Catherine Bandle facts for kids
Catherine Bandle (born March 22, 1943) is a brilliant Swiss mathematician. She is famous for her research on differential equations, which are math problems that involve rates of change. This includes things like how heat spreads or how populations grow. She also wrote an important book about isoperimetric inequalities, which are rules about shapes and their sizes. She used to be a professor of mathematics at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Learning and Career Journey
Catherine Bandle finished her highest degree, called a doctorate (Dr. math.), in 1971. She earned it at ETH Zurich, a famous university in Switzerland. Her big research paper, called a dissertation, was about isoperimetric inequalities. Two professors, Joseph Hersch and Alfred Huber, helped guide her work.
Just like another famous mathematician, Alice Roth, Catherine Bandle won the ETH Silver Medal for her amazing dissertation. She continued her studies at ETH Zurich and earned a special qualification called a habilitation in 1974. She was the very first woman mathematician to achieve this at ETH Zurich, and one of the first women in any field there!
In 1975, she became a professor at the University of Basel. She taught there until she retired in 2003. During her career, she also worked with her friend and fellow mathematician, Maria Assunta Pozio.
Important Books
Catherine Bandle wrote a significant book titled Isoperimetric Inequalities and Applications in 1980. This was only the second book ever to explore how isoperimetric inequalities are used in mathematical physics. The first was written by George Pólya and Gábor Szegő way back in 1951. Catherine Bandle's book was much more up-to-date with the latest discoveries in this field.
More recently, in 2023, Catherine Bandle published another book. It's called Shape Optimization - Variations of Domains and Applications. She wrote this book with Alfred Wagner, who is a professor from RWTH Aachen University.
