Early Career Research Achievement Award to Applied Mathematics' Brendan Keith
Physical Sciences
Brendan Keith
Morton E. Gurtin Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics
Brendan Keith’s research advances scientific computing by combining optimization theory with numerical methods for partial differential equations to solve complex engineering problems. A leading example is his pioneering work on the proximal Galerkin finite element method for enforcing inequality constraints, which has recently helped resolve longstanding open problems in computational mechanics. His research has been published in leading journals, including Foundations of Computational Mathematics. In recognition of his contributions, Keith was named the inaugural Morton E. Gurtin Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. His honors include a 2023 DOE Early Career Research Award, a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship, a 2025 Langtangen Prize, and selection to Popular Science magazine’s “Brilliant 10” list. He also serves as director of the $5 million DOE-funded Center for Information Geometric Mechanics and Optimization.
Early Career Awards are offered every year; Mid-Career Awards and Distinguished Career Awards alternate each year. In 2026, Mid-Career Awards are being offered.
The 2026 Early Career Research Achievement Award winners are: Justin Berk (Pediatrics and Medicine), Jillian E. Beveridge (Orthopaedics), Brendan Keith (Applied Mathematics), George Lisi (Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry), David Meyers (Health Services, Policy and Practice), Gabriel de Avilez Rocha (Early Modern Portuguese History), and Monica Martinez Wilhelmus (Engineering).
The 2026 Mid-Career Research Achievement Award winners are: Javier Gómez-Serrano (Mathematics), Stephen E. Kidd (Classics), Anne CC Lee (Pediatrics), and Jane Metrik (Behavioral and Social Sciences; Psychiatry and Human Behavior).
The award recipients were selected by a panel of Brown faculty from nominations in the categories of humanities and social sciences, life sciences and public health, physical sciences, and hospital-based research faculty for both Early Career Research Achievement Awards and Mid-Career Research Achievement Awards.
Each winner receives a $5,000 research stipend and will be recognized with an award at the Celebration of Research this fall.
Every year, distinguished Brown scholars are nominated for Research Achievement Awards by their colleagues for conducting exceptional and transformative research. The 2026 selection includes 11 awardees from four categories: hospital-based research, humanities and social sciences, life sciences and public health, and physical sciences.