Svetlana Jitomirskaya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Svetlana Jitomirskaya
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| Світлана Житомирська | |
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| Born | June 4, 1966 |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Known for | Ten martini problem |
| Awards | Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (2005) Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics (2020) Olga Ladyzhenskaya Prize (2022) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Spectral and Statistical Properties of Lattice Hamiltonians (1991) |
| Doctoral advisor | Yakov Sinai |
Svetlana Yakovlevna Jitomirskaya, born on June 4, 1966, is a brilliant mathematician. She studies how things change over time in dynamical systems and uses math to understand physics. She is a top professor of mathematics at Georgia Tech and UC Irvine. Svetlana is famous for helping to solve a very difficult math puzzle called the ten martini problem with another mathematician, Artur Avila.
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Early Life and Education
Svetlana Jitomirskaya grew up in Kharkiv, a city in Ukraine. Both her mother, Valentina Borok, and her father, Yakov Zhitomirskii, were mathematics professors. This meant she was surrounded by math from a young age!
University Studies
Svetlana went to Moscow State University for her college studies. There, she learned from amazing teachers like Vladimir Arnold and Yakov Sinai. She earned her Ph.D. (a very high degree in academics) from Moscow State University in 1991. Her main advisor was Yakov Sinai.
Starting Her Career
After finishing her studies, Svetlana moved to the United States. In 1991, she joined the mathematics department at the University of California, Irvine as a lecturer. She quickly moved up, becoming an assistant professor in 1994 and a full professor in 2000.
Amazing Achievements and Awards
Svetlana Jitomirskaya has received many important awards for her work in mathematics. These awards show how much her discoveries have helped the world of science.
Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize
In 2005, she won the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics. This award recognized her groundbreaking work on something called "non-perturbative quasiperiodic localization." This is a complex area of math that helps us understand how certain systems behave.
International Recognition
Svetlana is often invited to speak at major math conferences around the world.
- In 2002, she was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing, China.
- She was also a main speaker at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians. This event was originally planned for Russia, but due to world events, parts of it moved online and to Helsinki, Finland. Svetlana's important speech, "Small denominators and multiplicative Jensen's formula," was given online on July 14, 2022.
Other Prestigious Honors
- In 1996, she received a Sloan Fellowship, which is given to promising young researchers.
- In 2018, she was chosen to be a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This is a group of very smart and talented people.
- In 2022, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors for scientists in the United States.
- On July 2, 2022, she received the first-ever Ladyzhenskaya Prize in Mathematical Physics (OAL Prize). This award honored her deep contributions to understanding "almost periodic Schrödinger operators."
- In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Dannie Heineman Prize
Svetlana Jitomirskaya won the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics in 2020. She was the second woman ever to win this prize and the first woman to win it all by herself! The award recognized her work on the "spectral theory of almost-periodic Schrödinger operators." This includes her big role in solving the Ten martini problem. This problem is about the special "Cantor set" nature of the spectrum of certain math operators. Her work also helped develop key ideas about "localization" and "metal-insulator transition" in physics.
Leadership in Mathematics
From February 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024, Svetlana Jitomirskaya served as a member of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Council. This shows her leadership and influence in the mathematics community.
See also
In Spanish: Svetlana Jitomirskaya para niños
