Stephen Becker's CV

This cv was last updated April 2007. For a version recent to January 2009, please see this PDF version

MC 217-50, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125
626-395-4545 (office), 626-792-9986 (home), 303-906-9085 (cell)
srbecker [at] caltech [dot] edu

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

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

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and Rotational Dynamics of Supercooled Water, Stephen R. Becker, physics honor thesis at Wesleyan University (unpublished), April 2005, available at http://www.acm.caltech.edu/~srbecker/thesis.pdf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.

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

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:

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.

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

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...)

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

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

Page last modified Sep 14, 2009