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Fan Chung Graham to Deliver Noether Lecture at 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings

October 27, 2008

Fan Chung Graham will deliver the Noether Lecture at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, in Washington, D.C., in early January.

The lecture honors Emmy Noether (1882-1935), who was one of the finest mathematicians of her time and known for her contributions to abstract algebra and for linking symmetry and physical laws. Recent Noether lecturers have included Ingrid Daubechies, Lai-Sang Young, Svetlana Katok, Jean E. Taylor, Lenore Blum, and Karen Vogtmann.   

Chung, a professor of mathematics at University of California, San Diego, was selected by the Association for Women in Mathematics for her contributions to graph theory and combinatorics. Chung is particularly well-known for her work in spectral graph theory, random graphs, quasi-randomness, and unavoidable and universal graphs. Her current focus is on the mathematical analysis of PageRank (an algorithm that underlies the Google search engine) using probabilistic and spectral methods, with an emphasis on graph partitioning.

Born in Taiwan, Chung received her B.S. in mathematics from the National Taiwan University and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She began her career at Bell Laboratories, later becoming Division Manager of Mathematics, Information Systems and Operations Research at Bellcore. Chung has held visiting positions at Princeton, Harvard, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Chung, who has authored several books and more than 240 papers, is Editor-in-Chief of Internet Mathematics and a member of the editorial boards of more than a dozen journals. She received the MAA's Carl B. Allendoerfer Award in 1990 for the paper "Steiner Trees on a Checkerboard," published in Mathematics Magazine.

AWM President Cathy Kessel said, "Take a look at her Web site and her biography on the MacTutor History of Mathematics site! I am definitely looking forward to her talk."

Source: Association for Women in Mathematics, Oct. 16, 2008.

Id: 
447
Start Date: 
Monday, October 27, 2008