Paul Newton

Professor Newton is an Applied Mathematician interested in the way tumor cell populations organize, compete, evolve, and disperse in their human hosts. He leads a group in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California that addresses questions associated with the tumor ecosystem using mathematical models, computer simulations, and data obtained from collaborating cancer centers. He develops models based on evolutionary game theory to design minimum effective chemotherapy dosing schedules in early-stage tumors. He received his undergraduate degree at Harvard, his PhD at Brown, then after his postdoctoral appointment at Stanford, began his academic career at the University of Illinois (UIUC) before moving to the University of Southern California where he is now a Professor in the Viterbi School of Engineering, the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, and the Keck School of Medicine. Each summer he teaches a course on mathematical modeling in oncology at The Ellison Institute of Technology in a program for high school seniors throughout the Los Angeles region. He has received the Mellon Foundation’s Mentoring Award, the Phi Kappa Phi Research Award, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2020.