Heitsch is Professor of Mathematics at Georgia Tech, with courtesy appointments in Biological Sciences and Computational Science & Engineering as well as an affiliation with the Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience.
She is also Director of the new Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (SCMB), an NSF-Simons MathBioSys Research Center, and finishing her tenure directing the GT Interdisciplinary Mathematics Preparation and Career Training (IMPACT) Postdoctoral Program.
Heitsch's research interests lie at the interface between discrete mathematics and molecular biology, specifically combinatorial problems "as motivated by" and "with applications to" fundamental biomedical questions like RNA folding.
Students interested in pursuing graduate studies in discrete mathematical biology can do so through a number of GT PhD programs including Bioinformatics or Quantitative Biosciences as well as Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO),Computational Science & Engineering (CSE), and (of course) Mathematics.
Funding
Previous support included a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface and her former NIH R01 grant with collaborators David Bader (GT CSE) and Steve Harvey (GT Bio).
Code developed with this support is freely available.
Recent Articles
Upcoming Travel
Current students & postdocs
Open software for RNA secondary structure prediction and analysis
- ConsensusStems: homologous structure prediction.
- RNA Profiling: ensemble-based analysis of suboptimal structures.
- GTfold: scalable multicore structural prediction.
- RNAStructViz: interactive structural comparison and analysis based on previous work.
Code development is open source and managed through github to allow for greater collaboration.
Courses taught at Georgia Tech
- Math 2016: Foundations of Mathematical Proof (Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2012)
- Math 2406: Abstract Vector Spaces (Fall 2009)
- Math 2602: Linear and Discrete Mathematics (Spring 2011, Fall 2010)
- Math 3012: Applied Combinatorics (Spring 2007, Fall 2006)
- Math 4017: Abstract Algebra I (Fall 2017, Fall 2008)
- Math 4108: Abstract Algebra II (Spring 2018, Spring 2009)
- Math 4317: Analysis I (Fall 2016, Fall 2011)
- Math 4318: Analysis II (Spring 2017, Spring 2012)
- Math 8803/4803: Discrete Mathematical Biology (Spring 2008)
Editorial boards
- SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 2020 - present.
- Computational and Mathematical Biophysics (Advisory), 2018 - present
- Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 2016 - present
- Biophysical Journal, Section I: Nucleic Acids and Genomic Biophysics, 2016 - present
Professional committees
- George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics Selection Committee, 2019.
- AMS Southeastern Section Program Committee, Feb 2018 - Jan 2020
- Canadian Discrete and Algorithmic Mathematics Conference (CanaDAM) Program Committee, Spring 2016
- AMS Committee on Women in Mathematics (CoWIM), Feb 2015 - Jan 2018
- Board of Advisors, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), 2008 - 2012
- AWM Workshop for Women Graduate Students and Recent PhDs at JMM, Fall 2011, Fall 2010, Fall 2005.