WORLD OF SCIENCE

Nobel Prize in Mathematics

A trick question! There is no Nobel prize in mathematics. Why not? That question has created numerous stories, myths, and anecdotes. The most popular is that Nobel's wife had an affair with a mathematician, usually said to be Mittag-Leffler, and in revenge Nobel refused to endow one of his prizes in mathematics. Too bad for this story that Nobel was a life-long bachelor! The other common story is that Mittag-Leffler, the leading Swedish mathematician of Nobel's time, antagonized Nobel and so Nobel gave no prize in mathematics to prevent Mittag-Leffler from becoming a winner. This story is also suspect, however, because Nobel and Mittag-Leffler had almost no contact with each other. Most likely Nobel simply never gave any thought to including mathematics among his list of prize areas.

References:

Garding, Lars and Lars Hormander. "Why is there no Nobel prize in mathematics?" The Mathematical Intelligencer, 7(3)(1985), 73-74.
Ross, Peter. "Why isn't there a Nobel prize in mathematics?" Math Horizons, November 1995, p9. [Reprint from the Math Forum]
Why is there no Nobel Prize in Mathematics?, http://www.almaz.com/Nobel/why_no_math.html, The Nobel Prize Internet Archive

Fields Medal

The Fields Medal is considered to be the equivalent of the Nobel prize for mathematics. John Charles Fields (1863-1932), a Canadian mathematician, endowed funds in his will for an award for mathematical achievement and promise that would emphasize the international character of the mathematical endeavor. The first Fields Medal was awarded at the International Congress of Mathematics meeting in Oslo in 1936. Since 1950 the medal has been awarded every four years at the International Mathematical Congress to between 2 and 4 mathematicians. Although there is no specific age restriction in Fields' will, he did wish that the awards recognize both existing work and the promise of future achievement, so the medals have been restricted to mathematicians under the age of 40. No woman mathematician has ever won a Fields Medal.

Reference:

Fields Medals and Rolf Nevalinna Prize, http://www.emis.math.ca/EMIS/mirror/IMU/medals/ [contains complete list of all winners and pictures of the front and back of the medal]
Historical Introduction by Alex Lopez-Ortiz, part of his FAQ site on mathematics.

Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics

[Description from the Notices of the American Mathematical Society]
The Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics was established in 1990 using funds donated to the American Mathematical Society by Joan S. Birman of Columbia University in memory of her sister, Ruth Lyttle Satter. Professor Satter earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and then joined the research staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories during World War II. After raising a family, she received a Ph.D. in botany at the age of forty-three from the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where she later became a faculty member. Her research on the biological clocks in plants earned her recognition in the U.S. and abroad. Professor Birman requested that the prize be established to homor her sister's commitment to research and to encouraging women in science. The prize is awarded every two years to recognize an outstanding contribution to mathematics research by a woman in the previous five years. The winners have been:

Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education

[Description from the Notices of the American Mathematical Society]
The Executive Committee of the Association for Women in Mathematics established the annual Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education. The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievements in any area of mathematics education, to be interpreted in the broadest possible sense. While Louise Hay was widely recognized for her contributions to mathematical logic and for her strong leadership as head of the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, her devotion to students and her lifelong commitment to nurturing the talent of young women and men secure her reputation as a consummate educator. The annual presentation of this award is intended to highlight the importance of mathematical education and to evoke the memory of all that Hay exemplified as a teacher, scholar, administrator, and human being.

The winners have been:

1991 Shirley Frye, National Council for Teachers of Mathematics
1992 Olga Beaver, Williams College
1993 Naomi Fisher, University of Illnois at Chicago
1994 Kaye A. de Ruiz, U.S. Air Force
1995 Etta Falconer, Spelman College [Biography]
1996 Glenda T. Lappan, Michigan State University, and Judith Roitman, University of Kansas [Biography]
1997 Marilyn Burns, Marilyn Burns Education Associates
1998 Deborah Hughes Hallett, Harvard University and the University of Arizona
1999 Martha K. Smith, University of Texas at Austin
2000 Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Michigan State University
2001 Patricia D. Shure, University of Michigan
2002 Annie Sheldon, Tennessee Technological University
2003 Katherine Puckett Layton, Beverly Hills High School and UCLA Graduate School of Education
2004 Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, University of Kansas
2005 Susanna S. Epp, DePaul University
2006 Patricia Kenshaft, Monclair State University
2007 Virginia McShane Warfield, University of Washington

For more information about the award and the recipients, visit Louise Hay Award at the Association for Women in Mathematics web site.

Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contributions to Research

The Steele Prizes were established in 1970. In 1993, the AMS formalized three categories for the prizes. The prize for "seminal contributions to research" is awarded for a paper, whether recent or not, that has proved to be of fundamental or lasting importance in its field, or a model of important research.

Women mathematicians who have won the prize are:

2007 Karen Uhlenbeck, "Removable singularities in Yang-Mills fields," Comm. Math. Phys. 83 (1982), 11-29; and "Connections with L^p bounds on curvature," Comm. Math. Phys. 83 (1982), 31-42.

Chauvenet Prize

The Chauvenet Prize is awarded annually by the Mathematical Association of America to the author of an outstanding expository article on a mathematical topic by a member of the association. First awarded in 1925, the Prize is named for William Chauvenet, a professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. It was established through a gift in 1925 from J.L. Coolidge, then MAA President. Winners of the Chauvent Prize are among the most distinguished of mathematical expositors.

Women mathematicians who have won the prize are:

1996 Joan Birman, "New Points of View in Knot Theory," AMS Bulletin, 28(1993).
2001 Carolyn S. Gordon (with David L. Webb), "You can't hear the shape of a drum", American Scientist 84 (1996), 46-55.
2002 Ellen Gethner (with Stan Wagon and Brian Wick), "A Stroll through the Gaussian Primes", American Mathematical Monthly, vol 105, no. 4 (1998), 327-337.

MacArthur Fellowships

MacArthur fellowships, popularly known as the "genius awards," cannot be applied for; rather, candidates are drawn from a pool of initial nominations by an anonymous group of 100 people. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation aims to recognize people whose achievements in the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, and public affairs show the promise of even greater accomplishments in the future. There are no strings attached. Recipients can spend the money, usually anywhere from $150,000 to $375,000 over a period of five years, anyway they want. The fellowships were established in 1981.

Women mathematicians who have received MacArthur Fellowships are:

Alice T. Schafer Prize

The Schafer Prize is awarded to an undergraduate woman in recognition of excellence in mathematics and is sponsored by the Association for Women in Mathematics The Schafer Prize was established in 1990 by the executive committee of the AWM and is named for former AWM president and one of its founding members, Alice T. Schafer, who has contributed a great deal to women in mathematics throughout her career. The criteria for selection includes, but is not limited to, the quality of the nominees' performance in mathematics courses and special programs, exhibition of real interest in mathematics, ability to do independent work, and if applicable, performance in mathematical competitions.

The winners of the Schafer Prize have been:

1991 Linda Green (University of Chicago) and Elizabeth Wilmer (Harvard University)
1992 Jeanne Nielsen (Duke University)
1993 Zvezdelina E. Stankova (Bryn Mawr College)
1994 Catherine O'Neil (University of California) and Dana Pascovici (Dartmouth College)
1995 Jing Rebecca Li (University of Michigan)
1996 Ruth Britto-Pacumio (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
1997 Ioana Dumitriu (New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences)
1998 Sharon Ann Lozano (University of Texas at Austin) and Jessica A. Shepherd (University of Utah)
1999 Caroline J. Klivans (Cornell University)
2000 Mariana E. Campbell (University of California, San Diego)
2001 Jaclyn (Kohles) Anderson (University of Nebraska at Lincoln)
2002 Kay Kickpatrick (Montana State University) and Melanie Wood (Duke University)
2003 Kate Gruher (University of Chicago)
2004 Kimberley Spears (University of California)
2005 Melody Chan (Yale University)
2006 Alexandra Ovetsky (Princeton University)
2007 Ana Caraiani (Princeton University)

For more information about the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman, see Alice T. Schafer Prize at the Association for Women in Mathematics web site.

MAA Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics

The Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics is the most prestigious award made by the Mathematical Association of America. This award, first given in 1990, is the successor to the Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics, awarded since 1962.

