Hinke Osinga facts for kids

Hinke Maria Osinga (born 25 December 1969) is a mathematician from the Netherlands. She is an expert in dynamical systems, which means she studies how things change over time, like weather patterns or how planets move. She works as a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Applied mathematics uses math to solve real-world problems. Besides her research, she is also famous for creating amazing mathematical art.

Becoming a Mathematician

Hinke Osinga studied at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She earned her master's degree in 1991. Later, in 1996, she completed her Ph.D. Her Ph.D. project was about calculating "invariant manifolds." These are special shapes or paths that stay the same even as a system changes. Imagine a river: the water flows, but the riverbed (the manifold) stays in place. Her work was guided by two professors: Henk Broer, who studies dynamical systems, and Gert Vegter, who works with computational geometry (using computers to study shapes).

After finishing her Ph.D., Dr. Osinga continued her research at places like The Geometry Center and the California Institute of Technology. She also taught at the University of Exeter. In 2001, she became a lecturer at the University of Bristol. She was promoted to a higher position there in 2005 and became a full professor in 2011.

In 2011, Dr. Osinga moved to New Zealand to work at the University of Auckland. She made history there by becoming the first female mathematics professor at that university. She was also only the second female mathematics professor in all of New Zealand.

Art and Math Together

Hinke Osinga is well-known for combining her love of math with art. In 2004, she made a unique piece of art: a crocheted model of something called the Lorenz manifold. This manifold is a complex shape that helps us understand the Lorenz system, which is a mathematical model for things like weather.

She even published the crochet pattern for her artwork with her husband, Bernd Krauskopf. This amazing textile art piece used over 25,000 crochet stitches and was almost a meter wide! Later, Dr. Osinga and her husband worked with an artist named Benjamin Storch. Together, they created a sculpture out of stainless steel that showed another way to look at the same mathematical system.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Dr. Osinga has received many awards for her important work in mathematics:

• In 2014, she was invited to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians. This is a very big honor, and she talked about "Mathematics in Science and Technology."
• In 2015, she was chosen as a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. This award recognized her important work on how to understand and calculate dynamical systems.
• In October 2016, she became the first female mathematician to be elected to the Royal Society of New Zealand.
• She received the Aitken Lectureship in 2017.
• Also in 2017, the Royal Society Te Apārangi chose her as one of "150 women in 150 words." This celebrated the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.
• In the same year, she was awarded the Moyal Medal from Macquarie University.