Rate My Professor Scott McCalla

Scott McCalla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Montana State University, where he has been on the faculty in Mathematics since August 2014, initially as Assistant Professor. Prior to this, he served as Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles from July 2011 to June 2014. Earlier in his career, McCalla worked as a Research Assistant in the Bioscience, Nuclear Nonproliferation, and Applied Physics Divisions at Los Alamos National Laboratory from June 2000 to August 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University, completed in May 2011 under the advisement of Professor Björn Sandstede; an Sc.M. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University, earned in May 2007; and a B.A. cum laude in Mathematics and Physics in May 2005.

McCalla's research centers on applied dynamical systems, encompassing pattern forming partial differential equations and models of social and crime dynamics. He integrates modeling, computation, and analysis to explore pattern formation across biological, chemical, physical, ecological, and social systems. Key projects include deriving nonlocal partial differential equation models for crime hotspot formation using Lévy flights, analyzing radially symmetric spot solutions in the Swift-Hohenberg equation through bifurcation theory, and investigating spatial evolutionary adversarial games that incorporate sacred values, peer pressure, and traveling waves of cooperation. His contributions have been published in prestigious journals such as SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis, Journal of Statistical Physics, Physica D, and Physical Review Letters. Notable works include "Crime modeling with Lévy flights" (SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 2013), which was among the journal's most read articles for several months in 2014; "Spots in the Swift–Hohenberg equation" (SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, 2013); and "Nonlinear stability through algebraically decaying point spectrum: applications to non-local interaction equations" (SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis, 2014). McCalla has received awards including the NSF-funded Early Career Travel Award (SIAM PD13, 2013), US Junior Oberwolfach Fellowship (2012), David Gottlieb Memorial Award from Brown University (2011), SIAM Student Travel Award (2010), and Defense Programs Award of Excellence from Los Alamos National Laboratory (2006). He has delivered invited talks at SIAM conferences, Oberwolfach workshops, Equadiff 2015, and various university seminars, and teaches courses at Montana State University such as Mathematical Biology, Partial Differential Equations, Functional Analysis, and Honors Calculus.