Rate My Professor Stephen Pankavich

Stephen Pankavich serves as Professor and Department Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the Colorado School of Mines, a role he began in 2024. A faculty member at Mines since 2012, he previously held the position of Director of Graduate Studies within the department and advanced through the ranks from Assistant Professor to full Professor. Pankavich obtained his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, completing his doctorate in 2005. His career emphasizes advancing analytical and computational techniques in applied mathematics, with contributions to both theoretical developments and interdisciplinary applications.

Pankavich's research focuses on partial differential equations, Lagrangian numerical methods, molecular biophysics, mathematical biology, wave phenomena, and plasma dynamics. Specific areas include mathematical and computational epidemiology, modeling and analysis of in-host disease dynamics, multiscale modeling and simulation of nanoscale interactions, and the behavior of collisionless plasmas. He has received significant funding, including a three-year $233,775 grant from the National Science Foundation in 2016 to develop new analytical and numerical tools for plasma dynamics research, as well as support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation during his time as Associate Professor. Key publications encompass 'Exact Large Time Behavior of Spherically Symmetric Plasmas' in SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis (2021), 'Modified Scattering of Solutions to the Relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell System' in Journal of the London Mathematical Society (2025), 'Instability Conditions for Some Periodic BGK Waves in the Vlasov-Poisson System' in European Physical Journal D (2014), 'A Review of Two Multiscale Methods for the Simulation of Macromolecular Assemblies' in Computation (2015), and 'Entropy Production in Particle-Tracking Simulations' (2020). His scholarly output has accumulated over 1,100 citations, reflecting impact in kinetic theory and numerical simulations. Pankavich has also been honored for excellence in graduate student mentorship and received tenure and promotion in 2017.