Speaker: Weiqing Ren is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in 2002. Before joining NUS, he was a member at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2002–2003), an instructor in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University (2003–2005), and an assistant professor at the Courant Institute, New York University (2005–2011). Professor Ren’s research interests lie in applied mathematics and scientific computing, with a focus on rare events, multiphase flows, and multiscale numerical methods. He is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship (2005) and the Feng Kang Prize of Scientific Computing (2015).

Date: November 6, 2025

Time: 15:30-16:30 pm

Location: B936, Zhixin Building, Shandong University

Sponsor: School of Mathematics, Shandong University

Abstract:

Many problems in applied sciences can be abstractly formulated as systems navigating over complex energy landscapes. Well-known examples include conformational changes of bio-molecules, chemical reactions, nucleation events during phase transitions, and extreme events in some cases that lead to material or system failure, etc. These events happen infrequently relative to the relaxation timescale of the system, but when they do happen, they usually happen rather quickly and have important consequences. In this talk, I will discuss numerical methods for the study of such rare events, including the string method and the recently developed machine learning techniques.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.view.sdu.edu.cn/info/1020/206682.htm