Biography
Michelle Girvan received her B.S. in 1999 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in 2003 from Cornell University. Her research combines methods from statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, and graph theory to address interdisciplinary, network-related problems. She is interested in both broad theoretical approaches to complex networks as well as specific applications, especially to information cascades, epidemiology, and genetic regulatory networks.
In a 2019 podcast, she discussed her work in chaos and artificial intelligence.
In 2022, she was named a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.
Research
Research Area:
Centers & Institutes: Maryland Biophysics Program; Institute for Research in Electronics & Applied Physics
Teaching
- Physics 165: Introduction to Programming for the Physical Sciences
- Physics 272: Introductory Physics: Fields
- Physics 260: Vibrations, Waves, Heat, Electricity & Magnetism
- Physics 615: Nonlinear Dynamics of Extended Systems
- Physics 798N: Data Practicum at the Intersection of the Physical, Computer and Life Sciences
News
- Michelle Girvan Named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
- Understanding and Exploring Network Epidemiology in the Time of Coronavirus
- A Physics Career Along the Path Less Traveled
- Promotions Effective July, 2018
- Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos
- Five UMD Physicists Elected APS Fellows
- Physics Professor Michelle Girvan Receives $3M NSF Grant to Train Graduate Students in Network Biology
- Mathematical models explain east-west asymmetry of jet lag recovery