Women mathematicians who have won this award or the previous Distinguished Service Award are:

1962 Mina Rees
1991 Shirley Hill
1995 Anneli Lax
1997 Deborah Tepper Haimo
1998 Alice T. Schafer
2004 T. Christine Stevens

Sylvester Medal of the Royal Society of London

The Sylvester Medal has been awarded by the Royal Society of London every three years since 1901 for the encouragement of mathematical research without regard to nationality. It is given in honor of Professor J. J. Sylvester.

Women mathematicians who have won the Sylvester Medal are:

1964 Mary L. Cartwright

Complete list of winners of the Sylvester Medal

De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society

The De Morgan Medal, the London Mathematical Society's premier award, is awarded every third year in memory of Professor A. De Morgan, the Society's first President. The only criteria for the award is the candidate's contributions to mathematics. The medal was first awarded in 1884.

Women mathematicians who have won the De Morgan Medal are:

1968 Mary L. Cartwright

Complete list of winners of the De Morgan Medal

Adams Prize

The Adams Prize, given annually by the University of Cambridge to a British mathematician under the age of 40, commemorates the discovery by John Couch Adams of the planet Neptune through calculation of the discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus. It was enowed by members of St John's College, Cambridge, and approved by the Senate of the University in 1848. Each year applications are invited from mathematicians who have worked in a specific area of mathematics.

Women mathematicians who have won the Adams Prize are:

2002 Susan Howson, University of Nottingham (Number Theory)

CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize

The CRM-Fields-PIMS prize is intended to be the premier mathematics prize in Canada. The prize recognizes exceptional achievement in the mathematical sciences. The winner's research should have been conducted primarily in Canada or in affiliation with a Canadian university. The main selection criterion is outstanding contribution to the advancement of research. The prize was established by the Centre de recherches mathematiques and the Fields Institute as the CRM-Fields prize in 1994. In 2005, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) became an equal partner.

Women mathematicians who have won the CRM-Fields-PIMS prize are:

2006 Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann, University of Alberta

AWM Emmy Noether Lecturers

The Association for Women in Mathematics established the Emmy Noether Lectures to honor women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences. These one-hour expository lectures are presented at the Joint Mathematics Meetings each January. The Emmy Noether Lecturers have been:

1980 F. Jessie MacWilliams, "Survey of Coding Theory"
1981 Olga Taussky-Todd, "Many Aspects of Pythagorean Triangles"
1982 Julia Robinson, "Functional Equations in Arithmetic"
1983 Cathleen S. Morawetz, "How Do Perturbations of the Wave Equation Work"
1984 Mary Ellen Rudin, "Paracompactness"
1985 Jane Cronin Scanlon, "A Model of Cardiac Fiber: Problems in Singularly Perturbed Systems"
1986 Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, "On Partial Differentials Equation of Gauge Theories and General Relativity"
1987 Joan S. Birman, "Studying Links via Braids"
1988 Karen K. Uhlenbeck, "Moment Maps in Stable Bundles: Where Analysis Algebra and Topology Meet"
1989 Mary F. Wheeler, "Large Scale Modelling of Problems Arising in Flow in Pourous Media"
1990 Bhama Srinivasan, "The Invasion of Geometry into Finite Group Theory"
1991 Alexandra Bellow, "Almost Everywhere Convergence: The Case for the Ergodic Viewpoint"
1992 Nancy Kopell, "Oscillators and Networks of Them: Which Differences Make a Difference"
1993 Linda Keen, "Hyperbolic Geometry and Spaces of Riemann Surfaces"
1994 Lesley Sibner, "Analysis in Gauge Theory"
1995 Judith D. Sally, "Measuring Noetherian Rings"
1996 Olga Oleinik, "On Some Homogenization Problems For Differential Operators"
1997 Linda Rothschild, "How do Real Manifolds live in a Complex Space"
1998 Dusa McDuff, "Symplectic Structures-A New Approach to Geometry"
1999 Krystyna M. Kuperberg, "Aperiodic Dynamical Systems"
2000 Margaret Wright, "The Mathematics of Optimization"
2001 Sun-Yung Alice Chang, "Nonlinear Equations in Conformal Geometry"
2002 Lenore Blum, "Computing over the Reals: Where Turing meets Newton"
2003 Jean E. Taylor, "Five Little Crystals and How They Grew"
2004 Svetlana R. Katok, "Symbolic dynamics for geodesic flows"
2005 Lai-Sang Young, "From limit cycles to strange attractors"
2006 Ingrid Daubechies, "Mathematical results and challenges in learning theory"
2007 Karen Vogtmann, "Automorphisms of free groups, outer space, and beyond"

AWM web site about the Emmy Noether Lectures.

