ABOUT ME | Physical Mathematics Lab

Pedro J. Sáenz

I am an Associate Professor and the director of the Physical Mathematics Laboratory in the Department of Mathematics at UNC. Before I was an Instructor in the Department of Mathematics at MIT. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, and pursued brief post-doctoral studies at Imperial College London. I am passionate about fundamental research. My interests include hydrodynamic quantum analogs, fluid mechanics, soft matter, collective dynamics, and any other related problem found in Nature. My work blends experiments, theory, and numerical simulations.

BACKGROUND

Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of North Carolina, US, 2025 - present
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of North Carolina, US, 2019 - 2025
Instructor in Applied Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, 2015-2019
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Imperial College London, England, 2015
Visiting Researcher, University of Maryland, US, 2014-2015
Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010-2014
M.Sc. Civil Eng., University of La Rioja, Spain, 2008
B.Sc. Mechanical Eng., University of La Rioja, Spain, 2006

HONORS & AWARDS

2025 | Kavli Fellow, US National Academy of Sciences
2025 | Engineer of the Year, Civil Engineering Society of Aragón and La Rioja, Spain
2024 | APS Gallery of Fluid Motion, Award winner, Salt Lake City, UT
2023 | Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
2022 | APS Gallery of Fluid Motion, Award winner, Indianapolis, IN
2021 | NSF CAREER award CBET
2021 | UNC Reynolds Junior Faculty Development Award
2017 | APS Gallery of Fluid Motion, Award winner, Denver, CO
2016 | ICTAM U.S. Early Career Travel Fellowship, Montreal, Canada
2014 | ARCHER Image Competition, Winner, UK National Supercomputing Service
2012 | Institute for Materials and Processes Grant, University of Edinburgh
2010-12 | Caja Madrid Fellowship, presented by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain
2010-13 | Doctoral Training Grant, British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
2008 | M.Sc. Honors Thesis Award, Civil Engineering Society of Aragón and La Rioja (Spain)
Highest Honors Thesis, University of La Rioja (Spain)
2006 | Honorific Award to the Highest Rank of B.Sc. class
2006 | B.Sc. Honors Thesis Award, Technical Engineering Society of La Rioja (Spain)
Highest Honors Thesis, University of La Rioja (Spain)

Contact Information

Dr. Pedro J. Sáenz

Assoc. Professor of Mathematics

Department of Mathematics

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapman Hall, Room 427

Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

E-mail: saenz@unc.edu

INVITED TALKS

Triangle Computational & Applied Math Symposium (Raleigh, NC, USA), Plenary Speaker, November 2025
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ, USA), Department of Mathematics, September 2025
Duke University (Durham, NC, USA), Department of Mathematics, April 2025
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA), Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, February 2025
Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA, USA), Fluid Dynamics Research Consortium Seminar, December 2024
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Mathematics Colloquium, Department of Mathematics, October 2024
Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan), International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, September 2024
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering Seminar, March 2024
University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Applied Mathematics Colloquium, March 2024
Carlos III University of Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Fluid Mechanics Seminar, Engineering Department, June 2023
Columbia University (New York City, NY, USA), Free Boundary Problems: Recent Advances in Theory and Applications, May 2023
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Physics Colloquium, Department of Physics and Astronomy, February 2023
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA, USA), Physical Mathematics Seminar, Department of Mathematics, December 2022
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC, USA), Complex Matter and Biophysics Seminar, Department of Physics, November 2022
University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK), Department of Mathematics & Statistics Seminar Series, November 2022
University of Maryland at College Park (College Park, MD, USA), Burgers Program in Fluid Dynamics, October 2021
University of Lisbon (Virtual, Portugal), International Conference on Advances in Pilot Wave Theory, July 2021
Universidad Católica de Chile (Virtual, Chile), Institute of Mathematical and Computational Engineering, June 2021
ESPCI Paris (Paris, France), Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, October 2019
Isaac Newton Institute (Cambridge, UK), Mathematics of Form in Active and Inactive Media Workshop, March 2019
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA), Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, February 2019
Yale University (New Haven, CT, USA), Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, February 2019
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Applied Mathematics Colloquium, February 2019
Carlos III University of Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Seminarios el Almendro, School of Engineering, December 2018
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA, USA), Soft Materials Seminar Series, Mechanical Engineering, December 2018
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA), Computations in Science Seminar, Department of Physics, October 2018
Duke University (Durham, NC, USA), Nonlinear and Complex Systems Seminar, Department of Physics, October 2018
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Applied Physical Sciences Seminar, October 2018
Brown University (Providence, RI, USA), 8th Meeting on Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogs (HQA8), July 2018
Brown University (Providence, RI, USA), Dynamics & PDE Seminar Series, Department of Mathematics, April 2018
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN, USA), Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, March 2018
Boston University (Boston, MA, USA), Department of Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series, March 2018
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA, USA), Physical Mathematics Seminar, Department of Mathematics, February 2018
Brown University (Providence, RI, USA), Fluids at Brown Seminar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, December 2017
University of La Rioja (Logroño, Spain), Ingenia Seminar Series, School of Engineering, May 2016
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA, USA), Physical Mathematics Seminar, Department of Mathematics, October 2015