Chanaka Mapa

About Me

I'm a PhD student studying applied math at RPI. My research integrates applied mathematics, quantum chemistry, and numerical analysis, with a focus on developing scalable algorithms for electronic structure calculations.

Education

• PhD in Applied Mathematics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA (2025 - 2028 expected)
• MS in Applied Mathematics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA (2023 - 2025)
• BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (2018 - 2022)

Awards

• Founders Award of Excellence, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Fall 2025)

Highlights

• Graduate Representative, Society of Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM), RPI (Fall 2025):
  • Representing graduate students in the RPI SIAM chapter
• Founding Chair, Math Frontier Seminar, RPI (2025–Present):
  • Organized seminar series on numerical methods and applications
• Graduate Research & Teaching Assistant, RPI (2023–Present):
  • Developed scalable coupled-cluster methods in Julia and Python
  • Assisted and graded for graduate and undergraduate math courses
• Research Fellow, University of Peradeniya (2022–2023):
  • Studied graph labeling, coloring, and harmonic labeling

Relevant Coursework

• Math 6800: Computational Linear Algebra
• Math 6890: Mathematical Foundations of Modern Quantum Many-body Theory
• Math 6820: Numerical Solution of ODEs
• Math 6620: Perturbation Methods
• Matp 6610: Computational Optimization
• Matp 6600: Introduction to Optimization
• Phys 6510: Quantum Mechanics I
• CSCI 1200: Data Structures