Carol S. Woodward and Beatrice Riviere Started SIAM Leadership Positions January 1

SIAM is pleased to introduce Dr. Carol S. Woodward of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as SIAM President and Dr. Beatrice Riviere of Rice University as Board Chair. They both started their terms January 1. Dr. Woodward will serve as President until December 31, 2026. Dr. Riviere has served as a member of the SIAM Board of Trustees since 2022. The President is responsible for the management of SIAM’s professional and scientific affairs. The Board is responsible for the management of SIAM, taking into account the professional and scientific policies and objectives of SIAM. It also has full legal control of all the assets of SIAM. 

Meet Carol S. Woodward

Dr. Carol S. Woodward is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University in computational and applied mathematics and a B.S. in mathematics from Louisiana State University.

“I am delighted and grateful to have been selected as President of SIAM. The opportunity to serve SIAM as President is both a tremendous honor and responsibility. SIAM has long been a bedrock for applied mathematicians, providing crucial support, recognition, and connections. As we confront new challenges—explosive growth in data science, shifts in computational science, and financial complexities—I am committed to helping SIAM meet these challenges while maintaining its extremely high-quality and successful activities. With collective support, we’ll navigate these changes and ensure that SIAM remains the go-to hub for applied mathematics by embracing excellence and fostering a welcoming community.”

Dr. Woodward has remained an active member for 34 years and was named a SIAM Fellow in 2017. Additionally, Dr. Woodward was named in the 2021 Class of Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics. Dr. Woodward has served SIAM for four years as the Vice President-at-Large, six years on the Council, and several officer terms for the geosciences and computational science and engineering activity groups.

Dr. Woodward is eager to apply this experience in collaboration with SIAM’s dedicated volunteers and staff to address both current and future challenges.

Meet Beatrice Riviere

Dr. Beatrice Riviere is a Noah Harding Chair and Professor in the Department of Computational Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at Rice University. Before joining Rice, she was an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000, a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1996, and an engineering diploma from Ecole Centrale, France in 1995. She has co-authored two books with SIAM and published more than 100 journal papers in numerical analysis and scientific computation. 

"I am humbled and honored to have been re-elected for a second term on the SIAM Board of Trustees and to have been elected as Chair of the Board by the Board members. SIAM is the premier society in applied mathematics and its members develop new mathematics to solve real-world problems. In an ever-changing world, SIAM's platform provides rich and constant support for collaborations among scientists from academia, industry, research institutes, and government laboratories. I am dedicated to helping SIAM strengthen its educational mission and networking opportunities, particularly for junior scientists. I will work to ensure that SIAM provides resources to its members, strengthens the involvement of industry and government labs with its activities, and overall continues to be a dynamic and inclusive community.”

Dr. Riviere has been actively involved with SIAM for several years. She has served as President of the SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section and as Chair and Secretary of the SIAM Activity Group on Geosciences. She was awarded Fellow of SIAM in 2021, the Association for Women in Mathematics Fellow in 2022, and the International Association for Computational Mechanics Fellow in 2024.

Dr. Riviere looks forward to working with the Board and SIAM leadership to help promote applied mathematics and interdisciplinary research for tackling societal problems.