Kerrek Stinson

I am a postdoc at the University of Utah supported by a C. R. Wiley Instructorship and the Optimization and Inversion RTG.

From '21 to '24, I was a postdoc at the University of Bonn  hosted by Sergio Conti and Tim Laux. I completed my PhD in '21 with Irene Fonseca and Giovanni Leoni at Carnegie Mellon University.

My research interests are broadly within analysis and PDEs and include

• fracture and elasticity

• interface evolution,

• phase separation,

• data science.

Typically, I approach these problems via the calculus of variations, which is useful for tackling questions where the state of a space is described in terms of a nonlinear, physical energy. Problems from materials science, such as phase separation in lithium-ion batteries, are often in this setting. Applying variational techniques, one can express the behavior of complex materials in terms of simpler effective energies that may have a more direct, insightful (geometric) interpretation.