Leila Schneps facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leila Schneps
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| Pen name | Catherine Shaw |
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| Nationality | American |
| Education | PhD |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Subject | Mathematics |
| Children | Coralie Colmez, Natacha Colmez , Alexandre Lochak, Mélisande Lochak |
Leila Schneps is an American mathematician and writer. She works at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (a big research center in France). She is known for her work in number theory, which is a branch of mathematics.
Leila Schneps has written math books for everyone to enjoy. She also writes exciting mystery novels under the pen name Catherine Shaw. These mysteries often have cool math ideas in them!
Contents
Education and Early Career
Leila Schneps studied a lot! In 1983, she earned a degree in Math and German from Radcliffe College. She then went to the University of Paris in France. There, she earned her PhD in Mathematics in 1990. Her studies focused on advanced math topics like p-adic L-functions and Galois groups.
After her PhD, she worked as a researcher. In 1991, she got a permanent research job at CNRS. This is the French National Centre for Scientific Research. She worked at the University of Franche-Comté in France. She also visited famous universities like Harvard University and Princeton for short research periods.
The Grothendieck Circle
Leila Schneps helped create something special called the Grothendieck Circle. This group is named after a famous mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck. He had stopped sharing his work with the public.
Leila Schneps and another mathematician, Pierre Lochak, found him. They started writing letters to him. This made them some of the last people from the math world to connect with him. The Grothendieck Circle works to share information by and about Grothendieck. Leila Schneps even created and takes care of the group's website. It has many of his writings that were not published before. She also helped translate his letters with another famous mathematician, Jean-Pierre Serre.
Writing Mystery Novels
Leila Schneps writes fun murder mystery novels. She uses the name Catherine Shaw for these books. Her first novel, The Three Body Problem, a Cambridge Mystery, came out in 2004. It's about mathematicians in the late 1800s. They are working on a real math problem called the three-body problem. The book's title has a clever double meaning. It refers to the math problem and also to three people who are involved in the mystery.
Reviewers liked that the math in her books was correct. They also thought she did a good job showing what mathematicians are like. Leila Schneps, as Catherine Shaw, has written four historical novels in this series. They all feature the same main character, Vanessa Duncan. Each book also has a cool math theme.
- Flowers Stained with Moonlight is a mystery where the title gives a hint to the solution.
- The Library Paradox is a classic locked room mystery set in a library. Its title also refers to Russell's paradox, a famous idea in logic. The story also touches on issues of being Jewish in London in 1896.
- The Riddle of the River explores the world of theater and the excitement around séances. It also mentions the start of the telegraph revolution.
- Fatal Inheritance looks at the importance of heredity (how traits are passed down). It also mentions early ideas about improving humanity through selective breeding, which are now widely seen as wrong and harmful.
Leila Schneps has also written a non-fiction guide. It helps people solve popular puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuro.
Promoting Fair Math Use
Leila Schneps cares about how math and statistics are used in court cases. She wants to make sure they are used correctly and fairly. She is part of a group called the Bayes and the Law International Consortium. This group works to make people aware of how important proper math use is in legal situations.
Family Life
Leila Schneps has a daughter named Coralie Colmez. Coralie is also a mathematician and author.