Emmy Noether Lecturers, International Congress of Mathematicians

The Emmy Noether Lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians, held every four years, is jointly organized by European Women in Mathematics, the Committee on Women of the Canadian Mathematical Society, and the Association for Women in Mathematics.

1994 Olga Ladyzhenskaya, "On some evolutionary fully nonlinear equations of geometrical nature"
1998 Cathleen Morawetz, "Variations on conservation laws for the wave equation"
2002 Hesheng Hu, "Two-dimensional harmonic maps"

AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturers

The Association for Women in Mathematics and the Mathematical Association of America annually present the Etta Z. Falconer Lectures to honor women who have made distinguished contributions to the mathematical sciences or mathematics education. These one-hour expository lectures are presented at Mathfest each summer. While the lectures began with Mathfest 1996, the title "Etta Z. Falconer Lecture" was established in 2004 in memory of Falconer's profound vision and accomplishments in enhancing the movement of minorities and women into scientific careers. The Falconer Lecturers have been:

1996 Karen E. Smith, MIT, "Calculus mod p"
1997 Suzanne M. Lenhart, University of Tennessee, "Applications of Optimal Control to Various Population Models"
1998 Margaret H. Wright, Bell Labs, "The Interior-Point Revolution in Constrained Optimization"
1999 Chuu-Lian Terng, Northeastern University, "Geometry and Visualization of Surfaces"
2000 Audrey Terras, University of California at San Diego, "Finite Quantum Chaos"
2001 Pat Shure, University of Michigan, "The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching: A Look Back and a Look Ahead"
2002 Annie Selden, Tennessee Technological University, "Two Research Traditions Separated by a Common Subject: Mathematics and Mathematics Education"
2003 Katherine P. Layton, Beverly Hills High School, "What I Learned in Forty Years in Beverly Hills 90212"
2004 Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, University of Kansas "Mathematics Education of Tomorrow"
2005 Fern Hunt, National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Techniques for Visualizing Frequency Patterns in DNA"
2006 Trachette Jackson, University of Michigan, "Cancer Modeling: From the Classical to the Contemporary"
2007 Katherine St. John, City University of New York, "Polygenetic Trees"

AWM web site about the Falconer Lectures.

AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturers

The Assocation for Women in Mathematics in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) sponsers the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevksy Lecture Series. The lecture is given annually at the SIAM Annual Meeting by a woman who has made distinguished contributions in applied or computational mathematics. The lectureship may be awarded to any woman in the scientific or engineering community. The Kovalevsky Lecturers have been:

2003 Linda R. Petzold, University of California, Santa Barbara, "Towards the Multiscale Simulation of Biochemical Networks"
2004 Joyce R. McLaughlin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, "Interior Elastodynamics Inverse Problems: Creating Shear Wave Speed Images of Tissue"
2005 Ingrid Daubechies, Princeton University, "Superfast and (Super)sparse Algorithms"
2006 Irene Fonseca, Carnegie-Mellon University, "New Challenges in the Calculus of Variations"
2007 Lai-Sang Young, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences

AWM web site about the Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturers.

Krieger-Nelson Prize Lectureship for Distinguished Research by Women in Mathematics

The Canadian Mathematical Society inaugurated the The Krieger-Nelson Prize to recognize outstanding research by a female mathematician. The first prize was awarded in 1995. The winners have been:

1995 Nancy Reid, University of Toronto
1996 Olga Kharlampovich, McGill University
1997 Cathleen Morawetz, New York University
1998 Catherine Sulem, University of Toronto
1999 Nicole Tomczak-Jaefermann, University of Alberta
2000 C. Kanta Gupta, University of Manitoba
2001 Lisa Jeffrey, University of Toronto
2002 Priscilla Greenwood, University of British Columbia and Arizona State University
2003 Leah Keshet, University of British Columbia
2004 Not awarded
2005 Barbara Keyfitz, University of Houston
2006 Penny Haxell, University of Waterloo
2007 Pauline van den Driessche, University of Victoria
2008 Izabella Laba, University of British Columbia

As part of its celebrations of the World Mathematical Year in 2000, the Canadian Mathematical Society sponsored the creation of a poster on women in mathematics. The poster features the six outstanding women mathematicians who were awarded the Krieger-Nelson prize from 1995 to 2000.

