Statistical Mechanics and Pattern Formation with applications to Fluid Dynamics and Ecology. In Fluid Dynamics, I do direct numerical simulations and phenomenological modeling of the turbulent-laminar transitions. In Ecology, I write bioinformatics tools for microbial ecology and study Niche and Neutral population dynamics.

• Excellence in Teaching, Outstanding Rating (top 10% of TAs) - University of Illinois (6 semesters)
• 2012 L.S. Edelheit Family Fellowship in Biophysics - University of Illinois
• Institute for Condensed Matter Theory First-Year Fellowship (2008-2009)
• Honorable Mention, Mathematical Competition in Modeling (3 times)
• Top Participant, William Lowell Putnam Math Competition (2006)
• DANA Undergraduate Research Fellow (2 times)
• President's Scholar - Ithaca College
• Honorary societies: Sigma Xi (Research), Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics) and Pi Mu Epsilon (Math)

1. M. Sipos, B. G. Thompson. Electrodynamics on a grid: The finite-difference time-domain method applied to optics and cloaking. Am. J. Phys. 76, Issue 4, 464-469 (2008).
2. S. Yildirim, C. Yeoman, M. Sipos, M. Torralba, B. Wilson, T. Goldberg, R. Stumpf, S. Leigh, B. White, K. Nelson. Characterization of Fecal Microbiome from Non-human Wild Primates Reveals Species Specific Microbial Communities. PLoS ONE 5, Issue 11, e13963 (2010).
3. M. Sipos, P. Jeraldo, N. Chia, A Qu, A. S. Dhillon, M. E. Konkel, K. E. Nelson, B. A. White and N. Goldenfeld. Robust computational analysis of rRNA hypervariable tag datasets. PLoS ONE 5, Issue 12, e15220 (2010).
4. M. Sipos and N. Goldenfeld. Directed percolation describes lifetime and growth of turbulent puffs and slugs. Phys. Rev. E Issue 84, 035304(R) (2011).
5. P. Jeraldo* , M. Sipos* , N. Chia, J.M. Brulc, A.S. Dhillon, M.E. Konkel, C.L. Larson, K.E. Nelson, A. Qu, L.B. Schook, F. Yang, N. Goldenfeld, and B.A. White. Quantifying the Role of Neutral and Niche Processes in Evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (2012) no. 25 9692-9698 (* indicates equal contribution.)
6. T. Pfaff, M. Sipos, M.C. Sullivan, B.G. Thompson, M. Tran. The Use of Statistics in Experimental Physics. Accepted for publication in Mathematics Magazine in September 2012.

1. Robust Computational Analysis of rRNA hypervariable tag datasets. Poster presented at Institute for Genomic Biology Fellows Symposium. April 2010.
2. Rare Fluctuations and Cascades in Turbulence and Ecology. Talk given at UIUC PGSA Colloquium. December 2010.
3. The relative role of niche and neutral processes in structuring gastrointestinal microbiomes. Talk given at the Center for the Physics of Living Cells Symposium. February 2011.
4. Directed Percolation Transition in Pipe Flow Turbulence. Talk given at UIUC Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Graduate Student Colloquium. April 2011.
5. From 16S rRNA datasets to characterization of neutral and niche ecology in microbiomes. Talk given at Physics of Living Systems (POLS) workshop and a poster presented at International Conference on Biological Physics (San Diego, USA). June 2011.
6. Directed Percolation Describes Lifetime and Growth of Turbulent Puffs and Slugs. Poster presented at the Boulder School of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. July 2011.

• Languages: Java, C, C++, Python, Ruby, Scheme, Matlab/Octave, JavaScript/CoffeeScript.
• Other: LaTeX, HTML/CSS, Bash, Git, Subversion.