mathematics

Kenneth M. Golden

Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden rather than just read about it. In short: Kenneth Morgan Golden (born September 30, 1958) is an American applied mathematician and Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Utah, where he is also an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering. He works on modeling complex materials with a focus on sea ice.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Kenneth Morgan Golden (born September 30, 1958) is an American applied mathematician and Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Utah, where he is also an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering. He works on modeling complex materials with a focus on sea ice. Golden has been on nineteen expeditions to study the physics and biology of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Education and training Golden's interest in sea ice began in high school, studying satellite images of Antarctic sea ice with Jay Zwally at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. While majoring in math and physics at Dartmouth College, he worked at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory from 1977 to 1980 with Steve Ackley on measuring sea ice thickness with radar, treating sea ice as a composite of pure ice with brine inclusions. This work led to his 1984 Ph.D. from NYU in Mathematics with George Papanicolaou on the transport properties of composite materials. Golden studied diffusion processes and quasiperiodic media as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow with Joel Lebowitz at Rutgers University. As an assistant professor of Mathematics at Princeton University from 1987 to 1991, Golden continued working in mathematical physics, and then moved to the University of Utah as an associate professor in 1991.

Research and career As a material, sea ice exhibits complex composite structure on many length scales. Golden's interests range from the brine microstructure to ice pack dynamics on the scale of the Arctic Ocean, and from sea ice algae to polar bears. For example, the fluid permeability of sea ice, which depends on the porous microstructure, regulates the evolution of melt ponds on the surface of Arctic sea ice as well as fluxes of nutrients that fuel algae blooms. Golden and colleagues found that sea ice has a percolation threshold, a critical porosity or temperature that must be exceeded for brine pathways to form and fluid to flow, and used percolation theory to accurately predict the permeability. The melt ponds determine sea ice reflectance or albedo, a key parameter in climate modeling. As the ponds grow and complexify, they undergo a transition in fractal geometry. The 100 year old Ising model, originally developed to understand magnetic materials, was adapted to accurately predict melt pond geometry. These works are improving projections of Earth's sea ice covers and the ecosystems they support, and represent principal examples of how statistical physics is contributing to sea ice modeling and prediction. Golden is interested not only in how the physics of sea ice affects the life it hosts, but in how the presence of life impacts sea ice. For example, sea ice algae secrete exopolymeric substances to help them live in their extreme surroundings. But this alters the brine microstructure and the fluid permeability. On the other hand, sea ice is locally highly variable. Parameters in models of algal dynamics must be treated as random variables. Such models have been solved using methods of uncertainty quantification. Sea ice microstructure shares similarities with many natural and artificial materials. Modeling sea ice often advances other fields. Examples of this cross pollination include developing new materials with exotic properties such as twisted bilayer composites, a theory of electromagnetic transport in polycrystalline media, and a novel way of monitoring osteoporosis. During his years at the University of Utah, Golden has led several federally funded, multi-disciplinary, multi-institution projects, as well as successful efforts to hire faculty working in the mathematics of materials and related areas. He has mentored over 100 young researchers, from high school and undergraduate to Ph.D. and postdoctoral, with many assisting in field experiments in Antarctica and the Arctic. Golden has given over 500 invited lectures on six continents, including four presentations to the U.S. Congress, and won awards for teaching, mentoring, and science communication.

Media and movies Golden's research and public lectures have been covered by media around the world, including Science, Scientific American, Physics Today, Popular Mechanics, and the BBC. He's been interviewed on radio, television, and online, and featured in short films produced by the NSF, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, NBC News, and the University of Utah. In a San Diego Tribune article about Golden's Porter Public Lectures at the 2013 Joint Math Meetings, Golden was given the nickname "mathematical Indiana Jones," which has also appeared in various other articles about his career.

Honors 1981 – 84 Hertz Foundation Fellow, NYU 1989 Excellence in Teaching Award, Princeton Engineering Council, Princeton University 1996 Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy for "extraordinary accomplishments in electromagnetics" 2007 University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award 2009 SIAM Invited Address, Joint Math Meetings (AMS-MAA-SIAM), Washington D.C. 2010 Houghton Lecturer, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT 2011 Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for "extraordinary interdisciplinary work on the mathematics of sea ice" 2012 Myriad Faculty Award for Research Excellence, for fostering undergraduate research and providing learning experiences for students, University of Utah 2012 University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly & Creative Research Award 2013 AMS-MAA-SIAM Porter Public Lecture, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego 2013 Guest of Honor, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) Gala, Mathematics: Mind of the Earth, hosted by the French Ambassador to the US, Pierre Hotel, New York City 2013 Inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society 2014 United States Coast Guard Arctic Service Medal 2014 Fellow of the Explorers Club 2022 – 24 Inaugural Recipient of the University of Utah Presidential Societal Impact Scholar Award 2023 Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Prize in Teaching, University of Utah

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kenneth M. Golden

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden

In research: Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden 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: Kenneth M. Golden is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American explorers, American applied mathematicians, American climatologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kenneth M. Golden 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.

Affiliate

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

How to study Kenneth M. Golden in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Kenneth M. Golden in simple terms?

Why does Kenneth M. Golden 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 Kenneth M. Golden?

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 Kenneth M. Golden.