Biography:Frances Kirwan

From HandWiki
Short description: British mathematician (born 1959)
Dame

Frances Kirwan

Frances Kirwan.jpg
Kirwan in 2009
Born21 August 1959[1]
UK
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
University of Oxford
AwardsWhitehead Prize (1989)
Senior Whitehead Prize (2013)
Suffrage Science award (2016)
Sylvester Medal of The Royal Society(2021)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
ThesisThe Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry
Doctoral advisorMichael Atiyah
Websitewww.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/frances.kirwan

Dame Frances Clare Kirwan, DBE FRS (born 21 August 1959)[2] is a British mathematician, currently Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford. Her fields of specialisation are algebraic and symplectic geometry.[3][4]

Education

Kirwan was educated at Oxford High School, and studied maths as an undergraduate at Clare College in the University of Cambridge.[5] She took a D.Phil at Oxford in 1984, with the dissertation title The Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry, which was supervised by Michael Atiyah.[6]

Research

Kirwan's research interests include moduli spaces in algebraic geometry, geometric invariant theory (GIT), and in the link between GIT and moment maps in symplectic geometry.[7] Her work endeavours to understand the structure of geometric objects by investigation of their algebraic and topological properties.[8] She introduced the Kirwan map.

From 1983 to 1985 she held a junior fellowship at Harvard. From 1983 to 1986 she held a Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, before becoming a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.[9] She is an honorary fellow of Clare College, Cambridge[10] and also at Magdalen College.[11]

In 1996, she was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Mathematics. From 2004 to 2006 she was president of the London Mathematical Society, the second-youngest president in the society's history and only the second woman to be president.[12][13] In 2005, she received a five-year EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, to support her research on the moduli spaces of complex algebraic curves.[14]

In 2017, she was elected Savilian Professor of Geometry, becoming the first woman to hold the post.[15] While this entailed a move to New College, Oxford she was elected an emeritus fellow at Balliol.[16] She was the convenor of the 2008–9 meeting of European Women in Mathematics and deputy convenor of the following meeting in 2010–11.[17]

Prizes, awards and scholarships

  • London Mathematical Society Whitehead Prize, 1989[18]
  • Fellow of the Royal Society, 2001[19]
  • President, London Mathematical Society, 2003–2005
  • EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, 2005–2010, for her work in algebraic geometry[20]
  • Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, 2012[21]
  • London Mathematical Society Senior Whitehead Prize, 2013[18]
  • DBE for services to mathematics, 2014[22]
  • Maths and Computing Suffrage Science award, 2016[23]
  • Member of Academia Europaea[9]
  • Chairman of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust
  • Sylvester Medal of The Royal Society, 2021
  • Honorary degree, University of York, 2020[24]
  • Honorary degree, University of St Andrews, 2022[25]
  • L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards (Laureate for Europe – Mathematics), 2023[26]

Kirwan served on the medal-selection committee that awarded the Fields medal to Maryam Mirzakhani.[27]

Publications

  • Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry. Mathematical Notes. 31. Princeton University Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0691083704. 
  • An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory. Longman Scientific and Technical. 1988. [28] with Jonathan Woolf: 2nd edn. CRC Press. 2006. ISBN 978-1584881841. 
  • Complex Algebraic Curves. London Mathematical Society Student Texts. Cambridge University Press. 1992. ISBN 978-0521423533. 

References

  1. ltd, company check. "PROFESSOR FRANCES CLARE KIRWAN director information. Free director information. Director id 915281815". http://companycheck.co.uk/director/915281815/PROFESSOR-FRANCES-CLARE-KIRWAN/summary. 
  2. "Frances Clare KIRWAN personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/m7oJhMfs8G8QXRs0SMhTNZFbDL8/appointments. 
  3. Oxford University Calendar 2004-05, Oxford University Press (2004).
  4. Professor Frances Kirwan profile , Faces of Mathematics; accessed 23 March 2022.
  5. "Frances Kirwan, Professor, Mathematics, University of Oxford". University of Washington. 10 May 2007. http://advance.washington.edu/news/events/month/2007-05/frances-kirwan-professor-mathematics-university-oxford. 
  6. Frances Kirwan at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. Prof Kirwan profile , europeanwomeninmaths.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
  8. Prof Kirwan profile, macs.hw.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Academia Europaea member profile, retrieved 22 June 2014.
  10. "Honorary Fellows". Clare College, Cambridge. http://www.clare.cam.ac.uk/emeritus-honorary-and-foundation-fellows/. 
  11. "People at Magdalen". https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/people-at-magdalen/?type=honorary_and_waynflete_fellows. 
  12. "President Designate of the London Mathematical Society", Mathematical Institute News, University of Oxford, 2004.
  13. "Female Presidents for Three Maths Societies". Institute of Mathematics. 5 January 2018. https://ima.org.uk/8604/female-presidents-three-maths-societies/. 
  14. Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship (2004), maths.ox.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  15. "Frances Kirwan elected 20th Savilian Professor". 11 October 2017. https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/news/2017/october/frances-kirwan-elected-20th-savilian-professor. 
  16. "Emeritus Fellows - Balliol". 28 August 2009. https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/balliol-people/emeritus-fellows. 
  17. "History" (in en-US). 2022. https://www.europeanwomeninmaths.org/about-us/history/. 
  18. 18.0 18.1 Dr Frances Kirwan awarded the Whitehead Prize, lms.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  19. Profile, royalsociety.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
  20. Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, Univ. of Oxford Mathematical Inst., retrieved 20 October 2014.
  21. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society; accessed 9 May 2014
  22. No. 60728. 31 December 2013. p. 7. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/60728/supplement/7 
  23. "LMS members to receive maths and computing awards | London Mathematical Society". http://lms-staging.ma.ic.ac.uk/news-entry/04102016-1137/lms-members-receive-maths-and-computing-awards. (registration required)
  24. "Introducing our Honorary Graduates" (in en). January 2020. http://features.york.ac.uk/introducing-our-honorary-graduates-2020/. 
  25. "Honorary graduates" (in en). 2022. https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/graduation/honorands/. 
  26. "Discover the laureates of the 25th L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards | UNESCO" (in en). https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/discover-laureates-25th-loreal-unesco-women-science-international-awards. 
  27. Webb, Jonathan (12 August 2014). "First female winner for maths medal" (in en-GB). https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28739373. 
  28. Kleiman, Steven L. (1990). "Review: An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory, by Frances Kirwan". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 22 (1): 127–138. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1990-15859-8. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1990-22-01/S0273-0979-1990-15859-8/. 

External links