Chelsea Walton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chelsea Walton
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Walton at Oberwolfach in 2014
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| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
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| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Rice University |
| Thesis | On Degenerations and Deformations of Sklyanin Algebras (2011) |
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Chelsea Walton is an American mathematician. She studies advanced topics in algebra and geometry. Her work helps us understand complex mathematical structures. She is currently a professor at Rice University. She has also received a special award called the Sloan Research Fellowship.
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Becoming a Mathematician
Chelsea Walton grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She is an African-American mathematician. She went to public schools in Detroit. Even as a child, she loved numbers and puzzles.
Early Interests in Math
When she was young, Chelsea made a table of how often letters appear in words. She used her children's dictionary for this project. In high school, she knew she wanted to be a math professor. She wanted a job where she could solve logic puzzles all day.
College and Advanced Studies
Chelsea Walton earned her first degree from Michigan State University in 2005. She then went on to get her PhD in mathematics. She completed her PhD at the University of Michigan in 2011. Her main research was about "Sklyanin Algebras." These are special types of mathematical structures. Her teachers were Toby Stafford and Karen E. Smith.
Teaching and Research Roles
After her PhD, Chelsea did more research. She worked at the University of Washington. She also worked at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. From 2012 to 2015, she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2015, she became a professor at Temple University. She then moved to the University of Illinois in 2018. Since 2020, she has been a professor at Rice University.
Awards and Achievements
Chelsea Walton has received several important awards for her work. These awards show how much her research helps the field of mathematics.
Sloan Research Fellowship
In 2017, Chelsea Walton was named a Sloan Fellow. This is a very important award for young scientists. She was the fourth African-American person to win this award in mathematics.
André Lichnerowicz Prize
In 2018, she won the André Lichnerowicz Prize in Poisson geometry. She was the first woman ever to receive this prize. The award recognized her research on Sklyanin algebras. It also honored her work on other complex mathematical ideas.
Fellow of the American Mathematical Society
In 2025, Chelsea Walton was chosen as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This is a high honor given to mathematicians who have made outstanding contributions.
