Education

• California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; working towards Ph.D. in Applied and Computational Mathematics (expected in 2010), fall 2005 to present
• Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; graduated with high honors in physics (B.A.) and high honors in mathematics (B.A.) May 2005
• classes taken at Budapest Semesters in Math, Hungary, fall of 2003
• classes taken at University of Colorado at Boulder fall of 2000 and spring of 2001
• Fairview High School, Boulder, CO; graduated with honors May 2001

Research Interests

Algorithms for largescale convex optimization, in particular for SDP and Matrix Completion.

Publications

• Breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein Relation in Supercooled Water, P. Kumar, S.V. Buldyrev, S.R. Becker, P.H. Poole, F.W. Starr, and H.E. Stanley, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Vol. 104, 9575-9579 (2007).
• Fractional Stokes-Einstein and Debye-Stokes-Einstein relations in a network forming liquid, Stephen R. Becker, Peter H. Poole and Francis W. Starr, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97 No. 5., August 2006. http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v97/e055901
• Translational and Rotational Dynamics of Supercooled Water, Stephen R. Becker, physics honor thesis at Wesleyan University (unpublished), April 2005, available at http://www.acm.caltech.edu/~srbecker/thesis.pdf
• The Dynamics of Falling Dominoes, Stan Wagon, Adrianne Pontarelli, Stephen Becker and William Briggs, UMAP Journal, (26)1, 2005, pp. 37-48.

Talks

• A generalization of Mason's Theorem, mathematics honors talk at Wesleyan University, April 2005
• Translational and rotational dynamics of supercooled water, presentation at condensed matter seminar at Wesleyan University, April 2005

Courses (as teaching assistant)

at Caltech:
• ACM 11 Intro to Matlab and Mathematica, co-instructor (I taught all lectures and wrote all homework for the first half of the semester), fall quarter 2008.
• ACM 105 Functional Analysis, TA, graduate level class, spring quarter 2008.
• ACM 104 Linear Algebra, TA, graduate level class, winter quarter 2007/08. I taught 3 lectures when the professor was out-of-town.
• ACM 11 Intro to Matlab and Mathematica, TA, fall quarter, 2008.
• ACM 95/100 c Intro to PDE, undergraduate/graduate level class, spring quarter 2007 (this was a 200-person class, so I was one of several TAs); I taught one lecture when the professor was out-of-town.
• ACM 104 Linear Algebra, graduate level class, winter quarter 2006/07
• ACM 105 Functional Analysis, graduate level class, fall quarter 2006

at Wesleyan University:
• Introductory physics, spring 2002
• Introductory physics, fall 2002
• Introductory calculus, fall 2002
• Linear algebra, spring 2003
• Discrete math, spring 2004
• Quantum mechanics, spring 2004
• Introductory physics, fall 2004

Other research experience

• Undergrad research with Professor Robert Rollefson on 1D gas behavior and NMR, Wesleyan University Spring 2003.
• Undergraduate participant in NSF / University of Colorado / JILA physics REU program, summer 2003. Experimental work on High Tc superconductors, work supervised by Professor Daniel Dessau of UC-Boulder.
• Informal collaboration with Professor William Briggs of University of Colorado at Denver, summer 2002. Resulted in a publication in an undergraduate journal.

Selected non-academic work experience

• Computer lab consultant, Wesleyan University. Spring 2003 to spring 2005. Supervised computer lab consisting of approximately 40 PCs and 10 Macs.

Honors and Awards

at Wesleyan University:
• Bertman Prize, May 2005, for a senior physics major.
• Graham Prize, co-winner, May 2005, for excellence in natural science.
• Rice Prize, co-winner, May 2005, for excellence in math by a senior.
• Phi Beta Kappa, early induction, November 2004.
• Rae Shortt Prize, co-winner, May 2004, for excellence in math.
• Van Dyke Prize, co-winner, May 2004, for excellence in physics.
• Robertson Prize, honorable mention, May 2003, for excellence in math by a junior or sophomore.
• Sherman Prize, honorable mention, May 2002, for excellence in math by a freshman.

at Fairview High School:

(forthcoming...)

Skills

• Experienced with Mathematica, Matlab, C environments
• Exposed to C++, Fortran 77, Java, HTML environments
• Ran large-scale Molecular Dynamics simulations on 30 node openMosix Beowulf cluster, programming in C in 2003-2005
• Ran large-scale parallel algorithms on Caltech's 162-node SHC cluster (2008-2009)
• Experienced with linux/unix environments
• Studied Spanish for 6 years in Middle / High School

Organizations and Leadership

• President and webmaster, Caltech Alpine Club, 2006-present. Lead several 12 to 15 person trips up technical routes on Mt. Whitney (in winter) and Mt. Shasta.
• Varsity cross-country (Div. III), Wesleyan University, 2001-2002
• Varsity track (Div. III), Wesleyan University, 2002
• Tutoring center, Fairview High school, 2000-2001
• Varsity cross-country, state champion team, Fairview High School, 2000
• Varsity track, state-qualifying 4x800m relay, Fairview High School, 1999
• Sophomore Baseball team, Fairview High School, 1998
• Boy Scouts of America, Life Scout, 1995 to 2001