Amie Wilkinson facts for kids

Amie Wilkinson is an American mathematician. She was born in 1968. She is a professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. Her work explores how things change over time in complex systems.

Professor Wilkinson's research includes dynamical systems and chaos theory. She studies how small changes can lead to big, unpredictable results. She also explores ergodic theory, which looks at the long-term average behavior of systems.

In 2014, Wilkinson became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). She was also chosen for the Academia Europaea in 2019. In 2021, she joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received the Levi L. Conant Prize in 2020 for her important work on Lyapunov exponents. These help explain how systems grow or shrink over time.

Early Life and Education

Amie Wilkinson earned her first degree in mathematics. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1989. She then continued her studies.

In 1995, she completed her PhD in Mathematics. This degree was from the University of California, Berkeley. Her advisor, Charles C. Pugh, guided her research.

Career and Research

Professor Wilkinson is currently a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago. Before this, she taught at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on the geometric and statistical properties of diffeomorphisms and flows.

She is especially interested in stable ergodicity and partial hyperbolicity. These ideas help explain how systems behave over long periods. She has worked with other mathematicians, Christian Bonatti and Sylvain Crovisier. Together, they helped solve a complex problem. This was the twelfth problem on Stephen Smale's list of important math challenges.

Awards and Recognition

Amie Wilkinson has received several important awards for her contributions to mathematics.

• In 2011, she was awarded the Satter Prize in Mathematics. This award recognized her work with Keith Burns. They studied how systems can be "stably ergodic."
• She gave a special talk in 2010. This was at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, India. Her talk was about "Dynamical Systems and Ordinary Differential Equations."
• In 2013, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This honor was for her significant work in dynamical systems.
• She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2019.
• In 2020, she received the Levi L. Conant Prize from the AMS.
• She was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.

Wilkinson's work has been featured in Quanta Magazine. She is also a member of the Board of Advisers for Scientific American.

Personal Life

Amie Wilkinson is married to Benson Farb. They got married on December 28, 1996. Both Amie Wilkinson and Benson Farb are professors in the same mathematics department.

See also

In Spanish: Amie Wilkinson para niños