Sweet Briar math professor Raina Robeva awarded 2018 IBA Distinguished Fellowship

Raina Robeva, professor of mathematical sciences, with the 2018 IBA Distinguished Senior Fellowship Award at Sweet Briar College.


Sweet Briar College Professor of Mathematical Sciences Raina Robeva is the recipient of the 2018 Intercollegiate Biomathematics Alliance Distinguished Fellowship.

The IBA’s Distinguished Fellowship was established to honor scholars with outstanding contributions to mathematical biology. The award has two versions: the Distinguished Senior Fellowship is given in even-numbered years, while the Distinguished Junior Fellowship is awarded during odd-numbered years.

The Distinguished Senior Fellowship honors established senior scholars who have made outstanding scientific achievements, as well as demonstrated a record of exceptional scientific contributions and active leadership in mathematical biology both as researchers and educators. This fellowship is awarded to those at associate or full professor rank who exemplify not only an outstanding level of scientific endeavor, but whose mentoring and leadership have helped create scientific opportunities for the future scholars of the field.

“I feel honored to have my work in mathematical and computational biology recognized in this way by the IBA consortium, whose mission is to promote research and education in biomathematics,” Robeva said.

Robeva, who leads Sweet Briar College’s Center for Engineering, Science and Technology in Society, is the lead author/editor of the books “An Invitation to Biomathematics” with the accompanying “Laboratory Manual of Biomathematics” (2008), “Mathematical Concepts and Methods in Modern Biology: Using Modern Discrete Models” (2013), “Algebraic and Discrete Mathematical Methods for Modern Biology” (2015) and most recently, “Algebraic and Combinatorial Computational Biology” (September 2018), all published by Academic Press. The latter presents a panorama of powerful computational methods for mathematical problem-solving in modern biology. It features topics and problems from gene regulation, molecular networks, neuroscience, phylogenetics, clustering methods in biology and models of assembly and folding of biomolecular structures.

She is the founding chief editor of the specialty journal Frontiers in Systems Biology, past chair of the advisory board of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, and chair of the Chapter in Mathematical and Computational Biological Science of the Mathematical Association of America (BIO SIGMAA). Her research interests span a wide range of topics, including systems biology, random processes and fields, and mathematical modeling for biology and the biomedical sciences.

Robeva has received funding for her research and educational projects from multiple public and private sources, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and has mentored numerous student research projects. Her translational research has resulted in three U.S. patents for assessment and diagnosis of attentional impairments. Robeva is a 2014 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia — the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities.

Robeva has a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in probability and statistics from the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria. She earned her Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Virginia.