Cecilia Diniz Behn

Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics
Joe & Jane Gray Distinguished University Chair

welcome

I am a Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Colorado School of Mines. In 2025 I was named the inaugural Joe & Jane Gray Distinguished University Chair.

I also hold appointments as an adjoint associate professor in the Division of Endocrinology of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and as an assistant professor adjunct in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

I serve as Vice Chair for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Life Sciences Activity Group.

Education

• AB in Mathematics, Bryn Mawr College
• MS in Mathematics, University of Texas
• PhD in Mathematics, Boston University
• Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School

Research

• Multiscale mathematical modeling of sleep and circadian systems
• Mathematical modeling of metabolism (e.g., glucose-insulin dynamics)
• High-dimensional multiscale systems of differential equations
• Network dynamics
• Biologically-inspired machine learning

funding

My research is currently supported by the following extramural grants:

• National Institutes of Health Grant R01AT013188 (2024–2029)

• National Institutes of Health Grant R61NS130215 (2024–2029)

• National Institutes of Health Grant R01 DK129656  (2022–2026)

Recently completed extramural funding includes the following:

• National Institutes of Health Grant R01 HD087707 (2017–2024)
• National Science Foundation Grant DCCF 1839232 (2018–2023)
• National Science Foundation Grant DMS 1853511 (2019–2023)

Recent Publications

• Heckler G; Worhach J; Wang G; Szilagi K; Zhang B; Diniz Behn C; Scammell T; Maski K. (2024) Characterizing Disrupted Nighttime Sleep and Associated Functional Outcomes in Youth with Narcolepsy Type 1, J Clinical Sleep Med, In Press.
• Ginsberg A; Cruz ME; Weber F; Booth V; Diniz Behn C. (2024) A predictive propensity measure to enter REM sleep, Frontiers in Neurosci, In Press.
• Maski K; Heckler G; Worhach J; Mylonas D; Wang G; Szilagyi K; Zhang B; Diniz Behn C; Scammell T; Stickgold R. (2024) Impaired sleep-dependent memory consolidation in pediatric narcolepsy type 1, SLEEP, In Press.
• Krawciw B; Diniz Behn C; Carr L. (2024) The small-world effect for interferometer networks, J of Physics: Complexity, 5(2), 025016.
• Athanasouli C; Stowe S; LeBourgeois M; Booth V; Diniz Behn C. (2024) Data-driven mathematical modeling of sleep consolidation in early childhood, J of Theor Biol, 593: 111892.
• Ha J; Chung ST; Springer M; Kim JY; Chen P; Cree MG; Diniz Behn C, Sumner AE; Arslanian S; Sherman AS. (2023) Estimating insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function from the oral glucose tolerance test: validation of a new Insulin Sensitivity and Secretion (ISS) model, AJP Endo, 326(4), EE454-E471. PMID: 38054972.
• Finn E; Severn C; Pyle L; Garrish J; Diniz Behn C; Zeitler P; Sagel S; Nadeau K; Chan C. (2023) Hypoglycemia in children and young adults with cystic fibrosis on glucose tolerance test vs continuous glucose monitor, Ped Pulmonology, 58(9), 2495-2504.
• Stowe S; LeBourgeois M; Diniz Behn C. (2023) Modeling the effects of napping and non-napping patterns of light exposure on the human circadian oscillator, J Biol Rhythms, 38(5): 492-509. PMID: 37427666.
• Garrish J; Chan CL; Nychka D; Diniz Behn C. (2023) A Gaussian process model for insulin secretion reconstruction with uncertainty quantification: applications in cystic fibrosis, SIAM J. Appl. Math, S65-S81.
• Hartstein LE; Diniz Behn C; Akacem LD; Wright KP, Jr.; Stowe S; LeBourgeois MK. (2023) Evening light intensity and phase delay of the circadian clock in early childhood, J Biol Rhythms, 38(1): 77-86.
• Athanasouli C; Kalmbach K; Booth V; Diniz Behn C. (2022) Bifurcations in a three-state model of sleep-wake behavior under changing homeostatic sleep drive dynamics, Math. Biosci., 355, 108929.
• Hampton GS; Bartlette K; Nadeau KJ; Cree-Green M; Diniz Behn C. (2022) Mathematical modeling reveals differential dynamics of insulin action models on glycerol and glucose in adolescent girls with obesity, Frontiers in Physiol., 13, 895118.

GitHub

• https://github.com/diniz-behn-lab