{"id":4450,"date":"2024-07-11T16:39:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=4450"},"modified":"2024-07-11T16:39:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:39:58","slug":"an-accomplished-mathematician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2024\/an-accomplished-mathematician\/","title":{"rendered":"An Accomplished Mathematician Known For Innovative and Impactful Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Headshot

Mary Ann Horn | Photo courtesy of the Horn family<\/p><\/div>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, <\/span>Mary Ann Horn <\/b>used her extensive expertise in mathematics to model the spread of the offending virus among hospital and healthcare workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHer studies have not only influenced the mathematical biology community, but also made an impact on the related medical community,\u201d said Shigui Ruan, PhD, a math professor at the University of Miami, who collaborated with Horn on the research. \u201cShe will be sorely missed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Horn died in February. She arrived on campus in 2017 and joined the College of Arts and Sciences\u2019 Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics as chair.<\/span><\/p>\n

She served in that role for three years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Widely recognized for establishing mathematical biology as a thriving sub-discipline of applied mathematics nationally, Horn was a highly respected member of the academic community. She was also known for her commitment to collaborative research, bringing clinicians and experimentalists together with mathematicians and computational scientists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before joining CWRU, she was a program officer in the National Science Foundation\u2019s (NSF) Division of Mathematical Sciences for more than a dozen years, and a professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University. At the NSF, she ran the Mathematical Biology Program, which supports research in applied and computational mathematics relevant to biological and life sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a driving force behind many collaborative programs at NSF,\u201d said <\/span>Lisa Fauci, PhD, who worked with Horn at NSF and is the Pendergraft Nola Lee Haynes Professor at Tulane University. \u201cI was always impressed by the breadth and depth of her knowledge in applied mathematics, her ease in leading discussions and her overall warmth and humanity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fauci also said that Horn\u2019s \u201cbeautiful work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria developed population-level models that built upon clinical data.\u201d This work involved mathematical modeling of the development and spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin- resistant enterococci (VRE).<\/span><\/p>\n

Qimin Huang<\/b>, PhD, who completed a postdoc in mathematics at CWRU and was a department lecturer, said Horn played an important role in her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe served not just as my postdoctoral advisor, but also as a cherished friend and a profound inspiration,\u201d said Huang, now an assistant professor at the College of Wooster. \u201cHer warmth, generosity and guidance were pivotal to my academic journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Huang also vividly recalls when Horn invited her to join her at a workshop for women in mathematical biology, where Horn was speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHearing her narrative about how at the start of the pandemic she became a pioneering female mathematician in her department lit a beacon of hope within me, marking an extraordinary beginning to my research career,\u201d Huang said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horn also was active in various activities to support the CWRU community. She served on several College of Arts and Sciences\u2019 committees, as well as the Case School of Engineering\u2019s search committee for a chair of Computer and Data Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, Horn played a role in several prestigious organizations, including the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and the Association for Women in Mathematics. She also served on the board of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMary Ann will be deeply missed,\u201d said <\/span>Weihong Guo<\/b>, PhD, the chair of the Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary Ann Horn <\/b>used her extensive expertise in mathematics to model the spread of the offending virus among hospital and healthcare workers.
\n\u201cHer studies have not only influenced the mathematical biology community, but also made an impact on the related medical community,\u201d said Shigui Ruan, PhD, a math professor at the University of Miami, who collaborated with Horn on the research. …Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":4451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/07\/02212732\/P36_Mary-Ann-Horn-MAMS_Credit_Courtesy_of_the_Horn_family.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4508,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions\/4508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}