Moon Duchin facts for kids

Moon Duchin is an American mathematician and professor. She teaches at Cornell University, currently on leave from Tufts University. Her math research explores areas like geometric topology and geometric group theory. She is well-known for her important work on the math behind redistricting and gerrymandering. She even started a group called MGGG Redistricting Lab. This group uses math to help make political maps fair in the US. Moon Duchin also enjoys learning about the history and philosophy of science.

Early Life and Education

Moon Duchin's parents gave her the unique first name, Moon. She knew from a young age that she wanted to study math. While at Stamford High School in Connecticut, she finished her regular math classes early. She then continued to learn math on her own. She also took part in many math and science camps and contests. One summer, she did a research project on the geometry of numbers.

Duchin went to Harvard University for her undergraduate studies. She earned two degrees in 1998. She studied both mathematics and women's studies. She wrote a separate paper for each of her two majors.

She then went to the University of Chicago for her graduate studies in mathematics. She earned her doctorate degree in 2005. Her advisor was Alex Eskin. After Chicago, she worked as a researcher at other universities. She joined the faculty at Tufts University in 2011.

Moon Duchin's Work in Mathematics

Moon Duchin's math research focuses on several areas. These include geometric topology and geometric group theory. She also studies Teichmüller theory. For example, she found that for certain flat surfaces, their shape is set by the shortest curves on them. In 2022, Duchin was featured in the Netflix show A Trip to Infinity. She talked about the math ideas related to infinity.

Her knowledge of geometry led her to study gerrymandering. This is when political districts are drawn unfairly. A key part of her research is measuring how "compact" a district is. This number helps show if a district has been gerrymandered. She explained that courts want a clear way to measure this. They need a definition that is easy to understand and compute.

To help with this challenge, Duchin started a big project. It focuses on the math of gerrymandering. As part of this, she created a summer program. It trains mathematicians to help in legal cases about redistricting. In 2016, she started the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG). This group does research on geometry and computing. They apply this research to the redistricting process in the US. Their goal is to make the process fair for everyone.

From 2018 to 2019, she took a break from Tufts. She was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her research there was called "Political Geometry: The Mathematics of Redistricting." In 2018, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, asked Duchin for help. He needed her to check new redistricting maps for fairness. This happened after a court decided that the state's old maps were unfair. Duchin wrote a report about the maps in February 2018.

Moon Duchin returned to Tufts University in 2021. She continues her important work with the MGGG group.

In 2022, judges in Alabama asked Duchin for help. They had rejected the state's old congressional maps. This was because the number of Black people in the state had grown. Duchin created four new maps that were very similar. These maps would combine the cities of Mobile and Montgomery. These cities have many Black and Democratic-leaning voters. This would create a second district where these voters would have a stronger voice.

Awards and Honors

In 2016, Moon Duchin was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This honor was for her work in math and her service to the math community. That same year, she was also a speaker for the Mathematical Association of America. She gave talks about the math behind voting systems. In 2018, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

See also

In Spanish: Moon Duchin para niños