Frances Kirwan

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Dame

Frances Kirwan

DBE FRS
Kirwan in 2009
Born21 August 1959[1]
UK
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
University of Oxford
AwardsWhitehead Prize (1989)
Senior Whitehead Prize (2013)
Suffrage Science award (2016)
Sylvester Medal of The Royal Society(2021)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
Thesis The Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry
Doctoral advisorMichael Atiyah
Websitewww.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/frances.kirwan

Dame Frances Clare Kirwan, DBE FRS (born 21 August 1959)[2] is a British mathematician, currently Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford. Her fields of specialisation are algebraic and symplectic geometry.[3][4]

Education[edit]

Kirwan was educated at Oxford High School, and studied maths as an undergraduate at Clare College in the University of Cambridge.[5] She took a D.Phil at Oxford in 1984, with the dissertation title The Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry, which was supervised by Michael Atiyah.[6]

Research[edit]

Kirwan's research interests include moduli spaces in algebraic geometry, geometric invariant theory (GIT), and in the link between GIT and moment maps in symplectic geometry.[7] Her work endeavours to understand the structure of geometric objects by investigation of their algebraic and topological properties.[8] She introduced the Kirwan map.

From 1983 to 1985 she held a junior fellowship at Harvard. From 1983 to 1986 she held a Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, before becoming a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.[9] She is an honorary fellow of Clare College, Cambridge[10] and also at Magdalen College.[11]

In 1996, she was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Mathematics. From 2004 to 2006 she was president of the London Mathematical Society, the second-youngest president in the society's history and only the second woman to be president.[12][13] In 2005, she received a five-year EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, to support her research on the moduli spaces of complex algebraic curves.[14]

In 2017, she was elected Savilian Professor of Geometry, becoming the first woman to hold the post.[15] While this entailed a move to New College, Oxford she was elected an emeritus fellow at Balliol.[16] She was the convenor of the 2008–9 meeting of European Women in Mathematics and deputy convenor of the following meeting in 2010–11.[17]

Prizes, awards and scholarships[edit]

Kirwan served on the medal-selection committee that awarded the Fields medal to Maryam Mirzakhani.[27]

Publications[edit]

  • Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry. Mathematical Notes. Vol. 31. Princeton University Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0691083704.
  • An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory. Longman Scientific and Technical. 1988.[28] with Jonathan Woolf: 2nd edn. CRC Press. 2006. ISBN 978-1584881841.
  • Complex Algebraic Curves. London Mathematical Society Student Texts. Cambridge University Press. 1992. ISBN 978-0521423533.

References[edit]

  1. ^ ltd, company check. "PROFESSOR FRANCES CLARE KIRWAN director information. Free director information. Director id 915281815". Company Check.
  2. ^ "Frances Clare KIRWAN personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
  3. ^ Oxford University Calendar 2004-05, Oxford University Press (2004).
  4. ^ Professor Frances Kirwan profile Archived 6 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Faces of Mathematics; accessed 23 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Frances Kirwan, Professor, Mathematics, University of Oxford". University of Washington. 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  6. ^ Frances Kirwan at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. ^ Prof Kirwan profile Archived 10 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, europeanwomeninmaths.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
  8. ^ Prof Kirwan profile, macs.hw.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  9. ^ a b Academia Europaea member profile, retrieved 22 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Honorary Fellows". Clare College, Cambridge. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  11. ^ "People at Magdalen". Magdalen College Oxford. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  12. ^ "President Designate of the London Mathematical Society", Mathematical Institute News, University of Oxford, 2004.
  13. ^ "Female Presidents for Three Maths Societies". IMA. Institute of Mathematics. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  14. ^ Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship (2004), maths.ox.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  15. ^ "Frances Kirwan elected 20th Savilian Professor". 11 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  16. ^ "Emeritus Fellows - Balliol". 28 August 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  17. ^ "History". European Women in Mathematics. 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  18. ^ a b Dr Frances Kirwan awarded the Whitehead Prize, lms.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
  19. ^ Profile, royalsociety.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
  20. ^ Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, Univ. of Oxford Mathematical Inst., retrieved 20 October 2014.
  21. ^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society; accessed 9 May 2014
  22. ^ "No. 60728". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 7.
  23. ^ "LMS members to receive maths and computing awards | London Mathematical Society". lms-staging.ma.ic.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2021.(registration required)
  24. ^ "Introducing our Honorary Graduates". University of York. January 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  25. ^ "Honorary graduates". University of St Andrews. 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  26. ^ "Discover the laureates of the 25th L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards | UNESCO". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  27. ^ Webb, Jonathan (12 August 2014). "First female winner for maths medal". Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  28. ^ Kleiman, Steven L. (1990). "Review: An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory, by Frances Kirwan". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 22 (1): 127–138. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1990-15859-8.

External links[edit]

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