Mariana Smit Vega Garcia

Mathematician | Mariana.SmitVegaGarcia@wwu.edu

ABOUT

I am a Professor at Western Washington University.
Previously I was an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, working with Prof. Tatiana Toro, and a post-doc under the supervision of Prof. Georg Weiss, first at Heinrich Heine Universität and then at the Universität Duisburg-Essen (Germany).
I obtained my PhD in Mathematics at Purdue University (US), and my master's and bachelor's at the Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil).
My primary research interests lie in Geometric Analysis and Partial Differential Equations, particularly free boundary problems. I have also been working on Combinatorics.


GRANTS, AWARDS

NSF Analysis RUI Grant
Topics in Free Boundary Problems, award number 2348739

2024-2027

NSF Analysis Standard Grant
Analysis and Geometry of Free Boundaries, award number 2054282

2021-2025

2024-2027

NSF Conferences and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences grant
Conference: Geometry of Measures and Free Boundaries, a conference in honour of Tatiana Toro

2023-2024

NSF Conferences and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences grant
Conference: PDE in Moab: Advances in Theory and Application

2024

2023

Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath, formerly MSRI) - 2023 Summer Research in Mathematics program

2023

AWM-NSF Travel Grant

2018

UW Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Travel Award
University of Washington

2018

Institut Mittag-Leffler Postdoctoral fellowship grant

2014

AMS Grad Student Travel Grant

2013

Committee for the Education of Teaching Assistants teaching award
Purdue University

2012

Purdue University Math Department Excellence in Teaching award for 2011-12
Purdue University

2011

Zoltners Scholarship
Purdue University

2009

Grant from the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), 06/53020-5

2006-2008

Grant from the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), 2005/50187-3

2005-2006

Graduated with honors
Universidade de Sao Paulo

2006



PUBLICATIONS

2024

Two-phase almost minimizers for a fractional free boundary problem
M. Allen & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Nonlinear Differ. Equ. Appl. 31, 45 (2024).
arXiv:2308.06357

2024

Mesas of Stirling permutations
N. Gonzalez, P. E. Harris, G. R. Kirby, M. Smit Vega Garcia & B. E. Tenner
To appear on "Journal of Combinatorics." arXiv:2306.12158

2024

Almost minimizers for the thin obstacle problem with variable coefficients
S. Jeon, A. Petrosyan & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Interfaces Free Bound. 26 (2024), no. 3, pp. 321–380
arXiv:2007.07349

2024

An Almgren monotonicity formula for discrete harmonic functions
M. Smit Vega Garcia & S. Steinerberger
arXiv:2311.11887

2023

Almgren-type monotonicity formulas
M. Smit Vega Garcia
Submitted.

2023

Pinnacle sets of signed permutations
N. Gonzalez, P. E. Harris, G. R. Kirby, M. Smit Vega Garcia & B. E. Tenner
Discrete Mathematics, Volume 346, Issue 7, 2023
arXiv:2301.02628v1

2023

Branch Points for (Almost-)Minimizers of Two-Phase Free Boundary Problems
G. David, M. Engelstein, M. Smit Vega Garcia & T. Toro
Forum of Mathematics, Sigma, 11, E1, 2023
arXiv:2204.05367

2023

An overview of Almost Minimizers of Bernoulli-Type Functionals
M. Smit Vega Garcia
A3N2M: Approximation, Applications, and Analysis of Nonlocal, Nonlinear Models, Proceedings of the 50th John H. Barrett Memorial Lectures, IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications, volume 165, 2023, Springer

2023

Regularity for almost-minimizers of variable coefficient Bernoulli-type functionals
G. David, M. Engelstein, M. Smit Vega Garcia & T. Toro
Mathematische Zeitschrift, 299(3), 2131-2169, 2021
arXiv:1909.05043

2021

On a Bernoulli-type overdetermined free boundary problem
M. Akman, A. Banerjee & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Ann. Fenn. Math., vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 601-618, Aug. 2021
arXiv:1911.02801

2021

The fractional unstable obstacle problem
M. Allen & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Nonlinear Analysis, Vol 193, April 2020
arXiv:1811.12497

2020

The singular free boundary in the Signorini problem for variable coefficients
N. Garofalo, A. Petrosyan & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Indiana Univ. Math. J. 67 No. 5 (2018), 1893-1934

2018

Higher regularity of the free boundary in the parabolic Signorini problem
A. Banerjee, M. Smit Vega Garcia & A. K. Zeller
Calc. Var. (2017) 56: 7. doi:10.1007/s00526-016-1103-7
arXiv:1601.02976

2017

Regularity of the free boundary for the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian with drift
N. Garofalo, A. Petrosyan, C. Pop & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Annales Henri Poincare, Analyse Non Lineaire, Volume 34, Issue 3, May-June 2017, Pages 533-570
arXiv:1509.06228

2017

Singularities in ElectroHydroDynamic Flows
M. Smit Vega Garcia, E. Varvaruca & G. S. Weiss
Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, Nov 2016, Volume 222, Issue 2, pages 573 - 601
arXiv:1512.04798

2016

An epiperimetric inequality approach to the regularity of the free boundary in the Signorini problem with variable coefficients
N. Garofalo, A. Petrosyan & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Journal de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees, Volume 105, Issue 6, June 2016, pages 745-787
arXiv:1501.06498

2016

New monotonicity formulas and the optimal regularity in the Signorini problem with variable coefficients
N. Garofalo & M. Smit Vega Garcia
Advances in Mathematics, Volume 262, Sep 2014, pages 682-750

2014



EDUCATION

PhD in Mathematics
Purdue University
Advisor: Arshak Petrosyan
Dissertation title: Optimal regularity in the lower dimensional obstacle problem with variable coefficients

2009 - 2014

Masters in Mathematics
Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Advisor: Paulo Cordaro
Dissertation title: Division of tempered distributions by polynomials

2006 - 2008

Bachelors in Mathematics
Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

2003 - 2006



POSITIONS
Professor
Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA

2024-

Associate Professor
Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA

2021- 2024

Assistant Professor
Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA

2018 - 2021

Acting Assistant Professor
University of Washington, Seattle, USA

Mentor: Prof. Tatiana Toro

2016 - 2018

Post-doc
University of Duisburg-Essen and Heinrich Heine University, Germany

Mentor: Prof. Georg Weiss

2014 - 2016

Teaching Assistant
Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

2013 - 2014

Research Assistant
Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

2011 - 2013

Teaching Assistant
Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

2009 - 2011



TEACHING

MATH 226: Limits and Infinite Series, WWU
MATH 421/521: Methods of Mathematical Analysis I, WWU

Fall 2024

Additional teaching information can be found here.

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