Mary Pugh facts for kids
Mary Claire Pugh is a brilliant mathematician. She uses math to understand how very thin layers of liquids behave. These thin layers are called thin films. She studies things like soap bubbles or how paint spreads. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto in Canada.
What Does an Applied Mathematician Do?
Mary Claire Pugh is an applied mathematician. This means she uses math to solve real-world problems. She studies how liquids move in very thin spaces. This includes topics like the "thin-film equation" and "Hele-Shaw flow." These are ways to describe how liquids flow in tight spots.
Her Journey in Mathematics
Mary Claire Pugh earned her Ph.D. in 1993. She studied at the University of Chicago. Her main research project was about how liquids behave at their edges. This was called Dynamics of Interfaces of Incompressible Fluids: The Hele-Shaw Problem.
Before teaching in Toronto, she worked at other famous universities. She was at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Later, she became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Awards and Achievements
In 1999, Mary Claire Pugh received a special award. It was called a Sloan Research Fellowship. This award is given to young scientists and scholars who show great promise. It helps them continue their important research.