mathematics

Kirsten Morris

Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris rather than just read about it. In short: Kirsten Anna Morris (born 1960) is a Canadian applied mathematician specializing in control theory, including work on flexible structures, smart materials, hysteresis, and infinite-dimensional optimization. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo, the former chair of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems, the author of two books on control theory, and an IE…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Kirsten Anna Morris (born 1960) is a Canadian applied mathematician specializing in control theory, including work on flexible structures, smart materials, hysteresis, and infinite-dimensional optimization. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo, the former chair of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems, the author of two books on control theory, and an IEEE Fellow.

Education and career Morris was motivated to study mathematical economics at Queen's University at Kingston by a job doing econometrics at a bank, but lost interest in the economic applications of mathematics after a year, instead switching into a program in mathematics and engineering, which she finished in 1982. She became interested in control theory while studying for a master's degree at the University of Waterloo. After completing the degree in 1984, she continued at Waterloo as a doctoral student, and earned her Ph.D. there in 1989. Her dissertation, Finite-Dimensional Control of Infinite-Dimensional Systems, was supervised by Mathukumalli Vidyasagar. After a year as a staff scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center, she returned to Waterloo as an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics in 1990. She became a full professor there in 2003, and also holds a cross-appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. She chaired the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems from 2018 to 2019, and has held leadership positions in the IEEE Control Systems Society and the International Federation of Automatic Control.

Books Morris is the author of the books Introduction to Feedback Control (Harcourt-Brace, 2001) and Controller Design for Distributed Parameter Systems (Springer, 2020). She is the editor of Control of Flexible Structures: Papers from the Workshop on Problems in Sensing, Identification and Control of Flexible Structures held in Waterloo, Ontario, June 1992 (American Mathematical Society, 1993).

Recognition In 2020, Morris was named an IEEE Fellow, affiliated with the IEEE Control Systems Society, "for contributions to control and estimator design for infinite-dimensional systems". She was named a SIAM Fellow in the 2021 class of fellows, "for contributions to modeling, approximation, and control design for distributed parameter systems". She is also a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control.

References

External links Home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kirsten Morris

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris

In research: Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris 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: Kirsten Morris is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960 births, Academic staff of the University of Waterloo, Applied mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kirsten Morris 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.

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How to study Kirsten Morris in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kirsten Morris in simple terms?

Why does Kirsten Morris 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 Kirsten Morris?

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 Kirsten Morris.