Borcea is originally from Romania, and earned a diploma in applied physics in 1987 from the University of Bucharest. She came to Stanford University for her graduate studies in Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics, earning a master's degree in 1992 and completing her doctorate in 1996,[1] under the supervision of George C. Papanicolaou.[2]
She was recognized as the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer for 2017, selected "for her distinguished scientific contributions to the mathematical and numerical analysis of wave propagation in random media, array imaging in complex environments, and inverse problems in high-contrast electrical impedance tomography, as well as model reduction techniques for parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations."[3] She is a member of the 2018 class of SIAM Fellows.[5] She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.[6]
