ArticleslgStudy

mathematics

James Colliander

James Colliander is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand James Colliander rather than just read about it. In short: James Ellis Colliander (born 22 June 1967) is an American-Canadian mathematician. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at University of British Columbia and served as Director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) during 2016-2021.

Key takeaways

  • James Colliander belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect James Colliander to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of James Colliander from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

James Ellis Colliander (born 22 June 1967) is an American-Canadian mathematician. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at University of British Columbia and served as Director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) during 2016-2021. He was born in El Paso, Texas, and lived there until age 8 and then moved to Hastings, Minnesota. He graduated from Macalester College in 1989. He worked for two years at the United States Naval Research Laboratory on fiber optic sensors and then went to graduate school to study mathematics. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1997 and was advised by Jean Bourgain. Colliander was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and spent semesters at the University of Chicago, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Research Colliander's research mostly addresses dynamical aspects of solutions of Hamiltonian partial differential equations, especially non-linear Schrödinger equation. Colliander is a collaborator with Markus Keel, Gigliola Staffilani, Hideo Takaoka, and Terence Tao, forming a group known as the "I-team". The name of this group has been said to come from a mollification operator used in the team's method of almost conserved quantities, or as an abbreviation for "interaction", referring both to the teamwork of the group and to the interactions of light waves with each other. The group's work was featured in the 2006 Fields Medal citations for group member Tao.

Organization creation Colliander is co-founder of the education technology company called Crowdmark. Colliander, with colleagues from PIMS, created Syzygy, a project that provides interactive computing for students and teachers at universities across Canada. Syzygy operates on infrastructure provided by Compute Canada. Colliander, with colleagues from PIMS and Cybera, created Callysto, a project designed to improve computational thinking for students and teachers in grades 5-12. Colliander is co-founder of the International Interactive Computing Collaboration (2i2c).

Major publications Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. Global well-posedness for Schrödinger equations with derivative. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 33 (2001), no. 3, 649–669. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. A refined global well-posedness result for Schrödinger equations with derivative. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 34 (2002), no. 1, 64–86. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. Almost conservation laws and global rough solutions to a nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Math. Res. Lett. 9 (2002), no. 5-6, 659–682. Christ, Michael; Colliander, James; Tao, Terence. Asymptotics, frequency modulation, and low regularity ill-posedness for canonical defocusing equations. Amer. J. Math. 125 (2003), no. 6, 1235–1293. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. Sharp global well-posedness for KdV and modified KdV on R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } and T {\displaystyle \mathbb {T} } . J. Amer. Math. Soc. 16 (2003), no. 3, 705–749. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. Multilinear estimates for periodic KdV equations, and applications. J. Funct. Anal. 211 (2004), no. 1, 173–218. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. Global existence and scattering for rough solutions of a nonlinear Schrödinger equation on R 3 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{3}} . Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 57 (2004), no. 8, 987–1014. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. (2008), "Global well-posedness and scattering for the energy-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation in ℝ3", Annals of Mathematics, Second Series, 167 (3): 767–865, doi:10.4007/annals.2008.167.767, MR 2415387. Colliander, J.; Keel, M.; Staffilani, G.; Takaoka, H.; Tao, T. (2010), "Transfer of energy to high frequencies in the cubic defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation", Inventiones Mathematicae, 181 (1): 39–113, Bibcode:2010InMat.181...39C, doi:10.1007/s00222-010-0242-2, hdl:1721.1/71665, MR 2651381.

References

External links Official website James Colliander at the Mathematics Genealogy Project James Colliander introducing Crowdmark at 2013 Launch Education and Kids on YouTube James Colliander publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with James Colliander

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what James Colliander claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to James Colliander before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about James Colliander ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of James Colliander

In research
James Colliander appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses James Colliander in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
James Colliander is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1967 births, 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for James Colliander outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “James Colliander” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study James Colliander in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what James Colliander means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain James Colliander out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is James Colliander in simple terms?

James Ellis Colliander (born 22 June 1967) is an American-Canadian mathematician. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at University of British Columbia and served as Director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) during 2016-2021.

Why does James Colliander matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study James Colliander?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on James Colliander.

Tags

  • 1967 births
  • 20th-century American mathematicians
  • 21st-century American mathematicians
  • Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Science
  • Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science
  • Canadian mathematicians
  • Living people
  • Mathematical analysts
  • Mathematicians of the University of Toronto
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni

Keep exploring