Leila Issa is an associate professor of mathematics. She obtained her PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University. LAU has been her second home since 2011, where she enjoys teaching various courses such as partial differential equations, non-linear dynamics and chaos and multivariate calculus. Currently, she is also a Center for Advanced Mathematical Science (CAMS) fellow at AUB.

In her free time, she enjoys discovering and reading about new science, talking about math/science while sipping coffee, teaching maths to her children and mostly injecting these passions into her everyday life.

Research Interests

She is interested in ocean modeling and has been working on modeling surface currents and understanding pollutant transport in our part of the Mediterranean Sea, using physical-based modeling, data assimilation and machine learning. She also works on the development and solution of simplified and fast models for unsteady pressure-driven flows in long channels of variable cross-section.

SDGs Research Mapping

Dr. Leila Issa conducts research relevant to the following SDGs:

Selected Publications

• G. Baaklini, R. El Hourany, M. Fakhri, J. Brajard, L. Issa, G. Fifani, L. Mortier. Surface circulation properties in the eastern Mediterranean emphasized using machine learning methods. Ocean Science. Volume 18-5. 2022/10/20.
• G. Baaklini, L. Issa, M. Fakhri, J. Brajard, G. Fifani, M. Menna, I. Taupier-Letage, A. Bosse, L. Mortier. Blending drifters and altimetric data to estimate surface currents: Application in the Levantine Mediterranean and objective validation with different data types. Ocean Modelling. 2021/8/3
• ​I. Hoteit, Y. Abualnaja, S. Afzal, B. Ait-El-Fquih, T. Akylas, C. Antony, C. Dawson, K. Asfahani, R. J Brewin, L. Cavaleri, I. Cerovecki, B. Cornuelle, S. Desamsetti, R. Attada, H. Dasari, J. Sanchez-Garrido, L. Genevier, M. El Gharamti, J. A Gittings, E. Gokul, G. Gopalakrishnan, D. Guo, B. Hadri, M. Hadwiger, M. A. Hammoud, M. Hendershott, M. Hittawe, A. Karumuri, O. Knio, A. Köhl, S. Kortas, G. Krokos, R. Kunchala, L. Issa, I. Lakkis, S. Langodan, P. Lermusiaux, T. Luong, J. Ma, O. Le Maitre, M. Mazloff, S. El Mohtar, V. P Papadopoulos, T. Platt, L. Pratt, N. Raboudi, M. Racault, D. E Raitsos, S. Razak, S. Sanikommu, S. Sathyendranath, S. Sofianos, A. Subramanian, R. Sun, E. Titi, H. Toye, G. Triantafyllou, K. Tsiaras, P. Vasou, Y. Viswanadhapalli, Y. Wang, F. Yao, P. Zhan, G. Zodiatis. Towards an End-to-End Analysis and Prediction System for Weather, Climate, and Marine Applications in the Red Sea. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1-61. 2021/01.
• El Mohtar, I Hoteit, O Knio, L Issa, I Lakkis. Lagrangian tracking in stochastic fields with application to an ensemble of velocity fields in the Red Sea, Ocean Modelling 131, 1-14. 2018/11/1.
• L. Issa. A simplied model for unsteady pressure driven flows in circular microchannels of vari- able cross-section. Applied Mathematical Modelling, February 2018. Doi: 10.1016/j.apm.2018.01.037​
• L. Issa, J. Brajard, M. Fakhri, D. Hayes, L. Mortier, P-M. Poulain. Modelling Surface Currents in the Eastern Levantine Mediterranean Using Surface Drifters and Satellite Altimetry. Ocean Modelling, 2016/05. Doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.05.00​
• L. Issa. Perturbation-based simplified models for unsteady incompressible microchannel flows, December 2015. Doi: 10.1016/j.apm.2015.12.025​
• L. Issa, I. Lakkis, Reduced Order Modeling of Low Mach Number Unsteady Micro-channel Flows, J. Fluids Eng. 136(5), 051201, 2014/03. Dpi: 10.1115/1.4026199​
• L. Borcea, L. Issa, C. Tsogka, Source localization in random acoustic waveguides, SIAM Multiscale Modeling Simulations, 8(5), pp. 1981-2022, 2010.

Academic Degrees

• PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAAM), Rice University.
• MA in Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• BA in Mathematics (High Distinction), Statistics minor, American University of Beirut.