Rachel Ward (mathematician) facts for kids
Rachel Ward is an American mathematician who works with real-world problems. She teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. She is famous for her work in areas like machine learning, which helps computers learn, and signal processing, which deals with information from things like sounds or images. At the University of Texas, she holds a special title as a professor in both computational engineering and mathematics.
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Becoming a Mathematician
Rachel Ward studied mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science (BS), in 2005. Later, she went to Princeton University to continue her studies. In 2009, she received her PhD, which is a very advanced degree, in applied and computational mathematics. Her teacher for her PhD was a well-known mathematician named Ingrid Daubechies.
Her Journey in Math
After finishing her PhD, Rachel Ward worked as a teacher at the Courant Institute from 2009 to 2011. Then, in 2011, she joined the team of professors at the University of Texas at Austin. She also spent time working with big technology companies. In 2018, she was a visiting scientist at Facebook AI Research, helping with artificial intelligence. In 2019, she was a special researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study. She also helps guide the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) as part of their Scientific Advisory Board.
Awards and Special Recognition
Rachel Ward has received several important awards for her work. In 2012, she was given an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Mathematics. This is a special award for young scientists. In 2016, she and another mathematician, Deanna Needell, won the IMA Prize in Mathematics and Applications. This award recognizes great work in math. Rachel Ward was also invited to speak at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians, which is a very big and important meeting for mathematicians from all over the world.
Important Research Projects
Rachel Ward has worked on interesting projects, including one funded by the United States Department of Defense. This project involved working with other professors from the University of Texas. Their goal was to help develop unmanned aerial vehicles, which are also known as drones. This shows how her math skills can be used to solve real-world challenges.
