Mathematics is one of many exciting research focuses at NYU Shanghai. Taking advantage of NYU Shanghai’s interdisciplinary environment and making full use of diversified research tools, young scientists at NYU Shanghai extended their research work to the frontiers of global academia to create a new model of graduate student training, The NYU Shanghai-ECNU Joint Graduate Training Program (N.E.T.).
Established jointly by NYU Shanghai and ECNU, N.E.T enables its students to benefit from the rich educational, research, and network resources available from both institutions. Students communicate directly with and work alongside distinguished scholars from all over the world, access cutting-edge research tools, and expand their academic horizons to advance the future of their scientific research. Interested in fluid mechanics and applied mathematics? Let’s take a closer look at Professor Jinzi Mac Huang’s lab to learn more about the unique research environment and innovative culture it provides to its students.
Professor Jinzi Mac Huang
Jinzi Mac Huang is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at NYU Shanghai and a member of the NYU-ECNU Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU Shanghai and the NYU-ECNU Institute of Physics at NYU Shanghai. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Huang gained his doctorate’s degree in mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and his bachelor's degree in applied physics & applied mathematics from the Zhiyuan College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests are experimental fluid dynamics and applied mathematics, specifically, the fluid-structure interactions involved in problems like melting, dissolution, thermal convection, and geophysics. After joining NYU Shanghai, Professor Huang has been carrying out experiments and numerical research on fluid mechanics at the Applied Math Lab at the Courant Institute at NYU, NYU-ECNU Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU Shanghai, and the NYU-ECNU Institute of Physics at NYU Shanghai. He is currently building the Applied Math Lab Shanghai, which will be located at the newly established Qiantan campus of NYU Shanghai.
The Applied Math Lab
The Applied Math Lab Shanghai at NYU Shanghai takes full advantage of the interdisciplinary environment of NYU Shanghai and the joint research institutes to conduct cutting-edge research on fascinating topics. At present, the lab uses experimental and numerical methods to study fluid dynamics and applied mathematics. Research topics include dissolution and melting in fluids, geological pattern formations, plate tectonics, and thermal convection. Combining methods from experimental physics, math modeling, and numerical simulation, the research team has adopted a novel approach to exploring fluid mechanics problems in nature. This organic way of combining research methods from different disciplines has been recognized by peers from home and abroad. Recently, the lab has generated fruitful research findings that have appeared in world class journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Journal of Computational Physics and others.
Research Highlights
The Applied Math Lab Shanghai at NYU Shanghai has recently conducted a series of investigations into research topics involving fluid-structure interactions and geomorphologies. In a research project that examined the atmospheric ablation of meteoroids, the laboratory designed and conducted experiments to explore the static stability of meteorites in water caves as well as the dynamic stability of falling meteorites (Amin et al., PNAS 2019). In another study, inspired by a visit to Yunnan Stone Forest National Geopark, the team established a connection between the sharpening of dissolving pinnacles and the formation of the stone forest (Huang et al., PNAS 2020). In the field of numerical mathematics, the laboratory has also proposed a numerical method (Huang et al., Journal of Computational Physics, 2021), that can accurately model the evolution of solids in the process of dissolution and melting.
The Uniqueness of the Lab and the Scientific Research Experience of Students
From a graduate student’s perspective, can you talk about the uniqueness of Professor Huang’s Lab?
Huilin Li: Most of the research projects in the lab represent a thoughtful combination of experiment, simulation, and theoretical work. Simulation and experiment are complementary to each other. Simulations can supplement conditions that cannot be realized by experiments in real life, while real experimental data can help prove whether the calculations and simulations are correct and credible. They both lay a solid foundation for subsequent theoretical work. In addition, our lab members come from different backgrounds, which include mathematics, physics and engineering. People of different backgrounds can inspire each other when working on the same project.
After starting your research career in Professor Huang’s Lab, what is your most impressive research experience
Huilin Li: Many of our projects focus on looking at everyday phenomena. Observing interesting phenomena under experimental conditions can help to explain many things seen in nature. Under laboratory conditions, we study the falling of snowflakes and the optical phenomena caused by their different attitudes using fluid mechanics. It’s actually very difficult to reproduce snowflakes in laboratory conditions, let alone imitate millions of snowflakes falling in the real world. However, under the guidance of Professor Huang, we found a suitable alternative method and were able to successfully reproduce some of the associated optical phenomena that we see in the real world. Although beautiful natural phenomena such as snow fall are commonly experienced, no one has been able to reproduce these phenomena under laboratory conditions and analyze them from the perspective of fluid mechanics. In addition to snowflakes, we also reproduced the drift and rotation of icebergs under experimental conditions and found that there are many interesting controllable conditions that can determine how icebergs move. Not only is this work novel, it’s also important, especially in the context of global warming.