Ruth I. Michler (March 8, 1967 to November 1, 2000)[1][2][3][4] was an American-born mathematician of German descent who lived and worked in the United States. She earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley,[5] and she was a tenured associate professor at the University of North Texas. She died at the age of 33 while visiting Northeastern University, after which at least three memorial conferences were held in her honor, and the Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize was established in her memory.

Ruth I. Michler
BornMarch 8, 1967
DiedNovember 1, 2000
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Scientific career
Fieldscommutative algebra, algebraic geometry
InstitutionsUniversity of North Texas
Doctoral advisorArthur Ogus, Mariusz Wodzicki

Early years

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Michler was the daughter of German mathematician Gerhard O. Michler [de] and was born in Ithaca, New York while her family was visiting Cornell University from Germany.[1] She grew up in Germany, living in Tübingen, Giessen, and Essen.[2] She completed her undergraduate studies in 1988 at the University of Oxford, graduating summa cum laude.[3][6]

Doctoral studies and research

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Michler earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1993 from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation is titled "Hodge components of cyclic homology of affine hypersurfaces."[5][7] Her advisors were Mariusz Wodzicki and Arthur Ogus. She spent the academic year 1993-1994 as a postdoc at Queen's University working with Leslie Roberts. In 1994, she joined the tenure-track faculty at the University of North Texas where she earned tenure in 2000.

Memorial conferences and prize

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Michler was killed in an accident in Boston on November 1, 2000, when she was struck by a construction vehicle while riding her bicycle.[4][8][6] Several conferences were organized in her honor.[9][10] Two conferences resulted in a volume of papers dedicated to her memory[11] In 2007 the Association for Women in Mathematics inaugurated the Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize which is "awarded annually to a woman recently promoted to Associate Professor or an equivalent position in the mathematical sciences".[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Ruth Michler biography". mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  2. ^ a b "Cornell Math - About Ruth Michler". pi.math.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  3. ^ a b "Commemorating Dr. Ruth Michler". web.northeastern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  4. ^ a b "The Valuation Theory Home Page: Very Sad News. Includes memorial articles from Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Texas Star". math.usask.ca. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  5. ^ a b "Ruth Michler - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  6. ^ a b "Association for Women in Mathematics Newsletter Jan-Feb 2001, In Memoriam". www.drivehq.com. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  7. ^ Michler, Ruth Ingrid (1993). Hodge-components of cyclic homology of singular affine hypersurfaces (Thesis). University of California, Berkeley. MR 2690218. ProQuest 304042308.
  8. ^ "Northeastern University, Department of Mathematics 'Tragic Accident'". mathserver.neu.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  9. ^ "Conferences Commemorating Dr. Ruth Michler". web.northeastern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  10. ^ "AWM at JMM 2011". Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  11. ^ Melles, Caroline Grant; Brasselet, Jean-Paul; Kennedy, Gary; Lauter, Kristin; McEwan, Lee (2003). Proceedings of the Conference "Resolution of Singularities and Noncommutative Geometry" held in Luminy, July 20–22, 2001 and the Algebraic Geometry Conference held in Annapolis, MD, October 25–28, 2001, Dedicated to the memory of Ruth Michler. Contemporary Mathematics. Vol. 324. American Mathematical Society. doi:10.1090/conm/324. ISBN 0-8218-3209-3. MR 2017395.
  12. ^ "Ruth I. Michler Prize". Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). Retrieved 2019-01-26.