Ioana Dumitriu facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ioana Dumitriu
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Dumitriu in 2003
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| Born | July 6, 1976 |
| Alma mater | New York University (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Awards | CAREER Award (2009) Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis (2007) Putnam Fellow (1996) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Washington University of California, San Diego |
| Doctoral advisor | Alan Edelman |
Ioana Dumitriu (born July 6, 1976) is a mathematician from Romania and America. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego. Her work focuses on interesting areas like random matrices, which are huge tables of numbers used in many fields. She also studies numerical analysis, which is about solving math problems using computers. Other areas she researches are scientific computing and game theory, which looks at how people make decisions.
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Early Life and Education
Ioana Dumitriu grew up in Bucharest, Romania. Her parents were both professors of electrical engineering. From a young age, it was clear she had a special talent for mathematics. When she was 11, she won a national math contest.
She trained for the International Mathematical Olympiad. This is a big math competition for high school students from all over the world. Even though she didn't make the final team, she reached the national semifinal.
University Studies
At 19, Ioana started at New York University (NYU). She was so good at math that she was already taking classes usually meant for graduate students. In 1999, she graduated from NYU with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She also studied computer science. She graduated summa cum laude, which means "with highest honors."
She then earned her Ph.D. (a high-level university degree) in 2003. This was from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her main teacher was Alan Edelman. After getting her Ph.D., she did more research at the University of California, Berkeley. This is called postdoctoral research. In 2006, she became a professor at the University of Washington. Later, in 2019, she moved to UC San Diego.
Awards and Honors
Ioana Dumitriu has won many awards for her math skills. In 1996, she won the Alice T. Schafer prize. This award is for excellent undergraduate women in mathematics.
Putnam Fellow
Also in 1996, while still a student at New York University, Ioana made history. She became the first woman to be named a Putnam Fellow. This means she earned one of the top five scores in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. This is a very challenging math contest for college students in the United States and Canada.
She also won the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Award three times. This award goes to the top woman in the contest. She won it in 1995, 1996, and 1997. This record was not matched until ten years later.
Other Recognitions
In 2007, she won the Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis. This prize is for young researchers who are great at both math and explaining their work. In 2009, she received a CAREER Award. This award from the National Science Foundation helps promising young scientists with their research. In 2012, she became one of the first fellows of the American Mathematical Society. This is a special honor given to mathematicians who have made important contributions.
