Marina Ratner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marina E. Ratner
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Marina Ratner in 1988
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| Born | October 30, 1938 |
| Died | July 7, 2017 (aged 78) |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Awards | Ostrowski Prize (1993) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Geodesic Flows on Unit Tangent Bundles of Compact Surfaces of Negative Curvature (1969) |
| Doctoral advisor | Yakov Sinai |
Marina Evseevna Ratner (born October 30, 1938 – died July 7, 2017) was a brilliant mathematician. She taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Marina Ratner was famous for her work in a field called ergodic theory.
Around 1990, she proved some very important ideas. These are now known as Ratner's theorems. For her amazing work, she received many honors. She was chosen for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. In 1993, she won the Ostrowski Prize. The same year, she joined the National Academy of Sciences. In 1994, she received the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science.
Early Life and Education
Marina Ratner was born in Moscow, Russia. Her family was Jewish. Her father studied plants, and her mother was a chemist. Marina became interested in mathematics when she was in fifth grade.
From 1956 to 1961, she studied math and physics. She went to Moscow State University. There, she became very interested in probability theory. This was a field of study about how likely events are to happen. She was inspired by a famous mathematician, Andrey Kolmogorov.
After university, she worked for four years. She was part of Kolmogorov's team. Then, she went back to Moscow State University for more studies. Her teacher was Yakov Sinai, who was also a student of Kolmogorov. In 1969, she finished her PhD. Her special paper was about "Geodesic Flows on Unit Tangent Bundles of Compact Surfaces of Negative Curvature."
Career and Achievements
In 1971, Marina Ratner moved from the Soviet Union to Israel. She taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1971 to 1975. Later, she moved to the United States. She became a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her most important work was proving special ideas. These ideas were about "unipotent flows" on certain mathematical spaces. Other mathematicians, S. G. Dani and M. S. Raghunathan, had suggested these ideas. Marina Ratner proved them to be true.
Because of this and her other work, she won the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science in 1994. She also made history in 1994. She was only the third woman to give a main speech at the International Congress of Mathematicians. This is a very big meeting for mathematicians from all over the world.
Marina Ratner passed away on July 7, 2017, at the age of 78.
See also
In Spanish: Marina Ratner para niños
