UCLA mathematician works to make virtual surgery...(n physicians using computer surgical sim...),Health

Teran's applied mathematics can also be used to design more durable bridges, freeways, cars and aircraft.

"I would like people who design bridges to be able to use a virtual model I'm interested in making that a reality and in creating numerical algorithmic tools that let people who design bridges have more computational machinery at their fingertips," he said.

As an undergraduate, Teran realized "you can use math problems to solve real problems and can help people in ways that seem totally unrelated to math." He earned his doctorate at Stanford University, where he took graduate classes in partial differential equations and worked on new ways of solving the governing equations of elastic biological tissues. He was a postdoctoral scholar at New York University before joining UCLA's faculty.

"I started with math because I like problem-solving, and I like how elegant math is," Teran said. "I like how much careful analysis is required, and that there's a right answer. Now I'm completely fascinated by what you get from a simulation, the kinds of complex behavior you can reproduce on a computer and the kinds of questions you can answer. Math will tell you how the world is. It will give you an answer, and it's intellectually stimulating and fun. It really pays off."

Teran, who is teaching a course on scientific computing for the visual effects industry, said he came to UCLA because it is one of the country's best universities for applied mathematics, because its medical school is among the country's best and because it is near Hollywood, where he helps to make movie special effects.

Teran, who works with UCLA's Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology, spoke this fall as part of Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner's keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum on the rise of the "3-D Internet." Teran demonstrated virtual surge
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