Linda R. Petzold, professor of mechanical engineering and computer science at UC Santa Barbara, has been elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI), a global academic platform for thought leaders in science, engineering, and technology. The seventy newly elected scholars represent universities and research institutions in more than twenty nations.

Founded in 2015, IETI is sometimes referred to as  the “Noah’s Ark of Science,” owing to the representation of its membership, which includes more than a thousand academicians, university presidents, and internationally distinguished research leaders who have been awarded the most prestigious honors, including the Nobel Prize, the Turing Award, and the Fields Medal. All are recognized in order to further IETI's goal of creating an ecosystem of Fellows who will continue to collaborate to advance research and drive global innovation.

“What has kept me going all these years is the joy of discovery — the moment when a difficult problem finally yields, and you realize you’ve contributed something meaningful to science,” said Petzold, the Mehrabian Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and a pioneer in computational science and engineering who came to UCSB in 1997. “But just as important are the people — the students, collaborators, and colleagues who challenge and inspire me every day. To be recognized by my peers in this way is deeply humbling. It reaffirms my belief in the power of rigorous, collaborative science to drive progress.”

“We at the College of Engineering send our warmest congratulations to Professor Linda Petzold, a pioneer whose research has reached into incredibly diverse areas of inquiry, all related in some way to mathematical modeling and computational methods aimed at developing insights into scientific mysteries, while also mentoring dozens of students,” said Umesh Mishra, dean of The Mehrabian College of Engineering at UCSB. “We are privileged to count her among our faculty, and we wish her continued success in all of her endeavors.”

Petzold is internationally recognized for her foundational work in finding the numerical solutions of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs). To translate theory into broad impact, she developed the widely used public-domain software — DASSL (Differential Algebraic System Solver) and its successor, DASPK — tools that have proved invaluable in resolving a number of science and engineering issues. In fact, it was for this work that she became the first ever recipient of the J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software, in 1991.

Through teaching and leadership, Petzold has helped shape computational science education, mentored generations of students, and fostered interdisciplinary research at UCSB. Her research is focused on mathematical modeling, analysis, simulation, and software, and how they can be applied to multiscale, networked systems in biology, materials, and social networks. Her modeling work spans a broad array of applications ranging from biological systems (cell polarization, biochemical networks, circadian rhythms) to neuroscience (neural network dynamics, brain-disorder modeling), medicine (trauma, coagulopathy), ecology, materials science, and more. Through this varied, often-shifting focus, she has played an instrumental role in building computational bridges connecting mathematics, engineering, biology, medicine, and data analysis.

Over her long and distinguished career, Petzold, currently the director of the Computational Science and Engineering Graduate Emphasis at UCSB, has earned many prestigious honors, including election to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. She has also received the SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering, the Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession by SIAMs, and the IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award for pioneering contributions to numerical methods and software for differential-algebraic systems and discrete stochastic simulation. Petzold is also a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).