Ru-yu Lai

Where are you from?

I was born in Taiwan and grew up there. My hometown, Nantou county, is the only landlocked county, surrounding by many mountains, and meanwhile has arguably the most famous and beautiful lake (Sun Moon Lake) in Taiwan. These mountains not only enhance the beauty of the scenery, but also greatly reduce the impact of typhoons hitting the area in every typhoon season. Even though Mandarin is the office language that we learned in school, at home I spoke Taiwanese with parents, especially with grandparents.

Please describe an experience (or 2) that helped you discover/ cultivate your interest in the mathematical sciences.

I am very interested in science, and have a particular interest in physics and mathematics since I was a child. When I was an undergraduate student, I was so fascinated by the analysis mainly due to the professor who taught the advanced calculus class. His teaching style was very unique. He not only stated and explained theorems and proofs, but also shared his enthusiasm for math without reservation. After taking his class, it has greatly influenced me in pursuing graduate school. 

What is/are your most proud accomplishment(s) in regards to your career in the mathematical sciences?

With my collaborators, we studied inverse boundary value problem (IBVP) for Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations in the two-dimensional case, that was considered to be a formally determined inverse problem. Indeed, the formally computed dimension of the given data coincides with dimension of the set that the unknown coefficient are defined on. The main contribution we made is the establishment of the equivalence between the IBVP for the Stokes equations and the IBVP for the corresponding first order system in two dimensions.

In another joint work with my collaborator, we mathematically investigated accelerating optical beams, that can propagate along a curved trajectory while preserving its transverse amplitude structure. Specifically, we gave new families of accelerating and almost nondiffracting beams that are solutions for inhomogeneous Maxwell’s equations. 

What is/are your most proud accomplishment(s) in regards to your personal life?

I am proud of completing the teaching training as a high school teacher in Taiwan and getting the teaching certificate. I am fortunate to have had experiences in teaching high school students for a year, which turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences so far. During this period of time, I found two helpful recipes in teaching: patience and encouragement. These trainings and experiences have been very helpful for me as a TA at the University of Washington and an instructor at UMN. Teaching has given me a great joy and it also provides me an opportunity to constantly enhance my teaching skills.

Please share some words of wisdom/inspiration. 

Being persistence in what you believe in, even though there might be obstacles in your path.