British mathematician (born 1959)
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
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
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
London Mathematical Society
Whitehead Prize , 1989
[18]
Fellow of the
Royal Society , 2001
[19]
President,
London Mathematical Society , 2003–2005
EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship, 2005–2010, for her work in algebraic geometry
[20]
Fellow of the
American Mathematical Society , 2012
[21]
London Mathematical Society Senior Whitehead Prize, 2013
[18]
DBE for services to mathematics, 2014
[22]
Maths and Computing
Suffrage Science award , 2016
[23]
Member of
Academia Europaea
[9]
Chairman of the
United Kingdom Mathematics Trust
Sylvester Medal of The Royal Society, 2021
Honorary degree,
University of York , 2020
[24]
Honorary degree,
University of St Andrews , 2022
[25]
L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards (Laureate for Europe – Mathematics), 2023
[26]
Kirwan served on the medal-selection committee that awarded the
Fields medal to
Maryam Mirzakhani .
[27]
Publications
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
^ ltd, company check.
"PROFESSOR FRANCES CLARE KIRWAN director information. Free director information. Director id 915281815" . Company Check .
^
"Frances Clare KIRWAN personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK" . find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk .
^ Oxford University Calendar 2004-05 , Oxford University Press (2004).
^
Professor Frances Kirwan profile
Archived 6 February 2012 at the
Wayback Machine , Faces of Mathematics ; accessed 23 March 2022.
^
"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 .
^
Frances Kirwan at the
Mathematics Genealogy Project
^
Prof Kirwan profile
Archived 10 August 2016 at the
Wayback Machine , europeanwomeninmaths.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
^
Prof Kirwan profile
Archived 28 December 2021 at the
Wayback Machine , macs.hw.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^
a
b
Academia Europaea member profile , retrieved 22 June 2014.
^
"Honorary Fellows" . Clare College, Cambridge. Archived from
the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2015 .
^
"People at Magdalen" . Magdalen College Oxford . Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^
"President Designate of the London Mathematical Society" , Mathematical Institute News , University of Oxford, 2004.
^
"Female Presidents for Three Maths Societies" . IMA .
Institute of Mathematics . 5 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2021 .
^
Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship (2004)
Archived 18 September 2016 at the
Wayback Machine , maths.ox.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^
"Frances Kirwan elected 20th Savilian Professor" . 11 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2017 . [
permanent dead link ]
^
"Emeritus Fellows - Balliol" . 28 August 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2018 .
^
"History" . European Women in Mathematics . 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^
a
b
Dr Frances Kirwan awarded the Whitehead Prize , lms.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014.
^
Profile , royalsociety.org; accessed 9 May 2014.
^
Prof. Frances Kirwan awarded an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship , Univ. of Oxford Mathematical Inst., retrieved 20 October 2014.
^
List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society ; accessed 9 May 2014
^
"No. 60728" .
The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 7.
^
"LMS members to receive maths and computing awards | London Mathematical Society" . lms-staging.ma.ic.ac.uk . Archived from
the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021 . (registration required)
^
"Introducing our Honorary Graduates" . University of York . January 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2022 .
^
"Honorary graduates" . University of St Andrews . 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022 .
^
"Discover the laureates of the 25th L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards | UNESCO" . www.unesco.org . Retrieved 14 June 2023 .
^ Webb, Jonathan (12 August 2014).
"First female winner for maths medal" . Retrieved 8 October 2019 .
^
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
International National Academics Other