Ten years ago, Jennifer Tour Chayes left UCLA and academia to take a chance on the corporate world of Microsoft . . . in theory. Today, she and her husband, Christian Borgs, manage the Theory Group at Microsoft Research. In this new setting, she has done pioneering research at the interface of mathematics, physics, and theoretical computer science. Her current research interests include phase transitions in combinatorics and computer science, the properties of networks, and auction algorithms.
At MathFest, Chayes will be the featured speaker in the Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecture series. Her set of lectures, titled "The Mathematics of Dynamic Random Networks", will span three days and cover mathematical aspects of networking and the Internet.
Chayes received her B.A. in biology and physics at Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. in mathematical physics at Princeton. She did her postdoctoral work in the mathematics and physics departments at Harvard and Cornell. While working at Microsoft Research, Chayes also serves as an Affiliate Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Washington. She is the coauthor of more than 80 scientific papers and holder of 11 patents. In her Web bio, Chayes notes that, in her spare time, she enjoys overworking.—R.Miller
Register for MathFest at http://www.maa.org/mathfest.