Joan Birman

Joan Sylvia Lyttle Birman
Born (1927-05-30) May 30, 1927
New York City, New York
Nationality American
Alma mater

B.A., Barnard College, 1948

Ph.D., Courant Institute (NYU), 1968
Known for Braid theory, knot theory
Awards Chauvenet Prize
Scientific career
Fields Mathematics
Institutions Barnard College, Columbia University
Doctoral advisor Wilhelm Magnus
Doctoral students Józef Przytycki and 20 others

Joan Sylvia Lyttle Birman (born May 30, 1927 in New York City[1]) is an American mathematician, specializing in braid theory and knot theory. Her book, Braids, Links, and Mapping Class Groups, has become a standard introduction, with many of today's researchers learning the subject through it. Birman is currently Research Professor Emerita at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she has been since 1973.

Family

Her parents were George and Lillian Lyttle, both Jewish immigrants.[2] Her father was from Russia but grew up in Liverpool, England. Her mother was born in New York and her parents were Russian-Polish immigrants. At age 17, George emigrated to the US and became a successful dress manufacturer. He appreciated the opportunities from having a business but he wanted his daughters to focus on education. She has three children. Her late husband, Joseph Birman, was a physicist and a leading advocate for human rights for scientists.[3]

Education

After high school, Birman entered Swarthmore College, a coeducational institution in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and majored in mathematics. However, she disliked living in the dorms so she transferred to Barnard College, a women's only college affiliated to Columbia University, to live at home.[2]

Birman received her B.A. (1948) in mathematics from Barnard College and an M.A. (1950) in physics from Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1968 from the Courant Institute (NYU) under the supervision of Wilhelm Magnus when she was 41 years old. During her studies, she learned that she was more interested in pure mathematics than applied mathematics. Her dissertation was titled Braid groups and their relationship to mapping class groups.[4]

Career

Birman's first position was at the Stevens Institute of Technology (1968–1973). She also was a visiting professor at Princeton University during part of this period. In 1973, she joined the faculty at Barnard College. In 1987 she was selected by the Association for Women in Mathematics to be a Noether Lecturer; this lecture honors women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences.[5] She was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the summer of 1988.[6] She has also been a Sloan Foundation Fellow (1974–76) and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (1994–95). In 1996, she won the Chauvenet Prize.[7] Then in 2005, she won the New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.[1]

In 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[8] Her doctoral students include Józef Przytycki.[4]

In 2017, she endowed the Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars at the American Mathematical Society to support mathematical research by mid-career women.[9]

Selected publications

  • "Automorphisms of the fundamental group of a closed, orientable 2-manifold". Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 21: 351–354. 1969. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1969-0239593-9. MR 0239593.
  • "Abelian quotients of the mapping class of a 2-manifold". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 76: 147–150. 1970. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1970-12406-5. MR 0249603.
  • Braids, links and mapping class groups. Annals of Mathematical Studies. Princeton U. Press. 1975. ISBN 0691081492. [10]
  • with Taizo Kanenobu: "Jones' braid-plat formula and a new surgery triple". Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 102: 687–695. 1988. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1988-0929004-1. MR 0929004.
  • with Hans Wenzl: "Braids, link polynomials and a new algebra". Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 313: 249–273. 1989. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1989-0992598-x. MR 0992598.
  • "Recent developments in braid and link theory". Mathematical Intelligencer. 13 (1): 52–60. 1991. doi:10.1007/bf03024073.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Larry Riddle. "Joan S. Birman", Biographies of Women Mathematicians, at Agnes Scott College
  2. 1 2 "Birman biography". www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  3. ↑ "Joseph L. Birman (1927-2016)". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  4. 1 2 Joan Sylvia Lyttle Birman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. ↑ "Noether Lectures". Association for Women in Mathematics. Association for Women in Mathematics. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars
  7. ↑ Birman, Joan (1993). "New Points of View in Knot Theory". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 28: 253–287. arXiv:math/9304209. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1993-00389-6.
  8. ↑ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2012-11-10.
  9. ↑ "American Mathematical Society - The Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars". www.ams.org. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  10. ↑ Magnus, W. (1976). "Review: Braids, links and mapping class groups by Joan S. Birman" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 82: 42–45. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1976-13937-7.
  • Allyn Jackson and Lisa Traynor, "Interview with Joan Birman", AMS Notices, January 2007, Volume 54, Number 1
  • "Honorary Members 2015". Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. 2016-03-28. doi:10.1112/blms/bdw014. ISSN 0024-6093.
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