RIT mathematical modeling alumnus earns international recognition with a prestigious early career research award

Rochester, New York – Rochester Institute of Technology alumnus Adam Giammarese has earned international recognition for his work in mathematical modeling, receiving a prestigious early career award for research that sheds new light on how complex systems behave in the real world.

Giammarese was named the recipient of the Edward N. Lorenz Early Career Award, presented annually by Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science. The award honors young researchers who have made exceptional contributions to nonlinear science, a field that explores systems that appear unpredictable but follow underlying patterns. The award is named after Edward N. Lorenz, the scientist widely regarded as the founder of chaos theory.

A 2021 graduate of RIT’s applied mathematics BS/MS program and a 2025 Ph.D. graduate in mathematical modeling, Giammarese was recognized for research that applied an innovative method called climate network analysis to large-scale climate data. His work focused on understanding how different parts of the global climate system are connected and how those connections change over time.

In a paper published in Chaos in early 2024, Giammarese and his adviser, RIT Associate Professor Nishant Malik, examined how the Amazon rainforest’s relationship to the global climate is shifting. Their research highlighted changes in connectivity between the Amazon and other climate systems, offering new insights into how environmental changes may ripple across the planet.

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The Lorenz Early Career Award is highly competitive, with recipients selected from an international pool of researchers. This year’s honorees also included scholars whose work was conducted at universities in Australia, Spain, and the Netherlands, placing Giammarese among a small group of rising voices in the field.

“It’s surreal,” said Giammarese on winning the award. “I did not get my start in math. I started at RIT 10 years ago as a mechanical engineering student, but I ended up finding a passion in math. We are a smaller school in terms of the grand stage of global research, so it’s really cool to see that we’re being recognized.”

Giammarese’s academic path was not a straight line. He originally enrolled at RIT as a mechanical engineering student, but over time discovered that mathematics offered something he deeply valued. He was drawn to the clarity of the discipline, where problems have definitive answers and solutions follow logical steps. That sense of structure eventually led him to applied mathematics and, later, to chaos theory.

What fascinated him most about chaos was its connection to the real world. While the term often suggests disorder, chaos theory is rooted in understanding how complex systems behave, from weather patterns to ecosystems. As Giammarese has explained, mathematics is a powerful way to interpret data, draw conclusions, and better understand how the world works.

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Today, Giammarese applies those skills outside academia. He works as a staff engineer at Numerical Advisory Solutions in Cary, North Carolina, where he uses mathematics and machine learning to help improve the operations of nuclear power plants. The role allows him to translate theoretical knowledge into practical applications with real-world impact.

His connection to the company traces back to his time at RIT. He learned about the opportunity through his best friend, a fellow RIT student with whom he once shared engineering classes. RIT also played a central role in his personal life. Giammarese met his future wife, Meghan Childs ’22 MS (applied and computational mathematics) ’25 Ph.D. (mathematical modeling), while they were enrolled in the same academic program.

“This is one of the two best things to come out of the program for me, to be recognized for following my passion. And the other is my soon-to-be wife,” said Giammarese. “It’s really a positive thing, starting at RIT 10 years ago and now moving and getting married later this year, and then this award, to boot.”

For RIT, Giammarese’s achievement reflects the growing impact of its mathematical modeling and applied mathematics programs. For Giammarese himself, the award marks both a professional milestone and a reminder of how far he has come—from an engineering student unsure of his path to an award-winning researcher helping decode some of the world’s most complex systems.