Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Senior Lecturer of the National University of Mongolia Ph.D Khongorzul Dorjgotov has become one of the winners of the 2021 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World.  

Dr Khongorzul Dorjgotov is a mathematician whose research focuses on fractional differential equations (FDEs), an emerging field in applied and theoretical mathematics with many applications in science and engineering. FDEs have been recognized as an excellent tool for describing complex systems and processes in many applied sciences, including physics, chemistry, biology and economics. The study of these types of equations is becoming increasingly popular as they can more accurately model a given physical system or process than conventional differential equations.

Khongorzul began studying applied mathematics as an undergraduate student at the NUM, where she won an award for best research in a student competition. She went on to do her master's degree in the same subject, before winning a MEXT scholarship from the Japanese government for doctoral study at Kyushu University in Japan. It was there that she first started her research on FDEs, focusing on Lie theory and the symmetry approach. During the final year of her PhD, she out-competed many international students to win Best Poster at the Forum "Math-for-Industry" 2017. After completing her PhD, she returned to Mongolia, becoming one of the few women with a mathematics PhD in the country. She began working as a lecturer at NUM in 2018. 

Now, Khongorzul is working to establish the study of fractional calculus in Mongolia. In addition to serving as senior lecturer and supervising graduate students, she is working to increase collaboration between the industrial and academic sectors. To this end, she recently organized, with fellow researchers, the first Mongolian "Study Group" workshops, an internationally recognized method of technology and knowledge transfer between academic mathematicians and industrial sectors. Khongorzul hopes that not only the industrial representatives but other decision-makers will be able to apply the results of mathematical research to do their jobs more effectively.

Since 2012, the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World have recognized the achievements of researchers who have made significant contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge. The program represents a longstanding partnership between the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) (OWSD) and the Elsevier Foundation.

Each year, five winners are selected from the following regions: Latin America and the Caribbean; East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific; Central and South Asia; the Arab region; Sub-Saharan Africa. Prizes are awarded annually on a rotating basis among the disciplines of Biological Sciences, Engineering Sciences and Physical Sciences.

Each winner is sponsored to attend the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where they present their research at a special networking ceremony. There, they have the opportunity to attend workshops, meet experts in their field and visit local laboratories and institutions, establishing contacts and collaboration networks with colleagues from around the world.

source: Elsevier.com