Mary Silber facts for kids

Mary Catherine Silber is a smart professor at the University of Chicago. She works in the Department of Statistics. She studies how things change over time, which is called dynamical systems. She also looks at how patterns form and change, using ideas from bifurcation theory and pattern formation.

Becoming a Scientist

Mary Catherine Silber earned her Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. Her main research project was about how patterns change when they have a special kind of symmetry. Her teacher and guide for this work was Edgar Knobloch.

After getting her Ph.D., she continued her research at several other universities. These included the University of Minnesota, Georgia Institute of Technology, and California Institute of Technology. This extra research helped her learn even more about her field.

Teaching and Research Today

In 1993, Professor Silber started teaching at Northwestern University. Later, in 2015, she moved to the University of Chicago. There, she joined the Department of Statistics. She is also part of a special group that uses computers and math to solve problems. This group is called the Computational and Applied Mathematics Initiative.

In 2020, she became part of the Institute for Foundational Data Science. She also leads an important program at the University of Chicago. This program helps graduate students learn about computational and applied mathematics. It brings together different areas of study.

Awards and Recognition

In 2012, Mary Catherine Silber received a special honor. She became a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. This award recognized her important work. She was honored for her studies on how patterns change, especially when they have symmetry.