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Hongkai Zhao

Ruth F. DeVarney Distinguished Professor of Mathematics
Mathematics
Office hours Wednesday 3-5pm  

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Ruth F. DeVarney Distinguished Professor of Mathematics · 2022 - Present Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Mathematics · 2020 - Present Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Chair of the Department of Mathematics · 2024 - Present Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published May 18, 2022
University Awards 24 New Distinguished Professorships
Published October 9, 2020
Hongkai Zhao: Creating Efficient Algorithms for Science and Engineering Applications

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Recent Publications


How Much Can One Learn a Partial Differential Equation from Its Solution?

Journal Article Foundations of Computational Mathematics · October 1, 2024 In this work, we study the problem of learning a partial differential equation (PDE) from its solution data. PDEs of various types are used to illustrate how much the solution data can reveal the PDE operator depending on the underlying operator and initia ... Full text Cite

A data-driven and model-based accelerated Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method for Bayesian elliptic inverse problems

Journal Article Statistics and Computing · August 1, 2023 In this paper, we consider a Bayesian inverse problem modeled by elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). Specifically, we propose a data-driven and model-based approach to accelerate the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) method in solving large-scale B ... Full text Cite

On Enhancing Expressive Power via Compositions of Single Fixed-Size ReLU Network

Conference Proceedings of Machine Learning Research · January 1, 2023 This paper explores the expressive power of deep neural networks through the framework of function compositions. We demonstrate that the repeated compositions of a single fixed-size ReLU network exhibit surprising expressive power, despite the limited expr ... Cite
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Recent Grants


Learning Partial Differential Equation (PDE) and Beyond

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2023 - 2026

RTG: Training Tomorrow's Workforce in Analysis and Applications

Inst. Training Prgm or CMECo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2021 - 2026

Computational Forward and Inverse Radiative Transfer

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2020 - 2024

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Education, Training & Certifications


University of California, Los Angeles · 1996 Ph.D.