Thomas Y. Hou

Thomas Y. Hou is the Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), affiliated with the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds a B.S. from South China University of Technology (1982), M.S. and Ph.D. from UCLA (1985-1987) under Prof. Bjorn Engquist. His research focuses on multiscale analysis, fluid dynamics, singularity formation in Euler/Navier-Stokes equations, and data analysis.

Key roles include Executive Officer of Applied & Computational Math (2000-2006), and editorships of SIAM Journal on Multiscale Modeling and Simulation, Advances in Adaptive Data Analysis, and Research in Mathematical Sciences. He teaches ACM/EE 106ab: Introductory Methods of Computational Mathematics and oversees the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Colloquium.

His work on singularity formation has led to groundbreaking studies in 3D Euler equations and Navier-Stokes systems, using rigorous numerics and multiscale methods. He has pioneered exponential convergence techniques in multiscale finite element methods and developed sparse time-frequency analysis for nonlinear data.

Honors include the 2024 William Benter Prize, SIAM Kleinman Prize (2023), membership in the National Academy of Sciences (2024), and the 2004 Morningside Gold Medal in Applied Mathematics.

His research group explores fluid dynamics, turbulence, and mathematical modeling in biological systems like keratocyte evolution. Collaborations include studies on Kolmogorov-Arnold networks (KAN) for high-dimensional data and Bayesian inference frameworks.