Professor Milena Stanislavova
Milena Stanislavova is a Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Before joining UAB in 2021, she was a faculty member at the University of Kansas (KU) from 2002 to 2021, where she served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Mathematics Department from 2012 to 2017 and as Chair of the Economics Department from 2017 to 2021. Professor Stanislavova received her M.S. in Mathematics from Sofia University in Bulgaria in 1993 and her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 2000. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst before joining KU as Assistant Professor in 2002.
Her major fields of study are Dynamical Systems and Partial Differential Equations. More specifically, she is investigating the stability and long time behavior of special solutions of nonlinear equations of mathematical physics. Stanislavova's research deals with a variety of problems concerning solutions of a large class of PDE's, which can be viewed as dynamical systems on an infinite-dimensional space. Hamiltonian PDE's support coherent structures like solitary or periodic traveling waves, as well as wave trains and multi-pulses. These are very important objects when modeling physical processes and their stability is essential in practical applications.
Stanislavova has published in journals such as Nonlinearity, Journal of Nonlinear Science, Studies in Applied Math, Physica D, Communications in Math Physics, Mathematische Annalen, SIAM Journal of Applied Math, SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, Journal of Math Physics, ZAMP, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh A, Journal of Evolution Equations, etc. Her research has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation since 2004. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Studies in Applied Mathematics. She is the founder and co-organizer of the annual KUMUNU PDE conference and a co-organizer of the Joint Alabama-Florida (JAF) Conference on Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems and Applications.
Stanislavova teaches undergraduate courses in differential equations, complex analysis and mathematical game theory, as well as graduate courses in analysis, dynamical systems and PDEs. At KU she was a faculty fellow in the Honors Program and developed a freshman seminar for honors students. She is the recipient of the Don and Pat Morrison Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics.
Research Interests
- Partial Differential Equations: Stability of Waves, Nonlinear Wave Equations
- Dynamical Systems: Invariant Manifolds, Hamiltonian Systems, Control
- Analysis: Semigroups of Linear Operators, Spectral Mapping Theorems
Education
- 2000, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia
- 1993, M.S. in Mathematics, Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
Professional Experience
- 2021-present, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- 2013-2021, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas
- 2007-2013, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas
- 2002-2007, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas
- 2000-2002, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- 1996-2000, Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Missouri-Columbia
- 1994-1996, Researcher, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Administrative Experience
- Chair, Department of Mathematics, UAB, 2021-present
- Chair, Department of Economics, KU, 2017-2021
- Director of Graduate Studies, KU Department of Mathematics, 2012-2017
Teaching Awards and Grants
- 2012, Don and Pat Morrison Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics
- 2009, Faculty seminar grant from the Center for Teaching Excellence
- 2005, Teaching Grant from the Center for Teaching Excellence
- 2003, Center for Teaching Excellence Grant for the Best Practices Institute