Ewing led the creation of the first two research centers. The centers which focus on production and utilization of natural resources and environmental sustainability are in Doha, with partner labs in College Station.
Ewing's research leadership reached beyond the University. Ewing served on the board of directors of the Houston Technology Center, the Associated Western Universities group, the Southwestern Universities Research Association, and the Texas Society for Biomedical Research. Ewing also was recently named to be on the state’s Product Development and Small Business Incubator Board.
Dr. Ewing passed away on December 5, 2007 of an apparent heart attack at the age of 61. He is deeply loved and missed by many.
Research Interests
- Numerical analysis for approximation methods for PDEs
- Optimal-order preconditioning techniques for coupled systems of equations arising in numerical solution of nonlinear, time-dependant PDEs
- Adaptive grid refinement and adaptive time-stepping methods
- Accurate methods for capturing sharp interface for transport in heterogeneous porous media
- Multiscale and upscaling techniques for fluid flows in heterogeneous porous media
- Numerical modeling and upsacling of subsurface biofilm processes
- Petroleum reservoir modeling and ground water\ contaminant remediation simulation
Publications
Curriculum Vita
Homepage
http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~ewing/