Julia Robinson
Born: December 8, 1919, St. Louis MO
Died: July 30, 1985
Robinson is best known for her contributions to the solution of Hilbert's Tenth Problem. She began her undergraduate studies at San Diego University in 1936, but by 1939 she transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. After being awarded her B.A. in 1940, she pursued her graduate studies, earning her PhD in 1948 for her dissertation on “Definability and Decision Problems in Arithmetic.” In her dissertation, she proved that the theory of rational numbers was undecidable; this was achieved by showing that the integers (which were already known to be undecidable) are definable in the theory of rational numbers. Robinson became a professor at UC Berkeley in 1976 and retired in 1985. In 1975, Robinson became the first woman mathematician to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and, in 1983, she became the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society. Her other honors include Noether Lecturer 1982, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 1983, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Historical
Annie Dale Biddle Andrews (1885-1940)
First woman to earn a PhD in mathematics at UC Berkeley (1911)
Evelyn Fix (1904-1965)
One of the first women appointed professor of statistics at UC Berkeley
Emma Lehmer (1906-2007)
Mathematician associated with UC Berkeley
Sophia Levy McDonald (1888-1963)
One of the first women appointed professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley
Elizabeth Scott (1917-1988)
One of the first women appointed professor of statistics at UC Berkeley; Chair of the Statistics Department (1968-1973)
Pauline Sperry (1885-1967)
First woman appointed assistant professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley (1923)
Current Faculty
Ani Adhikari
Teaching professor in statistics
Mina Aganagic
Professor of mathematics and physics
Sandrine Dudoit
Professor of biostatistics and statistics
Jenny Harrison
Professor of mathematics
Olga Holtz
Professor of mathematics; AMS Fellow (2016)
Haiyan Huang
Associate professor of statistics
Deborah Nolan
Professor of statistics
Elizabeth Purdom
Associate professor of statistics
Marina Ratner (1938-2017)
Professor emerita of mathematics
Update: During the exhibit, we received the sad news that Professor Ratner had passed away. An obituary is available in the New York Times.
Vera Serganova
Professor of mathematics
Juliet Shaffer
Teaching professor emerita of statistics
Chris Shannon
Professor of economics and mathematics
Zvezdelina Stankova
Teaching professor of mathematics; Director, Berkeley Math Circle
Nike Sun
Assistant professor of statistics
Katrin Wehrheim
Associate professor of mathematics; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2009); AMS Fellow (2013)
Lauren Williams
Professor of mathematics; AMS Fellow (2013)
Bin Yu
Professor of statistics
Maryam Mirzakhani
Born: May 3, 1977, Tehran, Iran
Died: July 14, 2017
Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the Fields Medal, known as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics," in recognition of her contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces. Mirzakhani was of Iranian descent and was raised in Iran. She earned a B.S. in mathematics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 1999, and completed her PhD at Harvard in 2004. Mirzakhani gained recognition on the international math scene as a teenager, winning gold medals at both the 1994 and 1995 International Math Olympiads, and finishing with a perfect score in the latter competition. From 2004 to 2008, she was a Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow and an assistant professor at Princeton University. Mirzakhani had been a professor of mathematics at Stanford since 2008. She received numerous awards and fellowships. Her research interests included Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.
Update: During the exhibit, we received the sad news that Professor Mirzakhani had passed away. Obituaries are available from the following sources (among many others):
While no list can be comprehensive, this list highlights a selection of other notable women mathematicians. Check out the Biographies of Women Mathematicians (Agnes Scott College) and MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive - Female Mathematicians (University of St. Andrews) for more information about these and other women mathematicians.
