International Applied Mathematics Scholar Benedetto Piccoli Installed as Inaugural Lopez Chair Holder at Rutgers-Camden

Hailed as “one of this generation’s most accomplished mathematicians,” Benedetto Piccoli was installed as the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair in Mathematics in Memory of Professor Leonard Bidwell during a special ceremony in the Walter K. Gordon Theater on Nov. 23.

Reflecting a centuries-old tradition of acknowledging faculty achievement, the ceremony also celebrated a true milestone for the campus:  Rutgers–Camden’s first faculty appointment to an endowed chair.  Piccoli, a preeminent scholar highly regarded worldwide for his important contributions in applied mathematics, particularly in the areas of control theory and the theory of hyperbolic conservation laws, joined the Rutgers–Camden faculty during fall 2009.  He previously served as the research director of the Instituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo in Rome; taught with distinction at the University of Salerno and the University of Rome; supervised a large number of student theses; and is the founding editor of Networks and Heterogeneous Media, a scholarly journal that has made a strong impact in the field.

The Rutgers Board of Governors approved Piccoli’s appointment as the first holder of the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair during its October meeting. 

In introducing Piccoli during the ceremony, Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick noted that the scholar’s “research interests are both broad and deep” and acknowledged that Piccoli is “known as an international leader in the area of applied mathematics.”

“Today, we mark a major milestone in the life of our campus,” noted Margaret Marsh, dean of the Rutgers–Camden faculty of Arts and Sciences.  “To the faculty gathered here, today is a celebration of your accomplishments as well.”

During his comments, Piccoli joined McCormick, Marsh, and Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett in thanking donors Joseph and Loretta Lopez on the stage of the Gordon Theater.

“I consider this to be a life achievement,” said Piccoli.  “The classical idea of a mathematician is of a solitary figure playing with strange symbols and producing unintelligible results.  The impulse, though, is to use mathematics is a broader context,” he said, noting his own research in the areas of public debt management and cancer and HIV therapies.

Acknowledging the role of the Lopez Chair in the newly launched PhD program in computational and integrative biology on the Rutgers–Camden Campus, Piccoli observed that “new success in biology may require new mathematics” that would incorporate such disciplines as physics, chemistry, and computer science.

Rutgers–Camden’s first endowed chair exists through the generosity and vision of Joseph Lopez CCAS ‘64 and his wife, Loretta.  According to Marsh, “This chair extends our ability to provide students with unparalleled access to the very best scholarship in this field, while also contributing greatly to the research that will lead to innovations in the biosciences and technology for generations to come.”

The chair also memorializes Leonard Bidwell, known to generations of students at Rutgers–Camden as a thoughtful educator and scholar who made a lasting impact on many lives and careers.  Bidwell died in 2002.  His wife and daughter attended the investiture in his honor.                                                                                                                                                                           

Joseph S. and Loretta L. Lopez met at Rutgers–Camden in a geology class as undergraduate students – she studying psychology, he pursuing a degree in mathematics. That experience launched a lifelong journey that would lead to marriage, three children, four grandchildren, and an innovative, successful career in computer science and engineering.

Upon graduating from Rutgers–Camden in 1964, Joseph Lopez began his swift rise up the ranks within the organizations that would shape technology for America and the world.  He became a first-level engineering manager at GE and then went to RCA to take a lead role on the engineering team that developed the AEGIS system.

He subsequently worked at Landis and Gyr, a Swiss-owned company which later would merge with Siemens, where he ran a subsidiary organization and advance the firm’s reputation for producing supervisory control systems for electric utilities.  He would become vice president of engineering and then president.  In 1982, Mr. Lopez resigned from Landis and Gyr to launch his own firm, ILEX, which he sold to L-3 Communications in 1998 and continued to run as president of L-3—ILEX until May 2005.

Computational and integrative biology is an interdisciplinary study of biological systems that applies analytical methods from mathematics and computer science to tools from traditional biomedical disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics. This growing discipline encourages scholars to collaborate on research projects to solve problems in the biosciences through computational analysis. Whereas, through traditional research methods, scientists analyze a specific part, computational and integrative biology seeks broad principles that can relate interactions of parts to the biological system as a whole.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is among the first public research institutions to offer a doctoral program in this emerging field. Rutgers–Camden will welcome the inaugural class of students in fall 2010.

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