Alejandro Aceves
Department of Mathematics, Southern Methodist University

Title: "Light filament science: Old perspectives and new paradigms"

Abstract: Light matter interaction, from basic research to applications, continues to be an active field of study. Some of this is driven by a number of factors including new and more powerful lasers, new understandings of filament manipulation and control, and by observations of new effects produced by filaments. In this talk, we will present a mathematical perspective staring from the fundamental principles that govern filament dynamics to new paradigms both in terms of novel modes of propagation in single and multicolor frequencies and on the need of new models to explain recent experiments in quadratic media and multimode fibers.

Biography: Alejandro Aceves earned his MS in Applied Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology in 1983 and his PhD in Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona in 1988. Between 1989 and 2008, he moved through the ranks from Assistant to Full Professor of Mathematics at the University of New Mexico, where he held the position of Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics between 2004 and 2008. He is currently Professor and Department Chair of Mathematics at Southern Methodist University. He has had visiting positions at Brown University, Universita di Brescia, Italy, University of Limoges and University of Rouen, France and Deusto Tech, Bilbao. He has been a visiting scientist at many research institutions including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the US Air Force Laboratory and Bell Laboratories. His main research area has been in modeling in Nonlinear Optics and Photonics and his research has been funded by the NSF, DOE and DOD. In 2016, he was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America.