Contact Information
214F Harker Hall (MC-382)
1305 W Green Street
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Biography
I am Professor of Mathematics and served as Department Chair from 2021 to 2026. I am a faculty affiliate of the Computational Science and Engineering program. Also, I am a faculty member of the Graduate Program of Mathematics for Innovation at Kyushu University in Japan.
Research Interests
Applied Mathematics Differential Equations Fluid Dynamics Physical Oceanography Climate Science
Research Description
My research draws on rigorous analysis, numerical computation, and modeling to deepen our understanding of the mathematics of surface water waves and related problems. These include physical oceanography and geophysical fluid dynamics. My projects emphasize large-scale dynamics and genuinely nonlinear behaviors, such as breaking and peaking. I am interested in applications to climate change and other disciplines. I co-organized IMSI Long Program Confronting Global Climate Change. Recently, my work has increasingly incorporated computer-assisted proofs and AI techniques.
Education
PhD, Brown University, 2006
Grants
DPI R&D Science Team Seed Grant, Midwestern Climate and Weather Prediction (co-PI), since 2021
NSF DMS, Applied Mathematics, 2009981, since 2020
Awards and Honors
4th IMA Conference on Nonlinearity and Coherent Structures, Invited Plenary Address, 2021
University of Illinois, LAS, Fellow in a Second Discipline, 2020
University of Illinois, Distinguished Promotion Award, 2019
University of Illinois, Center for Advanced Study, Associate, 2019; Beckman Fellow, 2014
University of Illinois, LAS, Brad and Karen Smith Professorial Scholar, 2018
University of Illinois, Philippe Tondeur Scholar in Mathematics, 2016
Simons Fellow in Mathematics, 2016
University of Illinois, Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, 2014, 2016
AMS Sectional Meeting, Invited Plenary Hour Address, 2015
NSF CAREER Award, 2014
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2012
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Mathematics
External Links
Recent Publications
Barker, B., Bronski, J. C., Hur, V. M., & Yang, Z. (2025). Asymptotic stability of sharp fronts: Analysis and rigorous computation. Journal of Differential Equations, 444, Article 113550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jde.2025.113550
Doak, A. G., Hur, V. M., & Vanden-Broeck, J. M. (2025). Stokes waves in rotational flows: internal stagnation and overhanging profiles. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 1015, Article A30. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2025.10373
Bronski, J. C., Hur, V. M., & Lee Wester, S. (2023). Superharmonic instability for regularized long-wave models. Nonlinearity, 36(1), 133-170. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6544/ac81ae
Dyachenko, S. A., Hur, V. M., & Silantyev, D. A. (2023). Almost extreme waves. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 955, Article 955 A17. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2022.1047
Hur, V. M., & Yang, Z. (2023). Unstable Stokes Waves. Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 247(4), Article 62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00205-023-01889-2