Sarah D. Olson

Sarah D. Olson is the William Steur Professor and Department Head of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Department of Mathematical Sciences, with joint appointments in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering. She holds a BA from Providence College (2003), an MS from the University of Rhode Island (2005), and a PhD from North Carolina State University (2008).

• BA, Providence College (2003)
• MS, University of Rhode Island (2005)
• PhD, North Carolina State University (2008)

Dr. Olson’s research focuses on mathematical biology, particularly computational biofluids and scientific computing. Her work explores micro-swimmer models, centrosome movement in mitosis, and agent-based models in heterogeneous environments. She develops methodologies for Bayesian parameter estimation and hydrodynamic interaction analysis, with applications to sperm motility, cell division, and biomedical micro-swimmers.

Her recent 15 articles (2011–2023) span topics including centrosome clustering, Brinkman fluid dynamics, flagellar waveforms, and viscoelastic micro-swimmers. These studies employ regularized Stokeslets, Bayesian uncertainty quantification, and agent-based simulations to advance understanding of biological fluid-structure interactions and parameter estimation in biological systems.

Dr. Olson collaborates with institutions such as Brown University’s Center for Computation and Visualization, supported by NSF grants (DMS-1455270, DMS-1521266, DMS-1552903). Her work bridges applied mathematics, biophysics, and computational biology.