Global Financial Group Nominates Florida Tech Professor for Prestigious Frontiers of Knowledge Award

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Ravi Agarwal, Florida Institute of Technology professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, has been nominated for the esteemed Frontiers of Knowledge Award presented by BBVA, a global Spanish financial group.

BBVA is an acronym for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, which was founded in a 1999 merger. The company, the second largest bank in Spain and the seventh largest financial institution in the West, seeks to recognize and encourage world-class research and artistic creation, and prizes contributions of broad impact for their originality and theoretical significance.

Awards will be given in three areas: scientific and technological research in the basic sciences, including physics, chemistry and mathematics; direction and performance in contemporary classical music; and scientific research in climate change and development cooperation.

The award recipients will receive €400,000, or about $570,000, a diploma and a commemorative artwork. Award winners will be selected in February 2011 and the award ceremony will be held in Madrid in June.

Candidates are nominated for the award with letters of recommendation from institutional and organizational members working in the area of the respective category. Agarwal received more than 200 nominations from researchers in countries all over the world including China, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Australia, Romania and Israel.

“Professor Agarwal has been very influential in furthering mathematical research related to modern technology and he maintains close interaction with members of the engineering research community throughout the world,” wrote Robert Finn, professor emeritus, Stanford University. “He has earned deep professional respect from colleagues at academic institutions worldwide,” Finn added.

In addition to his post at Florida Tech, Agarwal holds an honorary position of adjunct professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Delaware. His research interests include differential equations, difference equations, fixed point theorems, inequalities and numerical analysis.

Agarwal has also been listed among the 300 most highly cited mathematicians in the world by Thomson Scientific. The honor goes to those with the highest number of citations in mathematics over two decades.