Dr. Mary Wheeler, a noted computational researcher at The University of Texas at Austin, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Wheeler is director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling at the university's Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. She also is the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell Chair in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. She has appointments in the departments of Mathematics and Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
Wheeler focuses on developing and refining algorithms that apply massive parallel computational power to equations that describe subsurface processes. Such processes include oil and gas recovery, the spread of groundwater contaminants and the viability of carbon sequestration.
Wheeler has been a professor at the university, from which she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees, since 1995. Her Ph.D. in mathematics is from Rice University.
She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds honorary doctorates from the Colorado School of Mines and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780, recognizes international achievement in science, the arts, business and public leadership. The organization has brought together the nation's leading figures from universities, government, business and the creative arts to exchange ideas and promote knowledge in the public interest.
