Sorina Barza, Professor of Mathematical Analysis

She earned a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Bucharest, Romania, in 1989 and completed her PhD in mathematics in 2000 at Luleå University of Technology with the thesis “Weighted Multidimensional Integral Inequalities and Applications’’. Sorina Barza was employed as a senior lecturer at Karlstad University from 2000 to 2022 and was appointed professor in the autumn of 2022.

"My research interests focus on abstract mathematics, in a subfield called mathematical analysis, specifically inequalities and function spaces. It is basic research driven primarily by pure curiosity to solve open problems and to generalise existing theorems. We study the properties of numbers, sequences or various functions that can represent different physical, technical or financial quantities such as temperature, salinity, prices, nutrients, etc. There is also a need to fill gaps in existing science and push research forward. My research also has applications in modelling real-life problems, signal and image processing, data compression and electricity."

What appeals to Sorina Barza is precisely the power and beauty of using mathematical methods to solve abstract problems which can generalise a wide range of concrete situations.

"My research is primarily used by other academics who are conducting research in the same field or by those who want to apply the findings in various areas of mathematical modelling. But even if it is about basic research, and not interdisciplinary research, the methods we develop can be used in a variety of other important areas. This could include biology, medicine, computer science and finance, to name just a few, to help understand the effects of climate change. In the long run, I also plan to expand my research towards optimisation theory, which includes methods from mathematical analysis."

Outside the world of mathematics, Sorina Barza loves to spend time with her daughters and her friends, as well as reading and travelling.