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University of Chicago's Hannah Alpert Wins 2010 Alice T. Schafer Prize

December 21, 2009

The Association for Women in Mathematics has named Hannah Alpert, a third-year mathematics major at the University of Chicago, winner of the 2010 Alice T. Schafer Prize.

Established in 1990, the prize is awarded for excellence in mathematics by an undergraduate woman. Alpert will receive the award at the 2010 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco.

“The award represents the efforts of many advisers who have advocated for me and insisted that all the best opportunities be open to me,” Alpert said. These advisers include sarah-marie belcastro (lowercase is the proper spelling of her name), research associate at Smith College; Joe Gallian professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Minnesota, Duluth; Josh Laison, assistant professor of mathematics, Willamette University; and Paul Sally, professor in mathematics, University of Chicago.

“I am glad their efforts are being recognized in this prize, and I am confident that they will continue to render mathematics careers more and more accessible to young women,” Alpert said.

The Schafer Prize is the latest of Alpert’s collection of accolades. In early 2009 she received a Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for her achievement in mathematics. Her paper, “Obstacle Numbers of Graphs,” co-authored with Christina Koch (St. Olaf College), received a 2009 Undergraduate Poster Session Prize from the MAA.

During her first two summers as an undergraduate, she attended the Willamette Valley Research Experience for Undergraduates and Duluth REU. This quarter she is participating in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program in Hungary. Instructors are affiliated with Eotvos University and the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Alpert will be the third University of Chicago student to receive the Schafer Prize. Linda Green won it in 1990 and Kate Gruher in 2003.

Alice T. Schafer (MS’40, Ph. D.’42) came to the University of Chicago to study mathematics in 1939. She was a founding member and the second president of the Association for Women in Mathematics, which later named the award in her honor. Schafer taught at several colleges and universities, retiring from the mathematics faculty at Wellesley College in 1980. She continued to teach at Simmons College and Marymount University until she was 81.

Known as a champion of women in mathematics, Schafer received the MAA's 1998 award for distinguished service to mathematics. She passed away last September at the age of 94.

Source: University of Chicago (Nov. 18, 2009)

Id: 
739
Start Date: 
Monday, December 21, 2009