Weihong Guo is originally from mainland China, where she spent her childhood and received an undergraduate college education. Guo then moved to the United States where she obtained her PhD in applied mathematics and master’s degree in statistics, both from the University of Florida. Now, she teaches undergraduate and graduate mathematics courses, conducts research in computational and applied mathematics, mentors undergraduate and graduate students and runs the Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 

“The power and beauty of math inspired me. I have had a strong interest in math since I was a child,” she said. “One of my childhood hobbies was to check whether the numbers on vehicle plates were divisible by 3, if yes, I would check whether they were divisible by 9. I still tend to do that now when I drive. The passion with math continued until my senior high when I chose to major in computational math in college. I am constantly amazed by the beauty of math and its powerful applications in lots of different areas.”

Her general research area is in computational and applied mathematics, with focus on mathematical and statistical imaging, inverse problems, and their applications in medicine, biomedical engineering, remote sensing etc. Some specific examples include:

• designing efficient algorithms to reconstruct high quality images from incomplete, noisy measurements from hardware;
• automatically isolating regions of interest such as tumors out of  for instance magnetic resonance imaging data;
• enhancing the resolutions of images collected from devices with limited resolutions such as satellites. 

“My favorite thing about my area of study is being able to use mathematical models and algorithms to automatically find solutions to lots of real world problems,” she said.

After her PhD graduation, she spent two years as a faculty member at the University of Alabama and joined CWRU in 2009. 

“Starting from my first class at CWRU, I found students at CWRU are very pleasant to work with. They are very well motivated and talented,” she said. “CWRU also has many research collaboration opportunities. My early years at CWRU were very busy juggling between career and raising two young children. It was quite busy but accomplishing.”

Guo lives in Solon with her husband and two kids, one in high school and one in elementary school. In her spare time, she like jogging, dancing, cooking, and spending time with family and friends. 

What is your favorite thing about CWRU?

The talented undergraduate and graduate students to teach and to do research with. 

What do you love about Cleveland?

I love the easy access to world class art, music and many parks at the same time. I also like the racial diversity in the population. 

“Math and statistics are fun and powerful. The Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics offer a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs. We have an excellent group of faculty teaching, conducting research, and mentoring students in a variety of areas. We welcome students and collaborators.”