Kieval Lecture

Join us for the 83rd Kieval Lecture

Dr. Suzanne  Fernandes-Sindi will deliver the 83rd Harry S. Kieval Lecture at Cal Poly Humboldt on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The lecture will take place at 7:00 p.m. in Room 135 of the Science-B Building on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus. The public is welcome to this free lecture, which is geared toward a general audience. 

Title: Learning from Data in Biology: Why AI Alone Isn’t the Answer

Abstract: Modern AI can predict the behavior of remarkably complex systems—but prediction is not the same as understanding. In biology, where we often want to know why a system behaves as it does, mechanism still matters. I'll illustrate this through two examples from my research. First, I'll show how we can learn governing equations directly from agent-based model data, discovering interpretable rules rather than simply making black-box predictions. Second, I'll describe how a mechanistic model of blood clotting can be used to generate “virtual populations” of simulated patients, revealing previously unrecognized drivers of bleeding severity in hemophilia— predictions that were later confirmed experimentally. Together, these examples show how combining data-driven methods with mechanistic models can give us something that AI alone cannot: insight into how complex biological systems work.

About the Speaker: Dr. Suzanne Fernandes-Sindi is a Full Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Merced. She received her Bachelor's degree from Cal State Fullerton, where she was Runner-Up for the Alice T. Schafer Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics and received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She completed her PhD in Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation at the University of Maryland, College Park, and was subsequently a Prager Assistant Professor at Brown University, where she also held a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship from the NIH.

As a mathematical biologist, she uses mathematics, modeling, statistics, and computation to gain insight into biological systems such as protein aggregation diseases and blood coagulation. She has mentored more than 15 PhD students to completion, and in 2027 will be named a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Dr. Fernandes-Sindi is passionate about broadening participation in mathematics. She is currently the Chair of the SIAM Activity Group on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and the UC Co-Director of Cal-Bridge Mathematics - a statewide program supporting undergraduate students enter and succeed into PhD programs in mathematics.

The daughter of immigrants from Saudi Arabia and Portugal, Dr. Fernandes-Sindi grew up in Placentia, California. She enjoys science fiction, theatre, film, and true crime podcasts.

For more information, see the Fall 2026 Kieval Lecture Flyer.