American Mathematical Society Colloquium Lecturers

The American Mathematical Society Colloquium Lectures have been presented since 1896. Women mathematicians who have presented lectures are:

Complete list of the AMS Colloquium Lecturers.

Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecturers

To commemorate the name of Professor Gibbs, the American Mathematical Society established an honarary lectureship in 1923 to be known as the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship. The lectures are of a semipopular nature and are given by invitation. They are usually devoted to mathematics or its applications. It is hoped that these lectures will enable the public and the academic community to become aware of the contribution that mathematics is making to present-day thinking and to modern civilization.

Women mathematicians who have presented the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures have been:

1981 Cathleen S. Morawetz, "The mathematical approach to the sound barrier"
1999 Nancy J. Kopell, "We got rhythm: Dynamical systems of the nervous system" (published in the AMS Notices, January 2000)
2005 Ingrid Daubechies, "The Interplay Between Analysis and Algorithms"

Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturers

The Earle Raymond Hedrick Lectures were established by the Mathematical Association of America in 1952 to present to the Association a lecturer of known skill as an expositor of mathematics "who will present a series of at most three lectures accessible to a large fraction of those who teach college mathematics."

Women mathematicians who have presented the Earle Raymond Hedrick Lectures have been:

J. Sutherland Frame Lectures

The J. Sutherland Frame Lectures were established by Pi Mu Epsilon to honor James Sutherland Frame who was instrumental in founding the Pi Mul Epsilon Journal and in creating the Pi Mu Epsilon Summer Student Paper Conferences in conjunction with the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. The lectures are presented at the summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America.

Women mathematicians who have presented the J. Sutherland Frame Lectures have been:

1988 Doris Schattschneider, "You Too Can Tile the Conway Way"
1989 Jame Cronin Scanlon, "Entrainment of Frequency
1995 Marjorie Senechal, "Tilings as Differntial Games"
2004 Joan P. Hutchinson, "When Five Colors Suffice"

Complete List of J. Sutherland Frame Lecturers.

Presidents of the Association for Women in Mathematics

The Association for Women in Mathematics was established in 1971 to encourage women to enter careers in mathematics and related areas, and to promote equal opportunity and equal treatment of women in the mathematical community. The Presidents of the AWM have been:

1971-1973 Mary Gray
1973-1975 Alice T. Schafer
1975-1979 Lenore Blum
1979-1981 Judy Roitman
1981-1983 Bhama Srinivasan
1983-1985 Linda Rothschild
1985-1987 Linda Keen
1987-1989 Rhonda Hughes
1989-1991 Jill Mesirov
1991-1993 Carol Wood
1993-1995 Cora Sadosky
1995-1997 Chuu-Lian Terng
1997-1999 Sylvia Wiegand
1999-2001 Jean Taylor
2001-2003 Suzanne Lenhart
2003-2005 Carolyn Gordon
2005-2007 Barbara Keyfitz
2007-2009 Cathy Kessel

Presidents of the Mathematical Association of America

In December 1915, ten women and 96 men met at The Ohio State University to established the organization that became the Mathematical Association of America. Women who have served as President of the MAA have been

1979-1981 Dorothy L. Bernstein, Goucher College
1989-1990 Lida K. Barrett, Mississippi State University
1991-1992 Deborah Tepper Haimo, University of Missouri at Saint Louis
2001-2002 Ann Watkins, California State University, Northridge

Presidents of the American Mathematical Society

The American Mathematical Society was founded in 1889. Since then, women who have served as President of the AMS have been

1983-1984 Julia Robinson, University of California at Berkeley
1995-1996 Cathleen Morawetz, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences