This fall, the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies will launch a Ph.D. in computational science and modeling.
The program admitted six students from around 50 applications to its inaugural class, according to mathematics professor and program director Anne Gelb. Fifty faculty members from the School of Arts & Sciences, the Tuck School of Business, the Thayer School of Engineering and the Geisel School of Medicine, will be affiliated with the program, according to Tuck professor and program executive committee member Raghav Singal.
Gelb said the computational science and modeling program differs from computer science programs because it does not focus on designing algorithms. Computational science is “the understanding that you need a way to solve problems [where] you can’t figure out the analytical solution,” Gelb said. The computer science department runs a separate Ph.D program.
Gelb said computational science can be useful for simulating problems where running experiments is not possible.
“For example, if you want to understand how Artemis [II] is going to succeed on the dark side of the moon, you can’t go to the dark side of the moon,” Gelb said. “You have to be able to simulate it … You need to know both computational science and modeling because you need to know how to model what that might look like.”
The program will combine “three overlapping thrusts” — the physical sciences, medical sciences and research sciences — according to Gelb.
“We recognize that there are a lot of faculty here who are interested in interdisciplinary research,” Gelb said. “We really wanted to figure out a way to bring people together at Dartmouth that had overlapping but not identical interests.”
Singal added that the program will “serve as a bridge” between different faculty members and departments who will work together on research.
“We don’t see this as a Ph.D. program in mathematics or a Ph.D program in business,” Singal said. “It’s really interdisciplinary. That’s the nature of it.”
Singal said the program will seek students who are “mathematically trained but can also code,” and will “primarily” focus on applying math and computer science to solve “real world problems.”
Gelb said the program will support research that will help to solve “the next generation of problems,” including “climate change, global warming and economic issues.”
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Guarini dean Jon Kull ’88 wrote that many problems “need to be approached from multiple angles.”
“This is exactly the type of program that fosters collaboration among faculty from different disciplines to tackle the most challenging issues facing society,” Kull wrote.
Kull added that he is “confident” that computational science and modeling will “evolve” as technology changes.
The computational science and modeling program “has a bright and exciting future ahead of it,” Kull wrote. “I am sure there will never be a shortage of problems for our faculty to work on.”