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Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month 2025

To honor National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15), SIAM highlighting the contributions and accomplishments of Hispanic and Latin American mathematicians in our community. Throughout September and October, we invite you to read the personal stories of Dr. Pablo Moriano and Dr. Daniel Szyld below, and explore the resources and networks tailored for Hispanic and Latin American mathematicians.

Pablo Moriano

Dr. Pablo Moriano is a research scientist in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in East Tennessee, U.S. Born and raised in Colombia, he is the first in his family to attend college. His path in science began with a love for math and physics, which eventually led him to earn his M.S. and B.S. in electrical engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. in informatics from Indiana University.

Dr. Moriano’s research focuses on data science, machine learning, and network modeling, with a particular emphasis on detecting unusual or malicious behavior in large, interconnected systems. These systems can be anything from the power grid to transportation networks, to the cyber-physical systems that keep our infrastructure running. His work spans the detection of exceptional events in social media, the prevention of internet route hijacking, the identification of insider threats in version control systems, and the improvement of intrusion detection in cyber-physical systems. Dr. Moriano’s research has received support from the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, and Cisco Research.

He currently leads technical work at Sparsitute, a Department of Energy institute that develops methods based on sparse computations to make scientific computing and engineering simulations more efficient and reliable. Dr. Moriano also led a $1.5 million project at ORNL to design adaptive methods for anomaly detection that can identify threats early, reduce false alarms, and help systems recover quickly after an attack. Through his work, he aims to create scientific and technological solutions that make our world safer and more resilient, while mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Dr. Moriano has been a SIAM member for four years and was named a 2024 MGB-SIAM Early Career Fellow, a recognition that celebrates the achievements of early career applied mathematicians. A highlight of his fellowship thus far was organizing a minisymposium that brought together researchers from academia, industry, and other national laboratories to explore how applied mathematics and data science can strengthen cybersecurity. The discussions and connections from that event continue to shape his work today. He has also presented talks and served as a panelist within SIAM, actively engaging with the applied mathematics, computational science, and data science communities.

For Dr. Moriano, SIAM is one of the most meaningful professional communities he belongs to – not just for its focus on mathematics, but for how it connects math to real-world problems and brings together people from diverse disciplines to solve them. Through his SIAM involvement, he has gained a deeper understanding of the role SIAM committees play in guiding organization and supporting its members. Being a part of SIAM has shown him how professional societies operate and how individuals can contribute beyond their own research, while reinforcing his belief that science is a community effort. The network, the shared resources, and collaborative spirit have all been instrumental in shaping his research and career path.

One piece of advice Dr. Moriano would like to share with early-career professionals is to treat a career as a journey, not a straight line. “Opportunities will come in unexpected ways, and sometimes the path you planned will change,” he said. “That’s not a setback, it’s a chance to grow in ways you might not have imagined.”

He added that persistence often matters more than perfect preparation, recalling times early in his career when projects didn’t go as planned but growth came through learning, mentorship, and collaborations outside his comfort zone. Just as important, he encouraged professionals to invest in people as much as technical skills, noting that the trust and relationships built along the way often open doors that expertise alone cannot. Above all, Dr. Moriano urged them to hold on to their sense of purpose—something that continues to guide his own work using science and technology to make a positive difference and helping others see themselves in STEM careers.

Daniel Szyld

Dr. Daniel Szyld is a mathematics professor at Temple University and the President of the International Linear Algebra Society. His interest in numerical analysis began as an undergraduate at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, a foundation that led to his Ph.D. from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University (1983) and shaped the rest of his career.

Photo credit: Nicola Mastronardi
Photo credit: Nicola Mastronardi

He has contributed widely to numerical linear algebra and matrix computations, including eigenvalue problems, sparse matrix techniques, Schwarz preconditioning and domain decomposition, Krylov subspace methods, and asynchronous iterative methods. Early in his career as a numerical analyst, he followed his advisor's interests in numerical linear algebra while applying these tools to input-output economic models.

From the start of his career, the triennial SIAM Conference on Applied Linear Algebra has been a focal point of interest and his introduction to SIAM. As a SIAM member for 41 years, he has served in many capacities: SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications associate editor (2003-15) and Editor-in-Chief (2015-20), Richard C. DiPrima Prize committee member (2005-06), Chair of the SIAM Activity Group on Linear Algebra (2007-09), Chair of the Gene Golub SIAM Summer School committee (2010-13), SIAM Vice President-at-Large (2014-15), Temple University SIAM Student Chapter faculty advisor (2015-present), SIAM Fellow (2017), Chair of the SIAM Committee on Section Activities (2019-21), author of the SIAM book Metabolic Networks, Elementary Flux Modes, and Polyhedral Cones (2021), and member of the SIAM Journals Committee (2024-26).

To students and early career professionals, Dr. Szyld recommends attending conferences in their areas of interest: “Learn new things and see what is going on in the field,” he said. “Meet new people – your peers and your elders. New collaborations may arise, and sometimes friendships for life.”

Over time, his research interests have expanded to include nonnegative matrices, iterative methods for linear systems and eigenvalue problems, preconditioners, linear algebra view of domain decomposition methods, and parallel asynchronous iterative methods. “One extremely wonderful pleasure is when you prove a new result,” he shared. “And it is great when your numerical experiments illustrate the new results.”

Resources

Below is a curated list of resources and networks tailored for Hispanic and Latin American mathematicians and early career professionals.