Joe Lauer

Lecturer in Mathematics

Contact
Department

My research interests lie in geometric evolution equations and geometric analysis. This is an active area where problems allow one to use a wide variety of techniques from analysis, PDE theory, differential geometry and topology. Often it is the combination of several of these tools which proves the most fruitful. More specifically, I focus on smoothness questions in mean curvature flow, curve shortening flow and Ricci Flow, three geometric PDEs that have found applications in many fields.

Outside of my work in the Math Department I am also an Assistant Coach with Wellesley Cross Country and Track and Field.

Education

  • B.Math., University of Waterloo
  • M.Sc., McGill University
  • Ph.D., Yale University

Current and upcoming courses

  • Most real-world systems that one may want to model, whether in the natural or in the social sciences, have many interdependent parameters. To apply calculus to these systems, we need to extend the ideas and techniques of single-variable Calculus to functions of more than one variable. Topics include vectors, matrices, determinants, polar, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates, curves, partial derivatives, gradients and directional derivatives, Lagrange multipliers, multiple integrals, vector calculus: line integrals, surface integrals, divergence, curl, Green's Theorem, Divergence Theorem, and Stokes’ Theorem.