Lillian Pierce
Lillian Beatrix Pierce is a mathematician whose research connects number theory with harmonic analysis.[1] She was one the first mathematicians to prove nontrivial upper bounds on the number of elements of finite order in an ideal class group.[2] She won the 2018 Sadosky Prize for research that "spans and connects a broad spectrum of problems ranging from character sums in number theory to singular integral operators in Euclidean spaces" including in particular "a polynomial Carleson theorem for manifolds".[3] She is an associate professor of mathematics at Duke University, and a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study.[4]
Pierce was home-schooled in Fallbrook, California[1][5][6] and began playing the violin at age four.[7] By age 11 she began performing professionally as a violinist.[1] As a teenager, she also started taking classes at a local community college, accumulating so many units that some of the universities she applied to refused to consider her for freshman admission.[7] She entered Princeton University majoring in mathematics but intending to pursue an MD–PhD program;[8] under the influence of faculty mentor and undergraduate thesis supervisor Elias M. Stein, her interests shifted towards pure mathematics.[1][8][5] As an undergraduate, she also became an intern at the National Security Agency.[1] She was Princeton's 2002 valedictorian and became a Rhodes Scholar, repeating two accomplishments of her brother Niles Pierce from nine years earlier.[5]
She earned a master's degree at the University of Oxford in 2004.[4][1] Returning to Princeton for doctoral study in mathematics, she completed her Ph.D. in 2009. Her dissertation, Discrete Analogues in Harmonic Analysis, was supervised by Stein.[4][9] After postdoctoral studies with Roger Heath-Brown at Oxford and at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, she became an assistant professor at Duke in 2014.[4][1]
Her husband, Tobias Overath, also works at Duke as a neuroscientist.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Smith, Robin (September 26, 2014), "Lillian Pierce: A head for pure mathematics", Duke Today, Duke University
- ↑ Hartnett, Kevin (March 2, 2017), "New Number Systems Seek Their Lost Primes", Quanta Magazine
- ↑ "Pierce Awarded Sadosky Prize" (PDF), Mathematics People, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 64 (8): 925, September 2017
- 1 2 3 4 Curriculum vitae (PDF), July 2017, retrieved 2018-05-12
- 1 2 3 Stevens, Ruth (June 3, 2002), "Selection as valedictorian a family affair for the Pierces", Princeton Weekly Bulletin, Princeton University, 92 (27)
- ↑ Nussbaum, Debra (May 21, 2000), "Home Schooling Graduates; Students, Jittery About College at First, Are Doing Well Academically and Fitting In Socially", The New York Times
- 1 2 Stevens, Ruth (March 5, 2001), "Inclined to succeed: USA Today First-teamer Lillian Pierce pursues interests ranging from mathematics to music", Princeton Weekly Bulletin, 90 (19)
- 1 2 Flapan, Laure (November 2017), Diaz-Lopez, Alexander, ed., "Lillian Pierce Interview" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 64 (10): 1170–1172
- ↑ Lillian Pierce at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
Further reading
- Readdy, Margaret A.; Taylor, Christine (March 2018), "Lillian Pierce" (PDF), Women's History Month, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 65 (3): 284–285