Assistant Professor of Mathematics Christopher Chong works on math that might one day lead to walls that filter out traffic noise but let in birdsong, gigantic underground coils that protect cities from earthquakes, and iPhones that can be charged by walking around with them.
Chong, who started teaching at Bowdoin this fall, is an applied mathematician who is exploring these futuristic inventions by focusing his research on waves, in particular nonlinear waves. “Waves are all around us,” Chong said at a recent lunchtime talk for Bowdoin faculty. “They are sometimes very nice and sometimes they are not so nice.” The nice ones include the music of a cello, and moonlight shimmering on the ocean. The less nice ones include seismic and rouge waves.Read about Chong’s work with applied mathematics.