Melanie Wood facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Melanie Wood
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Wood in 2019
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| Born | 1981 (age 43–44) Indianapolis, Indiana
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Duke University Trinity College, Cambridge Princeton University |
| Awards | Morgan Prize (2004) NSF CAREER Award (2017) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Stanford University University of Wisconsin University of California, Berkeley Harvard University |
| Thesis | Moduli spaces for rings and ideals (2009) |
| Doctoral advisor | Manjul Bhargava |
Melanie Matchett Wood (born in 1981) is an American mathematician. She is a Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. Melanie made history as the first woman to join the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. This is a big competition for young math whizzes from around the world.
She earned her PhD in 2009 from Princeton University. Before Harvard, she taught at other top universities. These included UC Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University. Melanie is a number theorist. This means she studies numbers and their patterns. Her work often looks at how numbers behave in groups.
Early Life and Math Journey
Melanie Wood was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her parents, Sherry Eggers and Archie Wood, were both middle school teachers. Her father, who taught math, passed away when Melanie was very young.
When she was 16, Melanie was a high school student at Park Tudor School. She became the first American girl to join the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. She won silver medals in this competition in both 1998 and 1999. Besides math, Melanie was also a cheerleader and worked on her school's newspaper.
Amazing Achievements and Awards
Melanie Wood has received many important awards for her math work. In 2002, she won the Alice T. Schafer Prize. This award is given by the Association for Women in Mathematics.
In 2003, Melanie graduated from Duke University. She received several big scholarships, like the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She also became the first American woman to be named a Putnam Fellow in 2002. This is a very special honor for top college math students.
She studied at Cambridge University in England during 2003 and 2004. In 2005, she helped lead the U.S. team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. Her team finished second overall!
In 2004, Melanie won the Morgan Prize. This award is for outstanding math research by undergraduate students. She was the first woman ever to win it.
Later, in 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This means she is recognized as a leading mathematician. She also received the NSF CAREER Award in 2017. In 2018, she won the AWM-Microsoft Research Prize in Algebra and Number Theory.
In 2021, she received the NSF Alan T. Waterman Award. This is a very high honor for young scientists and engineers. In 2022, she was given a MacArthur Fellowship. This award is sometimes called a "genius grant." It gives talented people money to continue their important work.