Georgia Benkart
Professor emerita of mathematics at University of Wisconsin, Madison; AWM President (2009-2011); AMS Fellow (2013); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2014)
Andrea Bertozzi
Professor of mathematics at UCLA; AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer (2009); AMS Fellow (2013)
Joan Birman
Research professor emerita of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1987); AMS Fellow (2013)
Lenore Blum
Distinguished professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University; AWM President (1975-1979); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2002); AMS Fellow (2013)
Marjorie Lee Browne (1914-1979)
One of the first African-American women to earn a PhD in mathematics (University of Michigan 1949)
Sun-Yung Alice Chang
Professor of mathematics at Princeton University; Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (1995); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2001); AMS Colloquium Lecturer (2004); AMS Fellow (2016)
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)
French natural philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and author; known for her translation of Newton's Principia into French
Fan Chung
Distinguished professor of mathematics and computer science at University of California, San Diego; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2009); AMS Fellow (2013)
Maria Chudnovsky
Professor of mathematics at Princeton University; MacArthur Fellow (2012)
Ingrid Daubechies
Professor of mathematics and electrical & computer engineering at Duke University; MacArthur Fellow (1992); Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (1994); Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (1997); Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturer (2001); AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer (2005); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2006); John von Neumann Lecturer (2011); Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contributions to Research (2011); AMS Fellow (2013)
F. N. David (1909-1993)
Was lecturer, reader, and professor of statistics at University College in London (1945-1967) then professor and chair of statistics at University of California, Riverside (1968-1977); Fellow of the American Statistical Association (1954); first recipient of the Elizabeth L Scott Award (1992)
Carolyn Gordon
Professor of mathematics at Dartmouth University; AWM President (2003-2005); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2010); AMS Fellow (2013)
Evelyn Boyd Granville
One of the first African-American women to earn a PhD in mathematics (Yale University 1949)
Mary Gray
Professor of mathematics and statistics at American University; one of the founders of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM); first AWM President (1971-1973); Elizabeth L Scott Award (2012); AMS Fellow (2013)
Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
Was pioneering computer scientist who invented the first compiler for a computer programming language and helped create the COBOL programming language; Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016)
Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver
Professor of statistics at North Carolina State University; Blackwell-Tapia Prize (2014)
Trachette Jackson
Professor of mathematics at University of Michigan; AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer (2006); Blackwell-Tapia Prize (2010)
Linda Keen
Professor emerita of mathematics and computer science at Lehman College, City University of New York; AWM President (1985-1987); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1993); AMS Fellow (2013)
Barbara Keyfitz
Professor of mathematics at Ohio State University; Krieger-Nelson Prize Lectureship for Distinguished Research by Women in Mathematics (2005); AWM President (2005-2007); AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer (2012); AMS Fellow (2013)
Nancy Kopell
Distinguished professor of mathematics and statistics at Boston University; MacArthur Fellow (1990); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1992); John von Neumann Lecturer (2007); AMS Fellow (2016)
Krystyna Kuperberg
Professor of mathematics at Auburn University; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1999); AMS Fellow (2013)
F. Jessie MacWilliams (1917-1990)
Was a mathematician working in coding theory at Bell Labs; first AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1980)
Dusa McDuff
Professor of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University; Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (1991); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1998); Mary Cartwright Lecturer (2009); AMS Fellow (2013); AMS Colloquium Lecturer (2014); Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (2017);
Winifred Edgerton Merrill (1862-1951)
First American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics (Columbia University 1886)
Cathleen Morawetz
Professor emerita at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1983); AMS President (1995-1996); Krieger-Nelson Prize Lectureship for Distinguished Research by Women in Mathematics (1997); Mary Cartwright Lecturer (2001); Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2004); AMS Fellow (2013)
Raman Parimala
Distinguished professor of mathematics at Emory University; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2013); AMS Fellow (2013)
Mina Rees (1902-1997)
Was a mathematician at the Office of Naval Research, professor of mathematics and dean at Hunter College, professor and dean at City University of New York, and then founding president of the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York; first recipient of the MAA Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics (1962); first woman president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971)
Linda Rothschild
Professor emerita of mathematics at University of California, San Diego; AWM President (1983-1985); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1997); AMS Fellow (2013)
Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-2013)
Was professor of mathematics at University of Wisconsin; Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturer (1979); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1984); AMS Fellow (2013)
Jane Cronin Scanlon
Professor emerita of mathematics at Rutgers University; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1985); AMS Fellow (2013)
Lesley Sibner (1934-2013)
Was professor of mathematics at Polytechnic Institute of New York; AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1994); AMS Fellow (2013)
Karen E. Smith
Professor of mathematics at University of Michigan; AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer (1996); Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (2001); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2016); AMS Fellow (2016)
Bhama Srinivasan
Professor of mathematics at University of Illinois at Chicago; AWM President (1981-1983); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1990); AMS Fellow (2013)
Jean Taylor
Professor emerita of mathematics at Rutgers University; Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturer (1998); AWM President (1999-2001); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2003); AMS Fellow (2013)
Audrey Terras
Professor emerita of mathematics at University of California, San Diego; AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer (2000); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2008); AMS Fellow (2013)
Abigail Thompson
Professor of mathematics at University of California, Davis; Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (2003); AMS Fellow (2013)
Karen Uhlenbeck
Professor of mathematics at University of Texas at Austin; MacArthur Fellow (1983); AMS Colloquium Lecturer (1985); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (1988); Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contributions to Research (2007); AMS Fellow (2013)
Mariel Vazquez
Professor of mathematics and microbiology & molecular genetics at University of California, Davis; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2011); Blackwell-Tapia Prize (2016)
Anna Pell Wheeler (1883-1966)
Was a professor of mathematics at Bryn Mawr College; first woman to present an AMS Colloquium Lecture (1927)
Margaret Wright
Professor of computer science and mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; previously she worked as a scientist at Bell Laboratories (1988-2000); SIAM President (1995-1996); AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer (1998); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2000); AMS Award for Distinguished Public Service (2002); Mary Cartwright Lecturer (2013); AMS Fellow (2013)
Lai-Sang Young
Professor of mathematics and neural science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (1993); AWM-Emmy Noether Lecturer (2005); AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer (2007)