British mathematician (born 1959)
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. Vol. 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
^ ltd, company check. "PROFESSOR FRANCES CLARE KIRWAN director information. Free director information. Director id 915281815" . Company Check .
^ "Frances Clare KIRWAN personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK" . find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk .
^ Oxford University Calendar 2004-05 , Oxford University Press (2004).
^ Professor Frances Kirwan profile Archived 6 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine , Faces of Mathematics ; accessed 23 March 2022.
^ "Frances Kirwan, Professor, Mathematics, University of Oxford" . University of Washington . 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015 .
^ Frances Kirwan at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
^ Prof Kirwan profile Archived 10 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine , europeanwomeninmaths.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
^ Prof Kirwan profile Archived 28 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine , macs.hw.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^ a b Academia Europaea member profile , retrieved 22 June 2014.
^ "Honorary Fellows" . Clare College, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2015 .
^ "People at Magdalen" . Magdalen College Oxford . Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^ "President Designate of the London Mathematical Society" , Mathematical Institute News , University of Oxford, 2004.
^ "Female Presidents for Three Maths Societies" . IMA . Institute of Mathematics . 5 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2021 .
^ Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship (2004) Archived 18 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine , maths.ox.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^ "Frances Kirwan elected 20th Savilian Professor" . 11 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2017 .[permanent dead link ]
^ "Emeritus Fellows - Balliol" . 28 August 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2018 .
^ "History" . European Women in Mathematics . 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^ a b Dr Frances Kirwan awarded the Whitehead Prize , lms.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^ Profile , royalsociety.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
^ Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship , Univ. of Oxford Mathematical Inst., retrieved 20 October 2014.
^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society ; accessed 9 May 2014
^ "No. 60728" . The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 7.
^ "LMS members to receive maths and computing awards | London Mathematical Society" . lms-staging.ma.ic.ac.uk . Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021 . (registration required)
^ "Introducing our Honorary Graduates" . University of York . January 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^ "Honorary graduates" . University of St Andrews . 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022 .
^ "Discover the laureates of the 25th L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards | UNESCO" . www.unesco.org . Retrieved 14 June 2023 .
^ Webb, Jonathan (12 August 2014). "First female winner for maths medal" . Retrieved 8 October 2019 .
^ 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 .
External links
International National Academics Other