Rate My Professor Jean-Luc Thiffeault

Jean-Luc Thiffeault serves as Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998, an M.A. in Physics from the same university in 1995, and a B.S. in Physics from McGill University in 1993. Thiffeault's academic career includes lecturer and reader positions in Applied Mathematics at Imperial College London from 2003 to 2007, associate research scientist and postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University's Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics from 1999 to 2002, and postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. He joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 as Assistant Professor of Mathematics, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, full Professor in 2013, and appointed Chair in 2023. He has held visiting positions such as CNRS Visiting Professor at Université Aix-Marseille in 2019, Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2015, and multiple guest investigator roles at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1999 to 2005.

Thiffeault's research specializes in applied mathematics, with primary focus on mixing and transport in fluid dynamics, chaotic advection, topological dynamics, braids, and microswimmer dynamics. Notable publications include his book Braids and Dynamics (Springer, 2022); "Frontiers of Chaotic Advection" (Reviews of Modern Physics, 2017, with H. Aref et al.); "Topological Optimization of Rod-Stirring Devices" (SIAM Review, 2011, with M.D. Finn, recipient of the 2012 SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize); "Using Multiscale Norms to Quantify Mixing and Transport" (Nonlinearity, 2012); and recent works such as "Optimal Spatially-Dependent Diffusion Tensors" (Nonlinearity, 2023) and "Microswimmer Trapping in Surface Waves with Shear" (Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 2023). He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022 for innovative contributions to mixing and transport. Thiffeault has been plenary speaker at the APS-DFD Meeting (2020), SIAM Dynamical Systems Meeting (2013), and others; served as Van Vleck Professor (2015-2019); and held editorial roles including Communicating Editor for Journal of Nonlinear Science (2023-present) and Associate Editor for Nonlinearity (2022-present). His work extends to practical models like hagfish slime and burger flipping.