Biography

Robert Higdon was an undergraduate at the University of Missouri - Columbia, and in 1981 he received his Ph.D. degree in mathematics at Stanford University. He then held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. In 1982 he moved to Oregon State University, where he is now a Professor of Mathematics.

Research

Higdon has worked on open boundary conditions for wave propagation problems and on issues related to the well-posedness of hyperbolic initial-boundary value problems and the stability of their numerical approximations. He is presently working on some mathematical and computational problems related to the numerical modeling of ocean circulation. This modeling involves the solution of a system of partial differential equations that describes fluid flow, as adapted to that case. In this area, Higdon first worked on some problems with stability and efficiency that can arise from the multiple time scales that are contained in the system. He is presently working on a project to develop, analyze, and test some procedures for using discontinuous Galerkin numerical methods in multi-layer models of ocean circulation.

Research Interests

• Numerical Analysis
• Partial Differential Equations
• Applied Mathematics

Education

Ph.D. Stanford, 1981

Research areas