Inelegant Solutions for a Messy World - Profile Christina Taylor

Just as a well-tuned bicycle glides effortlessly along a winding trail, some mathematical problems reveal solutions with symmetry and elegance. But not all challenges in engineering and math are so smooth – some are akin to navigating a rugged mountain path full of unpredictable twists and turns requiring nimble choices that are rarely elegant. For Christina Taylor, a second-year Peter O’Donnell, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, it’s these messy, irregular problems that spark her curiosity. 

Reflecting on both her love of cycling and her approach to research, Christina is drawn to the road less traveled. Her academic journey began in the landlocked northern and central plain states, but that didn’t prevent her from developing an interest in storm surge modeling - specifically the complex task of computing the wet-dry interface of flooding events.

Christina’s path to computational mathematics was unconventional. “Many find it surprising that I was homeschooled. Attending college was my first traditional education environment,” she commented.

She quickly distinguished herself in undergraduate math courses at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where she completed her bachelor's degree. Prior to coming to The University of Texas at Austin, Christina attended Rice University in Houston, where she earned both her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in computational and applied mathematics, and was named an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Computational Mathematics. 

Her research sits at the intersection of mathematics, scientific computing and engineering. She focuses on developing efficient cut mesh methods and code libraries to simulate complex phenomena and real-world geometries. “Currently I’m applying cut meshes to moving interface problems for flood simulations in Dr. Clint Dawson's Computational Hydraulics Group,” she explained. Dawson is a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics and leads the Computational Hydraulics Group at the Oden Institute.

Becoming a Peter O’Donnell, Jr. Postdoc Fellow at UT felt like a natural next step. “I met people from the Oden Institute, including Eirik Valseth with Clint’s group prior to coming here,” Christina said. “I could tell that this is a group that, while ensconced in research, also seem to enjoy life. Being here has opened many doors.” 

Her current work centers on hurricane storm surge. “Hurricane flooding comes from either massive rainfall, like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, or from storm surge, as seen during Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago, which brought up to 25 feet of water into New Orleans,” she explains. But beyond the immediate devastation, floodwaters carry bacteria and microorganisms far inland introducing the potential to spread diseases which pose health risks.

A key challenge in storm surge modeling is accurately defining the wet-dry boundary – the shifting line between submerged and dry land. While predicting this boundary is not a priority in and of itself for storm surge, simulations that fail to account for the wet-dry boundary can become numerically unstable and fail to produce much-needed results or produce highly inaccurate results. “It’s a complicated problem,” Christina said. “Nature is unpredictable, and coastlines are constantly changing due to erosion and water movement. Capturing that interface is central to my work.”

She looks for inelegant solutions which are more resource effective – a tactic than works in synchrony with nature‘s fickleness.

Approaches to addressing the wet-dry interface broadly fall into two camps: methods that are provably accurate but come with hefty computational price tag, and methods that are more efficient but lack accuracy. Christina’s research aims to strike a balance between the two. “The question is, can we find a method that’s both cost-effective and accurate with respect to the physics? This is an open area of research and there are there are lots of ways to do it,” she added.

By adapting cut meshes, an existing method for capturing complex, but not moving, geometries to solve the wet-dry interface, she hopes to uncover the answer. What she finds most exciting are the potential broader applications borne out of the challenges. “If we can solve this, the methods could be applied to across research areas like supersonic aerodynamics, gas dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, and event galaxy simulations. It’s not just about one problem – it’s about unlocking tools for many fields.” 

After spending the last six years in Texas, Christina is ready for a change of scenery and climate – one more familiar to her midwestern roots. Just four months into her fellowship at UT, opportunity came knocking. At the urging of Dawson, Christina applied and ultimately received an offer for a tenure-track professorship in mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boise State University. “It happened quickly, and it’s in a region I’ve wanted to explore. I’ll be able to teach and continue my research – it’s the best of both worlds.” 

One of her goals as a professor is to make mathematics more accessible to engineering students. “Math is taught for math majors even when it’s meant for engineering students. The mismatch can be a real barrier.” While she doesn’t advocate for simplifying the required math, she does feel mathematics courses for engineering students needs to be more approachable. 

Her advice to students and anyone facing a challenge, is simple but powerful. “Don’t disqualify yourself before you even start. We often decide something is hard before we’ve tried it.” 

That philosophy extends beyond the classroom. An avid cyclist, Christina rode hundreds of miles a week around Houston, and continued riding when she moved to Austin. And though she may have fallen off the bike a few times, that was never a deterrent. “It’s paramount to give a full faith effort when trying anything.”

As she prepares to move to Idaho’s Treasure Valley in January 2026, Christina is ready to embrace the next chapter of new trails, new students and new questions to explore.

More information on the Peter O’Donnell, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellowship, including application deadlines can be found here.