Hi, my name is Hien and I am currently an assistant professor at Iowa State University. I am part of the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics Education.
My mathematical interests lie in geometrical analysis; more specifically, I study the mean curvature flow and gluing problems involving elliptic and parabolic pdes (I use pdes to construct surfaces with interesting geometric properties). Recently, I also have become interested in free boundary problems and using gluing techniques in the setting of Einstein equations.
I got my bachelor's degree from the Free University of Brussels in the small country of Belgium and I earned my PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, under the direction of professor Sigurd Angenent. When I am not working on my research or teaching, I like swimming and drawing.
Contact Information
Xuan Hien Nguyen
478 Carver Hall
Department of Mathematics
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
Phone: (515) 294-8163
email: xhnguyen☺iastate.edu
A note about my name
My name is Vietnamese and I usually go by 'Hien'. It is pronounced 'Hain' or 'Hein' (think of saying it with a southern accent and you'll be pretty close!). Traditionnally, Vietnamese people say their last name first, middle name then first name: Nguyen Xuan Hien. Filling in all the paperwork here, I had to switch the order around, but could not make myself write my name completely backwards.
What about the 'Xuan' part? There are so many people with the last name 'Nguyen', so I use it to differentiate myself from all of the other 'Hien Nguyen' out there (Hien is a pretty common first name too).