Maggie Miller (mathematician)

Last updated
Maggie Miller
Arunima Ray, Andrew J. Lobb, Maggie Miller Oberwolfach 2023.jpg
Miller (right) in 2023
Born1993or1994(age 31–32)
Alma mater Princeton University (PhD)
University of Texas at Austin (BS)
Known for Low-dimensional topology
Work on Seifert surfaces
Awards Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize (2023)
Sloan Research Fellowship (2025)
Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (2025)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, geometric topology
Institutions University of Texas at Austin
Stanford University
Thesis Extending fibrations of knot complements to ribbon disk complements (2020)
Doctoral advisor David Gabai
Website web.ma.utexas.edu/users/maggiem/

Maggie Hall Miller (born in 1993 or 1994 [1] ) is a mathematician whose primary area of research is low-dimensional topology. She is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She is known for work on Seifert surfaces, including a 2022 result with Kyle Hayden, Seungwon Kim, JungHwan Park and Isaac Sundberg that answered a 1982 question of Charles Livingston by constructing Seifert surfaces for a knot that remain non‑isotopic in the 4‑ball; the paper was published in 2025 in the Journal of the European Mathematical Society . [2] [3] Her honors include the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize (2023), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2025), and a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (2025). [4] [5]

Contents

Education and career

Miller completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin. [6] [7]

She earned her PhD in mathematics from Princeton University in 2020, with David Gabai as advisor (thesis: Extending fibrations of knot complements to ribbon disk complements). [8] [9]

After completing her doctoral degree, Miller worked as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow from 2020 to 2021 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [6] Later as a Visiting Clay Fellow and Stanford Science Fellow, she spent time at Stanford University from 2021 to 2023. [10] Miller is currently a tenure track professor at the University of Texas at Austin. [11] [12]

Mathematical work

In 2022, together with Kyle Hayden, Seungwon Kim, JungHwan Park and Isaac Sundberg, Miller answered a 1982 question of Charles Livingston on Seifert surfaces by exhibiting surfaces for the same knot that remain non‑isotopic when their interiors are pushed into the 4‑ball. The results include examples that are not even topologically isotopic in the 4‑ball, examples that are topologically but not smoothly isotopic, and infinite families distinct up to isotopy rel. boundary. The work was published in the Journal of the European Mathematical Society in 2025. [2] [13]

Awards and honors

Miller was awarded a 2021 Clay Research Fellowship by the Clay Mathematics Institute for her work to expand topological research of manifolds. [14] [15] [16] Her contributions were described by MIT as "important...to long-standing problems in low-dimensional topology." [17] Clay Research Fellowships are awarded to recent PhD-holders who are selected for their research accomplishments and potential as leaders in mathematics research. [18]

In her previous position at Stanford, she was a Stanford Science Fellow. [10] Fellowships are awarded to early career scientists who have demonstrated scientific achievement and advancement, as well as a desire to collaborate with a diverse scholarly community. [19] [20]

Prior to her appointment at Stanford, Miller was awarded a National Science Foundation Mathematical Sciences Postdoc Research Fellowship while at MIT in the Department of Mathematics. [21] She also has a record of accomplishment during her graduate studies, having been awarded the Princeton Mathematics Graduate Teaching Award in 2018 and the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship in 2019. [22] [23]

She received the 2023 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize, one of the Breakthrough Prizes, for "work on fibered ribbon knots and surfaces in 4-dimensional manifolds.", [24] and was named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 – Science for 2023. [25]

In 2025, Miller was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. [26] In the same year, she received a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. [27] [28]

Selected publications

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ News from the AMS, Sharing Research, Making Connections: A Tale of Two Mathematicians at JMM, January 29, 2024 (Note: News from the AMS says "She is just 30", in 2024)
  2. 1 2 Hayden, Kyle; Kim, Seungwon; Miller, Maggie; Park, JungHwan; Sundberg, Isaac (2025-09-29). "Seifert surfaces in the 4-ball". Journal of the European Mathematical Society. arXiv: 2205.15283 . doi:10.4171/JEMS/1703.
  3. ↑ Hartnett, Kevin (2022-06-16). "Surfaces So Different Even a Fourth Dimension Can't Make Them the Same". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  4. ↑ "2025 Fellows". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  5. ↑ "Maggie Miller". The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  6. 1 2 "Maggie Miller – Women In Math". math.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  7. ↑ Sciences, College of Natural (2015-05-11), Maggie Miller, Mathematics , retrieved 2022-03-12
  8. ↑ "Princeton University Doctoral Dissertations: Extending fibrations of knot complements to ribbon disk complements". Princeton DataSpace. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  9. ↑ "Maggie Miller - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". www.mathgenealogy.org. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  10. 1 2 "Meet the Fellows | Science Fellows". stanfordsciencefellows.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  11. ↑ Hartnett, Kevin (2024-02-22). "A New Agenda for Low-Dimensional Topology". Quanta Magazine . Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  12. ↑ "CNS Welcomes New Faculty for the 23-24 Academic Year | College of Natural Sciences". cns.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  13. ↑ Hartnett, Kevin (2022-06-16). "Surfaces So Different Even a Fourth Dimension Can't Make Them the Same". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  14. ↑ "Mathematics People" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 68: 828–829. May 2021.
  15. ↑ "2021 Clay Research Fellows | Clay Mathematics Institute". claymath.org. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  16. ↑ "Maggie Miller *20 and Georgios Moschidis *18 Named 2021 Clay Research Fellows | Math". www.math.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  17. ↑ "Lisa Piccirillo and Postdoc Maggie Miller Named 2021 Clay Research Fellows – Women In Math". math.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  18. ↑ "Fellowship Nominations | Clay Mathematics Institute". www.claymath.org. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  19. ↑ "Science Fellows". stanfordsciencefellows.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  20. ↑ "Apply | Science Fellows". stanfordsciencefellows.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  21. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award # 2001675 - PostDoctoral Research Fellowship". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  22. ↑ "Boumal, Miller, Nestoridi Receive Department Teaching Awards | Math". www.math.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  23. ↑ "Honorific Fellowship Award Winners | Graduate School". gradschool.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  24. ↑ "Breakthrough Prize – Mathematics Breakthrough Prize Laureates – Maggie Miller". breakthroughprize.org.
  25. ↑ "Maggie Miller". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  26. ↑ "2025 Fellows | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation". sloan.org. Retrieved 2025-04-04.
  27. ↑ "The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Announces the 2025 Class of Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering". packard.org. 2025-10-15. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  28. ↑ "Maggie Miller". packard.org. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.