Pitt Mathematics Professor Juan J. Manfredi Named Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia E. Beeson announced today that mathematics professor Juan J. Manfredi, associate dean for undergraduate studies in Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences, will become the University’s new vice provost for undergraduate studies, drawing on his more than 20 years as a distinguished scholar, teacher, and administrator to oversee the educational programs serving Pitt’s largest student cohort. The appointment will be effective in September. 

“I have great confidence in Dr. Manfredi’s academic and organizational leadership,” said Beeson, who assumed her duties as Pitt’s provost earlier this month. “He shares my strong commitment to student achievement and has the energy and experience to help us continue to build on the University’s existing strengths and priorities in undergraduate education. I very much look forward to working with him.” 

Deeply engaged in undergraduate education since joining Pitt’s faculty in 1989, Manfredi has been recognized for his innovative work teaching undergraduate calculus; he received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1994. Manfredi was instrumental, among his other efforts, in establishing an electronic calculus classroom that includes an electronic textbook and electronic submission of homework and exams and for running symbolic computation software on a variety of computing platforms. He also has served as a mentor to undergraduate student researchers. 

Manfredi has a strong record of administrative experience as chair of the Department of Mathematics from 2005 to 2007, as a two-time NSF program director, and, since 2007, as associate dean of undergraduate studies in Arts and Sciences, where he strengthened the undergraduate advising program and led the assessment of student-learning outcomes. 

As a scholar, Manfredi has focused his research on nonlinear partial differential equations, nonlinear potential theory, and, more recently, their stochastic games interpretations. He has an extensive publication history, as well as strong research support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). He has served as a colloquium lecturer or invited speaker at universities and conferences around the world. Most recently, he was an invited speaker on the evolution of interfaces in Sapporo, Japan, and at a partial differential equations conference in Parma, Italy. 

Manfredi is a member of a number of prestigious professional associations, including the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Manfredi earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1979 and his master’s and PhD degrees in mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984 and 1986, respectively. Since coming to Pitt, Manfredi was promoted to full professor in 1998 and has held visiting professorships at such other renowned institutions of higher education as Northwestern University. 

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8/25/10/tmw/lks/jdh