Romina Gaburro

My main research area is inverse problems for partial differential equations with applications to imaging and material properties identification. Inverse problems are employed to identify physical properties of materials that cannot be directly observed. These are the model parameters and are very often the coefficients of a partial differential equation describing the model. The material under investigation is typically probed with an electromagnetic field that interacts with the material according to the governing equation describing the model. This interaction is measured and used to determine the material properties/ inhomogeneities in the material (data inversion). Examples of inhomogeneities include oil or geothermal reservoirs in the subsurface of the Earth, a tumour in the human body or a crack/defect in a material. Inverse problems have wide applications in geophysics, medical imaging, nondestructive testing, radar, acoustics, signal processing, machine learning, etc.

Past and current PhD students:

• 2019 - 2025 (graduated): Jason Curran (CONFIRM, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Centre for Smart Manufacturing, UL), with Clifford Nolan.
• 2020 - 2024 (graduated): Sonia Foschiatti (Earth Science, Fluid-Dynamics, and Mathematics. Interactions and Methods programme, Universit`a degli Studi di Trieste, Italy), with Eva Sincich.
• 2020 - 2025 (successfully defended): Shraddha Naidu (Research Ireland Centre for Research and Training in Foundation of Data Science, UL), with Clifford Nolan.
• 2021 - 2025 (successfully defended): Niall Donlon (IRC/Research Ireland Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, UL), with Clifford Nolan.
• 2021 - 2025 (successfully defended): David McMahon (Research Ireland Centre for Research and Training in Foundation of Data Science, UL), with Clifford Nolan.
• 2022 - current: Jessica Crosse (Research Ireland Centre for Research and Training in Foundation of Data Science, UL)
• 2023 - current: Tiernan Brosnan (Research Ireland Centre for Research and Training in Foundation of Data Science, UL), with Clifford Nolan.
• Starting in October 2025: Jane Hussey 

Recent events I co-organised:

• 10th International Conference on Scale Space and Variational Methods in Computer Vision (SSVM) 2025, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon, U.K., May 18-22, 2025.
• RIA-ICEDIM Women in Mathematics Day, University of Galway, May 12, 2025.
• ICEDIM Women in Mathematics Day, University of Limerick, May 10, 2024.
• Semester programme Rich and nonlinear tomography: a multi-disciplinary approach, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, U.K., January 4-June 30, 2023.
• Synergistic workshop on Rich and Nonlinear tomography aimed at drawing together all strands of both methods and applications with new insights, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, U.K., June 19-23, 2023.
• International Summer School on Inverse Problems in Geophysics, Lake Como School of Advanced Studies, September 18-22, 2023.
• 36th Annual Meeting of the Irish Mathematical Society, University of Limerick, August 31 - September 1, 2023.

Recent invited speaker at:

• Plenary speaker at the 12th International conference Inverse problems: modeling and simulations, Malta, May 31 - Jume 5, 2026.
• Mini-symposium Applied Inverse Problems and Partial Differential Equations, 11th International Conference Inverse Problems, Control and Shape Optimization (PICOF 2025), Tunis, Tunisia, October 28-31, 2025.
• Mini-symposium Analysis of Inverse Problems for Partial Differential Equations, 12^th Applied Inverse Problems’ FGV EMAp, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 28-August 1, 2025.
• International conference Inverse Problems in Milan, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, June 9-13, 2025.
• Mini-symposium New trends in inverse problems for partial differential equations, 14^th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications, NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 16-20, 2024.
• Mini-symposium Mathematical challenges in inverse problems, 9th European Congress in Mathematics (9ECM 2024), Seville, Spain, July 15 - 19, 2024.
• Mini-symposium Inverse Problems, Joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Unione Matematica Italiana 2024, Palermo, Italy, July 23 - 26, 2024.
• Seminar at the Colloquium on Applied Mathematics, Institut für Numerische and Angewandte Mathematik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, November 21, 2023.
• Mini-symposium Uniqueness and stability in inverse problems for partial differential equations, Applied Inverse Problems 2023, Georg-August Universitat Gottingen, Germany, September 4-8, 2023.
• Mini-symposium Inverse problems with anisotropy, Applied Inverse Problems 2023, Georg-August Universitat Gottingen, Germany, September 4-8, 2023.
• Inverse problems in the Desert, NYU Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., December 19-22, 2022.
• 9th Annual SIAM Student Chapter Conference, University of Galway, Ireland, December 9, 2022.
• Solvers for frequency-domain wave problems and applications, Strathckyde University, Glasgow, U.K., June 20-25, 2022.
• Mini-symposium Inverse problems for PDEs: from analysis to applications, Biennial Conference of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society, Diudad Real, Spain, January 17-21, 2022.

News and useful links:

• I am looking to recruit a PhD student to work on anisotropic inverse problems, drop me an email if you might be interested!
• We are recruiting soon new applicants to the MSc in Mathematical Modelling, drop me an email if you would like to know more about it!
• With Alessandro Comunian, Mauro Giudici and Luca Rondi I am currently organising the International Summer School on Inverse Problems in Geophysics 2026 which will be held on the Lake Como during August 31-September 4, 2026. More information will be available soon!
• I will be giving a plenary talk at the 12th International Conference Inverse Problems: Modeling and Simulations, Malta, May 31-June 5, 2026.
• In May 2026 I will give the mini-course Inverse problems in geophysics: Electrical Impedance Tomography and Full Waveform Inversion to the students of the PhD programme Earth Science, fluid-dynamics and mathematics. Interactions and methods at the Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geoscience, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy.
• Check out the activities of the Irish Committee for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Mathematics (ICEDIM).
• Check out the activities of the European Women in Mathematics (EWM).
• To know more about the Inverse Problems community, visit Inverse Problems International Association (IPIA) and the EMS Topical Activity Group on Inverse Problems.
• In December 2020 I gave the mini-course Inverse problems for partial differential equations of geophysical interest at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.

Course director: MSc in Mathematical Modelling

Semester 1:

MS4403 Ordinary Differential Equations 

MS4111 Discrete Mathematics 1

Semester 2:

MS4508 Applied Partial Differential Equations (this is new!)

MS6052 Inverse Problems for Partial Differential Equations (this is new!)

I am a mathematician in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Limerick (UL). I obtained an MSc (Italian Laura) in Mathematics from the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK. Following my PhD, I worked as a Research Fellow at the Università degli Studi di Trieste, followed by a Science Foundation Ireland Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at UL. I am currently an associate professor A in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UL, where I'm Course Director for the MSc in Mathematical Modelling. I also served as Director for Postgraduate studies during 2009-2025 and as the Research Representative for the Department in the Science and Engineering Faculty Research Committee during 2017-2023. At UL, I'm a member of the Health Research Institute (HRI) and was a  funded investigator of CONFIRM, the SFI centre for smart manufacturing. I serve on the committee of the Irish Mathematical Society (IMS), where I was appointed Chair of the Irish Committee for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Mathematics (ICEDIM), formed in 2022. I was appointed Vice-Chair of the Royal Irish Academy Physical, Chemical and Mathematical Sciences Committee for the term 2022-2026. I am involved in the promotion of gender balance in STEM also internationally. I am currently one of the two country coordinators for Ireland in the European Women in Mathematics (EWM) organisation and the Irish ambassador for the International Mathematical Union (IMU) Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM).