Brian Van Koten

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Contact Info

• Office: LGRT 1428
• Office Hours: No regular hours over the summer or winter breaks; email me for an appointment. I will hold weekly office hours during the semester; see Canvas for details.
• email: bvankoten@umass.edu

Teaching

Please see Gradescope for homework assignments and Canvas for lecture notes and readings.

In Fall 2026, I will be teaching Math 605: Probability Theory I and Math 545: Linear Algebra for Applied Mathematics.

Research Interests

• Applied probability and numerical analysis
• Computer simulation of molecular systems and applications in chemistry and materials science
• Sampling and analysis of rare events in physical systems
• Variance reduction for Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and applications to Bayesian statistics and computational statistical physics
• Scientific machine learning, including the development of efficient sampling methods based on neural surrogate models
• Multigrid methods and analogous sampling methods based on coarse-grained or multiscale surrogate models
• Numerical methods for finding saddle points and applications to the computation of reaction rates
• Multiscale models of defects in crystalline materials, including atomistic/continuum couplings

CV

Publications

1. G. Earle and B. Van Koten. Relative entropy methods for the approximation of reactive trajectories. accepted for publication in SIAM-ASA Journal On Uncertainty Quantification, 2026. arXiv:2502.04605.
2. G. Earle and B. Van Koten. Aggregation methods for computing steady-states in statistical physics. Multiscale Model. Simul., 21(3):1170–1209, 2023. arXiv:2209.11164.
3. X. S. Li, B. Van Koten, A. R. Dinner, and E. H. Thiede. Understanding the sources of error in mbar through asymptotic analysis. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 158(21):214107, June 2023. arXiv:2203.01227.
4. A. R. Dinner, E. H. Thiede, B. Van Koten, and J. Weare. Stratification as a general variance reduction method for Markov chain Monte Carlo. SIAM-ASA Journal On Uncertainty Quantification, 8(3):1139–1188, 2020. ISSN: 2166-2525. arXiv:1705.08445.
5. B. Van Koten and M. Luskin. Stability and convergence of the string method for computing minimum energy paths. Multiscale Model. Simul., 17(2):873–898, 2019. arXiv:1807.06094.
6. A. R. Dinner, J. C. Mattingly, J. O. B. Tempkin, B. Van Koten, and J. Weare. Trajectory stratification of stochastic dynamics. SIAM Rev., 60(4):909–938, 2018. arXiv:1610.09426.
7. D. Olson, X. Li, C. Ortner, and B. Van Koten. Force-based atomistic/continuum blending for multilattices. Numer. Math., 140(3):703–754, 2018. arXiv:1611.05935.
8. X. H. Li, C. Ortner, A. V. Shapeev, and B. Van Koten. Analysis of blended atomistic/continuum hybrid methods. Numerische Mathematik, 134(2):275–326, 2016. arXiv:1404.4878.
9. E. H. Thiede, B. Van Koten, J. Weare, and A. R. Dinner. Eigenvector method for umbrella sampling enables error analysis. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 145(8):084115, 2016. arXiv:1603.04505.
10. E. Thiede, B. Van Koten, and J. Weare. Sharp entrywise perturbation bounds for Markov chains. SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, 36(3):917–941, 2015. arXiv:1410.1431.
11. M. Luskin, C. Ortner, and B. Van Koten. Formulation and optimization of the energy-based blended quasicontinuum method. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 253:160–168, 2013. arXiv:1112.2377.
12. B. Van Koten and C. Ortner. Symmetries of 2-lattices and second order accuracy of the Cauchy–Born model. Multiscale Modeling & Simulation, 11(2):615–634, 2013. arXiv:1012.6031.
13. B. Van Koten, X. H. Li, M. Luskin, and C. Ortner. A computational and theoretical investigation of the accuracy of quasicontinuum methods. In I. Graham, T. Hou, O. Lakkis, and R. Scheichl, editors, Numerical Analysis of Multiscale Problems. Volume 83, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. Eng. Springer, 2012. arXiv:1012.6031.
14. B. Van Koten and M. Luskin. Analysis of energy-based blended quasi-continuum approximations. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 49(5):2182–2209, 2011. arXiv:1008.2138.
15. R. Held, I. Stavrov, and B. VanKoten. (Semi-)Riemannian geometry of (para-)octonionic projective planes. Differential Geometry and its Applications, 27(4):464–481, 2009. arXiv:0702631.
16. J. Hardin, A. Mitani, L. Hicks, and B. VanKoten. A robust measure of correlation between two genes on a microarray. BMC Bioinformatics, 8(1):220, 2007.