Previous lecturers in this series

• Adriana Salerno (details) Fall 2025
• Michael Dorff (details) Fall 2024 (Brigham Young University)
• Edray Goins (details) Fall 2023 (Pomona College)
• Glen Van Brummelen (details) Spring 2023 (Trinity Western University)
• Pamela E. Harris (details) Fall 2022 (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee)
• Jesus De Loera (video) Spring 2022 (UC Davis)
• Stephen Trettel (video) Fall 2021 (Stanford University)
• Richard Schwartz (details) Spring 2020 (Brown University)
• Zvezdelina Stankova (details) Fall 2019 (UC Berkeley)
• Frank Farris (details) Spring 2019 (Santa Clara University)
• Alon Amit (details) Fall 2018 (Origami Logic)
• Gigliola Staffilani (details) Spring 2018 (MIT)
• Ken Ono (details) Fall 2017 (Emory University)
• Francis Su (details) Spring 2017 (Harvey Mudd College)
• Erica Flapan (details) Fall 2016 (Pomona College)
• Bernd  Sturmfels (details) Spring 2016 (University of California at Berkeley)
• Federico Ardila (details) Fall 2015 (San Francisco State University)
• Margot Gerritsen (details) Spring 2015 (Stanford University)
• Benson Farb (details) Fall 2014 (University of Chicago)
• Tim Chartier (details) Spring 2014 (Davidson College North Carolina)
• Alan Schoenfeld (details) Fall 2013 (University of California at Berkeley)
• Abigail Thompson (details) Spring 2013 (University of California at Davis)
• Robert Bryant (details) Fall 2012 (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute)
• William G. McCallum (details) Spring 2012 (University of Arizona)
• Kenneth Ribet (details) Fall 2011 (University of California at Berkeley)
• David Pengelley (details) Spring 2011 (New Mexico State University)
• Alice Silverberg (details) Fall 2010 (University of California at Irvine)
• Robert J. Lang (details) Spring 2010
• Kenneth Golden (details) Fall 2009 (University of Utah)
• Tony DeRose (details) Spring 2009 (Pixar Studios)
• Underwood Dudley (details) Fall 2008 (DePauw University)
• Donald Albers (details) Spring 2008 (Mathematical Assoc of America Books)
• C. Edward Sandifer (details) Fall 2007 (Western Connecticut State University)
• Melanie Wood (details) Spring 2007 (Princeton University)
• Jerald Marsden (details) Fall 2006 (California Institute of Technology)
• Deborah Ball (details) Spring 2006 (University of Michigan)
• Majorie Senechal (details) Fall 2005 (Smith College)
• Joe Gallian (details) Spring 2005 (University of Minnesota Duluth)
• Jennifer Quinn (details) Fall 2004 (Occidental College)
• John Conway (details) Spring 2004 (Princeton University)
• Persi Diaconis (details) Fall 2003, (Stanford University)
• Hyman Bass (details) Spring 2003 (U. of Michigan)
• Ann E.Watkins (details) Fall, 2002 (CSU Northridge)
• Ed Burger (details) Spring, 2002 (Williams  College)
• Michael E. Moody (details) Fall, 2001 (Harvey Mudd College)
• Richard Tapia (details) Spring, 2001 (Rice University)
• Noam D. Elkies (details) Fall, 2000 (Harvard University)
• Victor Katz (details) Spring, 2000 (University of the District of Columbia)
• Arthur Benjamin (details) Fall, 1999 (Harvey Mudd College)
• Thomas Banchoff (details) Spring, 1999 (Brown University)
• Frank Giordano (details) Fall, 1998 (COMAP)
• Robert L. Devaney (details) Spring, 1998 (Boston University)
• Sherman Stein (details) Fall, 1997 (UC Davis)
• Ron Graham (details) Spring, 1997
• David Hoffman (details) Fall, 1996 (MSRI, Berkeley)
• Doris Schattschneider (details) Spring, 1996 (Moravian College)
• Herbert Keller (details) Fall, 1995 (Cal. Inst. of Technology)
• Keith J. Devlin Spring, 1995 (Saint Mary's College)
• Deb Hughes Hallett (Harvard) and Jerry Uhl  (U of Ill.) Fall, 1994
• Gil Strang Spring, 1994(MIT)
• Carlos Castillo-Chavez Fall, 1993 (Cornell)
• Judith Grabiner (details) Spring, 1993 (Pitzer College).
• Judith Tanur (details) Fall, 1992 (SUNY, Stony Brook)
• Margaret Cozzins Spring, 1992 (Northeastern U.)
• Saunders MacLane Fall, 1991 (Univ. of Chicago)
• Branko Grunbaum Spring, 1991 (Univ. of Washington)
• Robert Moses Fall, 1990
• George Dantzig Spring, 1990 (Stanford Univ.)
• Reuben Hersh Fall, 1989 (Univ. of NM)
• Ralph Boas Spring, 1989 (Northwestern Univ.)
• Leon Henkin Fall, 1988 (U.C., Berk.)
• Mary Ellen Rudin Spring, 1988(Univ. of Wisconsin)
• Constance Reid Fall, 1987
• Kenneth Arrow Spring, 1987 (Stanford Univ.)
• Peter Hilton Fall, 1986 (SUNY, Binghamton)
• Gerard Debreu Spring, 1986 (U.C.,Berk.)
• Raymond Smullyan Fall, 1985 (Ind. U.)
• Paul Halmos Spring, 1985 (Univ.of Santa Clara)
• Richard Hamming Winter, 1985 (Naval Postgrad.)
• Victor Klee Spring, 1984 (Univ. of Washington)
• Ivan Niven Fall, 1983 (Univ. of Oregon)
• Ronald Graham Spring, 1983 (Bell Labs)