Jacqui Ramagge facts for kids

Jacqui Ramagge is an English-Australian mathematician. She is a leader in the world of science and math. She is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at Durham University in the UK. She is also an Honorary Professor of Mathematics at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Jacqui was born in London. She moved to Australia in 1991. Later, in 2020, she returned to the UK for her role at Durham University. She is a special member, called a Fellow, of the Royal Society of New South Wales. From 2019 to 2020, she was the President of the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS).

Education and Career

Early Life and School

Jacqui Ramagge was born in London. Her family came from Spain, so she grew up speaking both Spanish and English. She went to Hallfield Primary School and then Holland Park Comprehensive School. Every summer until she was 18, she visited a village in northern Spain. Jacqui was the first person in her family to go to university.

She studied at the University of Warwick in the UK. There, she earned her first degree in mathematics in 1988. She then got a master's degree in math in 1990. In 1993, she completed her PhD, which is a very high-level degree. During her PhD studies, Jacqui won the B. H. Neumann Prize in 1993. This award was for the best talk given by a student at a big math meeting in Australia.

Working as a Professor

From 1993 to 2007, Jacqui worked as a professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia. In 2005, she helped with marketing and student recruitment for the science and IT department. In 2006, she led a program called Women@UoN. This program helped women staff members at the university grow in their careers.

From 2007 to 2015, Jacqui taught at the University of Wollongong. She directed a special summer math school there in 2008–2009. She also led the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics from 2009 to 2015.

In 2015, Jacqui became a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Sydney. She was only the second woman to become a math professor there. The first was Professor Nalini Joshi. From 2016 to 2019, Jacqui was the Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics. During this time, she helped create the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute. She worked with other professors to raise a lot of money to start this important institute.

In 2020, Jacqui Ramagge moved back to the United Kingdom. She took on a big leadership role at Durham University. As the Executive Dean of Science, she is in charge of planning and managing the science department.

What Jacqui Studies

Jacqui Ramagge's research combines different areas of math. These include algebra, analysis, and geometry. Her main projects now focus on understanding the structure of certain types of groups. These are called totally disconnected, locally compact groups. She also studies operator algebras.

In her work on totally disconnected, locally compact groups, Jacqui is helping to develop the geometric side of this theory. In operator algebras, she mainly works on C*-algebras. These were created to help explain how quantum mechanics works. She also studies how to classify their "equilibrium states." Her work has helped scientists understand complex math ideas.

As of March 2021, Jacqui has published 28 research papers. These papers cover topics like group theory, functional analysis, and operator algebras. Since 2002, she has also received 10 grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC). These grants help fund her important research.

Awards and Memberships

Jacqui Ramagge became a Fellow of AustMS in 2014. She has been very involved with this society since 1992. She was the President of AustMS from 2019 to 2020. She continued to serve as President even after moving back to the UK in 2020. She has also been an editor for the AustMS’s Lecture Series since 2011. She was the Chief Editor from 2017 to 2019.

In 2019, Jacqui became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

In 2013, Jacqui won the B. H. Neumann Award for Excellence in Mathematics Enrichment. This award is from the Australian Mathematics Trust. She has been part of the committee that creates math problems for primary school students since 2001.

Jacqui has also held many other important roles:

• She led the Australian Council of Heads of Maths and Stats from 2017 to 2018.
• She was on the Board of the Australian Mathematics Trust from 2016 to 2020.
• She helped evaluate research for the Australian Research Council in 2015 and 2018.
• She chaired a committee for the ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2014.
• She was a member of the University of Wollongong Council from 2013 to 2015.
• She advised on the Senior Secondary Mathematics Curriculum in 2012.
• She was on the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Mathematical Sciences from 2011 to 2014 and again from 2019 to 2020.
• She was a judge for the AustMS B. H. Neumann Prize committee for many years. She was the chair seven times.