Jan S Hesthaven

Jan S Hesthaven is a Professor of Mathematics and Dean of the School of Basic Sciences at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He holds adjunct professorships at Brown University and the Technical University of Denmark. His research focuses on computational methods for partial differential equations, model order reduction, and high-order numerical methods like discontinuous Galerkin schemes. He leads the Chair of Computational Mathematics and Simulation Science (MCSS) and founded SCITAS, EPFL's Scientific IT and Application Support unit.

Education: M.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1995) in Numerical Analysis from Technical University of Denmark, with postdoctoral training at Brown University and NASA Langley. He earned a Dr.Techn. (2009) for contributions to nodal discontinuous Galerkin methods.

Research interests include computational fluid dynamics, seismic monitoring of porous media, and machine learning integration with PDE solvers. Notable contributions include physics-informed neural networks, reduced basis methods for acoustics, and surrogate models for gravitational waves. He has received prestigious awards like the SIAM Fellowship (2014) and the Philip J. Bray Teaching Award (2004).

Leadership roles: Dean of SB (2017–present), Director of CCV at Brown (2006–2013), and Deputy Director of ICERM (2010–2013). His work bridges fundamental mathematics with applications in engineering, physics, and environmental science.

Grants and collaborations include NSF funding for model reduction and NASA partnerships. He supervises interdisciplinary projects on seismic data analysis and acoustic simulations. SCITAS, under his leadership, provides high-performance computing support across EPFL.