Reading academic named one of world's leading female mathematicians
Release Date 14 July 2011
The University of Reading is delighted to announce that Dr Beatrice Pelloni has been recognised as one of the leading female mathematicians in the world, by her invitation to deliver the prestigious Olga-Taussky-Todd lecture in Vancouver next week.
The honour conferred to Dr Pelloni, Head of the University's Department of Mathematics and Statistics and mother of four, is given once every four years to a woman considered to be a world-leader in applied mathematics.
Over the last 15 years, Dr Pelloni has made radical developments to a key mathematical technique used for solving mathematical problems throughout the physical sciences and engineering.
Beatrice's work has helped answer a question in the mathematical area of ‘integrable systems' that had remained open for decades. The new methodology is being applied by Dr Pelloni's co-workers to develop new applications of mathematics, notably new algorithms for brain imaging.
Women remain under-represented in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) occupations in the UK. In 2008, women were only 12.3 per cent of all employees in SET occupations.
In 2007/08 there were 540 full-time women professors in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), 9.3% of the full-time total, and 55 part-time STEM women professors, 8% of the part-time total.
Dr Pelloni, who had three children before she finished her PhD and another after, has always combined family and work. She hopes her success will inspire women who struggle with the idea of a career in science or academia.
Dr Pelloni said: "I am deeply honoured by the award of this prize lecture, and by the recognition of my work it marks. I am especially pleased as this particular award is reserved for women, and the occasion of the lecture gives me a very public opportunity to encourage the many talented women who struggle to reconcile the demands and challenges of academic life with those of family. I hope my talk will contribute to informing and inspiring young women, and help them take their place in the wide world of mathematical research."
Dr Pelloni's work has focused on so-called ‘transform methods', a basic component in the mathematical toolkit of all mathematicians. These methods are valued by engineers as they lead to simple formulae for the solution to a very wide range of real world problems.
Working with collaborators at Reading and with Professor Thanasis Fokas at the University of Cambridge, Dr Pelloni's work has shown these methods can be radically extended so that the range of problems which can be solved is hugely enlarged.
The University of Reading's School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is working extremely hard to develop and promote women's careers. The School has female staff, including Dr Pelloni, in many key leadership positions and in 2010 was given a Silver Award by Athena Swan, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice for women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research. It also hosts the South-East Hub for the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.
Head of the School, Professor Simon Chandler-Wilde, said: "We are very proud that Beatrice Pelloni will give the Olga Taussky-Todd Prize Lecture, as worthy recognition for her fundamental work on developing new transform methods. This work has implications for how we teach our undergraduates and for the solution of mathematical problems across science and engineering. Beatrice combines her work as a leading mathematician with a role as one of the few female Heads of Mathematical Sciences in the UK, and is a fantastic role model for our's and students across the UK seeking to make a career as a successful researcher.''
Dr Pelloni will present the Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture at the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) in Vancouver, Canada on 19 July, at the invitation of the ICIAM Congress, the Association of Women in Mathematics (ACM), and European Women in Mathematics.
Prof Jill Pipher, of Brown University in the US and President of the ACM said: "The Association for Women in Mathematics congratulates Professor Pelloni on the honour of giving the Olga Taussky-Todd lecture at ICIAM, in recognition of her fundamental work on integrable systems and initial-boundary value problems for partial differential equations. Dr Pelloni's outstanding contributions to applied mathematics have earned her the distinction of being selected to deliver this prestigious lecture."
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For all media enquiries please contact James Barr, University of Reading Press Officer on 0118 378 7115 or by email on j.w.barr@reading.ac.uk
Notes for Editors:
Dr Beatrice Pelloni
Beatrice Pelloni was born in Rome, Italy. She got her first degree in mathematics ‘Summa cum Laude' from Rome University ‘La Sapienza' and her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1996. She was a Marie Curie Fellow and then an EPSRC Research Associate at Imperial College until 2001, when she was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Reading. She has been a Reader there since 2004, including a year as a Leverhulme Research Fellow. She was appointed Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in 2010. She has four children and, in her spare time, is a keen singer with a Reading choir.
The Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture
The Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture is held every four years at the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM). This honour is conferred on a woman who has made outstanding contributions in applied mathematics and/or scientific computation. The lecture is named in tribute to the memory of Olga Taussky-Todd, whose scientific legacy is in both theoretical and applied mathematics, and whose work exemplifies the qualities to be recognized.
The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) the European Women in Mathematics (EWM) and the organizers of the ICIAM07 Congress initiated the Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture in 2005.
The University of Reading's School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is home to the departments of Meteorology and Mathematics and Statistics, and hosts major parts of two National Environment Research Council (NERC) collaborative centres: the National Centre for Earth Observation, and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. It also hosts 30 Met Office staff integrated within Meteorology. The School is one of the largest and most successful in the physical sciences in the UK, with 250 staff, including 110 research staff supported by over £40M in current research funding.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Reading is internationally renowned for both teaching and research in mathematics, statistics and their applications. The Department achieved 98% for Overall Student Satisfaction in the 2009 National Student Survey, while over 85% of its research was rated world class, internationally excellent, or internationally recognised in the most recent (2008) Research Assessment Exercise.