Campus & Community

Stevens Announces New Chair for Math Department

Dr. Darinka Dentcheva to lead Department of Mathematical Sciences

Darinka DentchevaDr. Darinka Dentcheva

Stevens Institute of Technology announces that professor Dr. Darinka Dentcheva will lead the Department of Mathematical Sciences (MS) as chair, effective July 1, 2018.

As a tenured full professor in the MS department, Dr. Dentcheva has demonstrated excellence in research, teaching and curriculum development, as well as embodying the highest standards of service and leadership within Stevens, and to the larger community of professional mathematicians.

Dr. Dentcheva is recognized internationally as a leading researcher on optimization of stochastic systems. Her research initiatives have been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Davis Memorial Foundation. She has published nearly 90 papers, chapters and conference reports, and currently she serves as journal editor and conference chair for many journals and conferences. She is an active participant in many review panels for the NSF and other national and international funding agencies. She has organized several conferences and seminars, including a notable workshop series on optimization of stochastic systems co-sponsored by Stevens and Rutgers University.

Dr. Dentcheva has demonstrated her leadership skills at Stevens in numerous ways. Sixteen years ago, she developed the master’s program in stochastic systems and optimization and continues her role as program director. She served a two-year appointment as the associate chair for graduate studies where she led efforts to improve the qualification procedures for Ph.D. candidates. She is currently working with other faculty to develop a graduate program for actuarial science, and generously gives her time and effort to mentoring and advising new faculty in applied mathematics. Most recently, Dr. Dentcheva chaired the department's hiring committee to successfully fill a tenure-track position in statistics.

Prior to joining Stevens in 2000, Dr. Dentcheva received her M.S., Ph.D., and Sc.D. degrees from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and was a visiting assistant professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.