Anita Layton


Anita T. Layton is an applied mathematician who applies methods from computational mathematics and partial differential equations to model kidney function. She presently holds a Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine at the University of Waterloo. She is also a professor in the university’s Department of Applied Mathematics. She joined the Waterloo faculty in 2018. Previously, she was the Robert R. & Katherine B. Penn Professor of Mathematics at Duke University, where she also held appointments in the department of biomedical engineering and the department of medicine.

Early life and education

Layton was born in Hong Kong, where her father was a secondary school mathematics teacher. She did her undergraduate studies at Duke, entering with the plan of studying physics but eventually switching to computer science and graduating in 1994. She went to the University of Toronto for her graduate studies, and completed a Ph.D. there in 2001. Her dissertation, High-Order Spatial Discretization Methods for the Shallow Water Equations, concerned numerical weather prediction, and was jointly supervised by Kenneth R. Jackson and Christina C. Christara.

Research

Layton's main research interest is the application of mathematics to biological systems. She works with physiologists and clinicians to formulate detailed computational models of kidney function, which she uses to understand the impacts of diabetes and hypertension on kidney function, and the effectiveness of novel therapeutic treatments. With Aurélie Edwards, Layton is the author of Mathematical Modeling in Renal Physiology.

Recognition

In 2018, Layton was awarded the Canada 150 Research Chair, and then joined the University of Waterloo, Department of Applied Mathematics.