Abigail Thompson facts for kids
Abigail A. Thompson (born in 1958 in Norwalk, Connecticut) is an American mathematician. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis. She studies special areas of math called knot theory and low-dimensional topology.
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Education and Career
Abigail Thompson finished her studies at Wellesley College in 1979. She then earned her Ph.D. (a high-level degree) in 1986 from Rutgers University. After working for a short time at other universities, she joined the University of California, Davis in 1988.
She received special fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. These fellowships help scientists do their research. She was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study several times. This is a place where smart people can focus on their studies. In 2017, she became the head of the Mathematics Department at UC Davis. She also served as a vice president for the American Mathematical Society from 2019 to 2022.
What She Studies (Research)
Abigail Thompson's research focuses on knot theory and low-dimensional topology. Imagine you have a piece of string and you tie a knot in it. Knot theory is a branch of mathematics that studies these knots. It looks at how knots can be formed and how they can be untangled or changed.
She also works on something called "thin position" for knots and 3-dimensional shapes (called 3-manifolds). This helps mathematicians understand the shapes of these objects better.
Improving Math Education
Abigail Thompson has also worked hard to improve how math is taught in elementary and high schools. In the mid-1990s, when her oldest child started school, she felt that the math lessons were not good enough. She believed they didn't teach basic math skills well and didn't let students work on their own.
Because of this, she started a program at UC Davis to help teachers learn more about mathematics. She also became the director of the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science. This is a special summer camp where high school students can spend a month learning advanced math and science.
Awards and Recognition
In 2003, Abigail Thompson won the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics. This award recognized her important research on thin position and Heegaard splittings. In 2013, she became one of the first "fellows" of the American Mathematical Society. This is a special honor given to mathematicians who have made great contributions.
In 2020, she was recognized as a "Hero of Intellectual Freedom" by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. This was because she wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal. In the article, she shared her views on how professors should be hired at universities. She believes that hiring should be based on a person's academic skills and knowledge. Her article led to many discussions within the math community and universities.
See also
In Spanish: Abigail Thompson para niños
