Hwayeon Ryu, associate professor of mathematics, presented and co-organized a special session, and served as a panelist at the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings held Jan. 8-11 in Seattle, Washington.
Hwayeon Ryu, associate professor of mathematics, attended the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings organized by the American Society of Mathematics held Jan. 8-11, in Seattle, Washington.
At the conference, Ryu co-organized a special session (with three smaller parts) of the Association for Women in Mathematics entitled “Women in Mathematical Biology,” in which a total of 24 invited speakers presented a variety of biological questions using mathematical (e.g. deterministic, stochastic and statistical) models to understand complex system dynamics. The goal was to highlight the recent developments and advancements along with the diverse group of female-identifying researchers who drive innovation, and thus to foster building an inclusive research community.
In this session, Ryu presented her current work, “Mathematical Modeling of Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2.” She discussed a mathematical model for immune dynamics of COVID-19 to investigate the underlying mechanisms for disease severity and shared the main results around the impact of dysfunction of selected immune components on the so-called “cytokine storm,” known as one of indicators for the severe symptoms of COVID-19.
In addition, Ryu served as an invited panelist for “Panel: Undergraduate Research in Mathematics for Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in the Age of AI.” This panel explored the benefits and challenges of mentoring undergraduate research projects on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, comparing them to traditional studies and emphasizing their job market relevance. It also featured the discussion of panelists including Ryu and three other educators who are experienced in AI-related sustainability research, providing insights and practical advice for prospective faculty mentors.
Her research and conference trip were supported by NSF DMS 2151990 (PI: Ryu).