The AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture is an award and lecture series that "highlights significant contributions of women to applied or computational mathematics." [1] The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) created the award [2] and lecture series in 2002; the lecture is normally given each year at the SIAM Annual Meeting. [3] Award winners receive a signed certificate from the AWM and SIAM presidents. [4]
The lectures are named after Sonia Kovalevsky (1850–1891), a well-known Russian mathematician of the late 19th century. [5] Karl Weierstrass regarded Kovalevsky as his most talented student. In 1874, she received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Göttingen under the supervision of Weierstrass. She was granted privatdozentin status and taught at the University of Stockholm in 1883; she became an ordinary professor (the equivalent of full professor) at this institution in 1889. She was also an editor of the journal Acta Mathematica . Kovalevsky did her important work in the theory of partial differential equations and the rotation of a solid around a fixed point. [1]
The Kovalevky Lecturers have been: [6]
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya, born Korvin-Krukovskaya, was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer for women in mathematics around the world – the first woman to obtain a doctorate in mathematics, the first woman appointed to a full professorship in northern Europe and one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. According to historian of science Ann Hibner Koblitz, Kovalevskaya was "the greatest known woman scientist before the twentieth century".
Éva Tardos is a Hungarian mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University.
The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences. The AWM was founded in 1971 and incorporated in the state of Massachusetts. AWM has approximately 5200 members, including over 250 institutional members, such as colleges, universities, institutes, and mathematical societies. It offers numerous programs and workshops to mentor women and girls in the mathematical sciences. Much of AWM's work is supported through federal grants.
Barbara Lee Keyfitz is a Canadian-American mathematician, the Dr. Charles Saltzer Professor of Mathematics at Ohio State University. In her research, she studies nonlinear partial differential equations and associated conservation laws.
Joyce Rogers McLaughlin was an American mathematician, the Ford Foundation Professor of Mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research interests were primarily in applied mathematics, and in particular in inverse problems.
Susanne Cecelia Brenner is an American mathematician, whose research concerns the finite element method and related techniques for the numerical solution of differential equations. She is a Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University. Previously, she held the Nicholson Professorship of Mathematics and the Michael F. and Roberta Nesbit McDonald Professorship at Louisiana State University, She currently chairs the editorial committee of the journal Mathematics of Computation. During 2021-2022 she is serving as President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Catherine Sulem is a mathematician and violinist at the University of Toronto.
Irene Martínez Gamba is an Argentine–American mathematician. She works as a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the W.A. Tex Moncrief, Jr. Chair in Computational Engineering and Sciences and is head of the Applied Mathematics Group in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.
Bonnie Anne Berger is an American mathematician and computer scientist, who works as the Simons professor of mathematics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in algorithms, bioinformatics and computational molecular biology.
Lai-Sang Lily Young is a Hong Kong-born American mathematician who holds the Henry & Lucy Moses Professorship of Science and is a professor of mathematics and neural science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. Her research interests include dynamical systems, ergodic theory, chaos theory, probability theory, statistical mechanics, and neuroscience. She is particularly known for introducing the method of Markov returns in 1998, which she used to prove exponential correlation delay in Sinai billiards and other hyperbolic dynamical systems.
Suzanne Marie Lenhart is an American mathematician who works in partial differential equations, optimal control and mathematical biology. She is a Chancellor's Professor of mathematics at the University of Tennessee, an associate director for education and outreach at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, and a part-time researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Lisa J. Fauci is an American mathematician who applies computational fluid dynamics to biological processes such as sperm motility and phytoplankton dynamics. More generally, her research interests include numerical analysis, scientific computing, and mathematical biology. She is the Pendergraft Nola Lee Haynes Professor of Mathematics at Tulane University, and was president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2019-2020)].
Liliana Borcea is the Peter Field Collegiate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan. Her research interests are in scientific computing and applied mathematics, including the scattering and transport of electromagnetic waves.
Linda Joy Svoboda Allen is an American mathematician and mathematical biologist, the Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University.
Anne Greenbaum is an American applied mathematician and professor at the University of Washington. She was named a SIAM Fellow in 2015 "for contributions to theoretical and numerical linear algebra". She has written graduate and undergraduate textbooks on numerical methods.
Marie A. Vitulli is an American mathematician and professor emerita at the University of Oregon.
Dawn Alisha Lott is an applied mathematician at Delaware State University, where she is a professor in the department of physical and computational sciences and, since 2009, the director of the university's honors program.
Vivette Girault is a French mathematician, whose research expertise lies in numerical analysis, finite element methods and computational fluid dynamics. She has been affiliated with Pierre and Marie Curie University.
Omayra Ortega is an American mathematician, specializing in mathematical epidemiology. Ortega is an assistant professor of mathematics & statistics at Sonoma State University in Sonoma County, California, and the president of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM).
Bonita Valerie Saunders is an American mathematician specializing in mathematical visualization. She works at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division of the Information Technology Laboratory, where she contributes to the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions as the Visualization Editor and the principal designer of visualizations and graphs.