Lynne Butler facts for kids

Lynne Marie Butler, born in 1959, is an American mathematician. She loves studying different areas of math. These include algebraic combinatorics, which is about counting and arranging things. She also studies group theory, which looks at patterns and symmetries. Her interests also include mathematical statistics, which uses math to understand data. She teaches math as a professor at Haverford College.

Growing Up and Her Studies

Lynne's parents were both medical professionals. She has an identical twin sister, Laurie Butler. Laurie is now a chemistry professor. Lynne and Laurie were the youngest of six children. They grew up in Garden City, New York.

After Lynne's father had a stroke, her family moved. They went to St. Petersburg, Florida. Lynne went to high school there. She says her high school math teacher, Mr. Mead, sparked her interest in math. She once wrote that they learned group theory together.

Lynne studied mathematics at the University of Chicago. She graduated in 1981. She then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, she planned to get her Ph.D. in math. She wanted to work in algebraic topology. However, she faced challenges with her first advisor. He made it difficult for her to focus on her studies. Because of this, she changed her research topic. She started working in combinatorics instead. Her new advisor was Richard P. Stanley. She finished her Ph.D. in 1986.

In 2013, Lynne decided to try something new. She was a bit tired of combinatorics. She noticed that many of her female students were good at the practical parts of her classes. So, she went back to the University of Chicago. She earned a master's degree in statistics there.

Her Work as a Professor

After getting her doctorate, Lynne became a postdoctoral researcher. A year later, she became an assistant professor. This was at Princeton University. However, she faced similar challenges at Princeton as she did at MIT. Some people in her department made comments that were not supportive. She felt these comments made it hard for her to do her best work.

Even though she married F. Miller Maley, a computer scientist at Princeton, she moved. In 1991, she left Princeton for Haverford College. She found a more supportive environment there. She also had a potential collaborator on the faculty.

She became a full professor at Haverford in 1996. That same year, she was a visiting research professor. This was at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. At Haverford, she has led the math department several times. She was also an associate provost from 2004 to 2005.

What She Studies

Lynne's Ph.D. paper in 1986 was about "Combinatorial Properties of Partially Ordered Sets associated with Partitions and Finite Abelian Groups." She later published some of this work. One paper was about counting subgroups in a finite group. This work connected algebraic combinatorics with group theory. She also wrote a book called Subgroup Lattices and Symmetric Functions in 1994.

Her master's thesis in 2013 was about "Latent Dirichlet Allocation for a Corpus of Prayers." Since then, her teaching has changed. She now focuses on probability theory and statistics. She also guides students in these areas.

Lynne has also studied John Nash. He was famous for his work on game theory. Lynne gives talks to general audiences about his work. She connects game theory to how people collaborate in art.