Karen
Uhlenbeck When she was a child she was interested in books
and they led her to an interest in science. No one would have guessed
that she would be a math person. Her interest in math was sparked in
college, because she believes that one doesn't understand what
mathematics is until one takes abstract math courses and learns about
proofs.
Karen is a mathematician. Her work is on partial differential equations. These equations are now used in a more technical manner to look at the shapes of space. She has always known that she had a natural inclination for abstraction. She values time to be herself and think about math or other things. The noise of the world is a difficult thing for her to deal with and she has always had a difficult time handling external stimuli.
Her accomplishments have been many. Some of her many honors are serving as Vice President of the American Mathematical Society. She has sat on editorial boards of ten research journals, and regularly serves as consultant to mathematics departments and foundations. Also in 1988 she received an honorary D.Sc. degree form Knox College. She is currently a professor in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Not only has she influenced math but science has also been a part of her life. She was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship in 1983 and an election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1986. She has also delivered numerous lectures at major research centers. She presented the Colloquium Lectures in the American mathematical Society at the joint summer meeting in 1985. In Kyoto, Japan in 1990, she became the second woman to give a Plenary Lecture at an international Congress of Mathematics.
She says it is a struggle for her to come to grips with her own success. For the past two years, she has run a mentoring program for women in mathematics. She finds it hard to be a role model, because what you really need to do is show students how imperfect humans can be and still succeed. Being a role model is a very unglamorous position, showing people all your bad sides. She may be a wonderful mathematician, but she wants people to know she is also very human.
She is a founder of the IAS/PCMI Park City Mathematics Institute, which has programs for teachers, undergraduates, and researchers.
Designed by: Beverly Winegar
A personal Profile of Karen K. Uhlenbeck [Online]. http://rene.ma.utexas.edu/users/uhlen/pers.html
Karen K. Uhlenbeck homepage [Online]. Available at http://rene.ma.utexas.edu/users/uhlen/