WomenInMaths

28
Oct
2026
Chayma Nssibi

Chayma Nssibi

Born in El Kef, Tunisia • Birth year 1996 • Studied Applied Mathematics at University of Tunis El Manar in Tunis, Tunisia • PhD in Applied Mathematics from University of Tunis El Manar in Tunis, Tunisia • Lives in Tunis, Tunisia • Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Tunis El Manar in Tunis, Tunisia

I was born in El Kef, in the northwest of Tunisia. My city has been known as the “City of Love and Beauty” since Roman times. It is a culturally rich place where art feels naturally present in everyday life: in the streets, in the shape of the country, in the way people speak, and in how different people live together. To me, it feels like art, like a special world. Growing up in such an environment deeply shaped the way I perceive the world as a big garden. A garden needs many different types of flowers to be truly beautiful, just like the world needs different people, cultures, and perspectives. With respect, love, and care for one another, this garden becomes even more beautiful.

A garden needs many different types of flowers to be truly beautiful, just like the world needs different people, cultures, and perspectives.

Mathematics has always been at the center of my life. From an early age, I enjoyed working with numbers and solving problems mentally, and I often saw the world as a collection of problems, each with its own strategies and solutions. I chose mathematics as my academic track during high school, and after obtaining my baccalaureate, I continued to pursue mathematics, as I have always been passionate about it.

I consider mathematicians to be artists in their own way: they express creativity through research, abstraction, teaching, and problem-solving.

If I had to describe what makes me happy, I would say: mathematics and flowers, and even more, the idea of bringing both together. For me, there is a deep connection between mathematics and art. Flowers represent natural beauty, harmony, and simplicity, while mathematics provides the tools to understand, describe, and structure that beauty. Mathematics transforms complexity into clarity, while art expresses meaning beyond words. I consider mathematicians to be artists in their own way: they express creativity through research, abstraction, teaching, and problem-solving. In this sense, mathematics is not only a scientific discipline but also a form of artistic expression.

A meaningful milestone in my journey was participating in the Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2025, an annual international gathering where 200 outstanding young researchers in mathematics and computer science spend a week engaging with the world’s most prestigious laureates. Blending scientific dialogue with meaningful networking, the Forum creates a unique space for inspiration, mentorship, and the exchange of ideas, shaping the next generation of innovators. During this experience, I had the opportunity to present my artwork: “تونس من حدودها نعيد رسم الأعماق” (“Tunisia From Its Boundary We Redraw Its Interior”).  

This artwork reimagines Tunisia as a Calderón inverse problem, a problem where one attempts to reconstruct the internal structure of an object using only information measured at its boundary. In my artwork, it means reconstructing a nation’s soul using only its borders. Tunisia is not just land enclosed by lines, it is emotion, culture and history expressed along every edge. Inspired by Queen Dido’s legendary optimization problem, the artwork reflects the power of geometry, identity, and feminine genius.Tunisia is a country of art and culture; its borders are the key to understanding its identity. In this regard,Tunisia can be seen as a perfect inverse problem. To understand Tunisia, we must study its borders mathematically and with our heart. This experience allowed me to merge my mathematical mindset with artistic expression, and to share a personal vision that connects identity, culture, and creativity.

I’ve always wanted to understand my father’s brain injury and for this reason now I am interested in biomathematics.

A defining moment in my life came when my father had a serious accident at a young age, which caused him to lose his memory. He no longer recognized me as his daughter. This deeply affected me and led me to question the functioning of the human brain and memory. This personal experience motivated me to pursue science with determination and to better understand complex systems. I’ve always wanted to understand my father’s brain injury and for this reason now I am interested in biomathematics.

During my PhD at LAMSIN (Laboratory of Mathematical and Numerical Modeling in Engineering Sciences), I worked in the field of inverse problems, which focuses on recovering unknown information from observed data, exploring both its theoretical and applied aspects. I did not fully answer the questions that motivated me, since understanding a system as complex as the human brain is a huge challenge, but the journey gave me strong analytical and research skills. 

As a PhD student, I also had the opportunity to complete an internship at BCAM (Basque Center for Applied Mathematics), where I worked on real-world problems in an international research environment. This experience was particularly valuable, as it allowed me to apply mathematical tools to practical situations and collaborate with researchers from different backgrounds. Conferences, summer schools, and workshops, where I exchanged ideas with other researchers, strengthened my interest in research and confirmed my desire to pursue an academic career that combines both teaching and research. Teaching at National Engineering School of Tunis (ENIT) during my PhD has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my journey: I enjoy explaining concepts and helping others understand mathematics, and sharing knowledge gives me a sense of purpose.

Mathematics has taught me how to think logically, analyze complex situations, and break down difficult problems into simpler components. It is a powerful tool for understanding real-world phenomena (…).

Today I am a postdoctoral researcher, continuing to develop my research skills, and working on advanced mathematical problems. My work today is strongly connected to the foundations I built during my studies. Mathematics has taught me how to think logically, analyze complex situations, and break down difficult problems into simpler components. It is a powerful tool for understanding real-world phenomena and contributing to fields such as healthcare, economics, and engineering.

I am particularly interested in biomathematics, where mathematics is used to study biological systems. I aim to contribute to research that helps better understand complex systems such as the human brain and diseases.

As a woman in STEM and as a woman from Africa, I believe that talent exists everywhere, but opportunities are not always equally distributed.

As a woman in STEM and as a woman from Africa, I believe that talent exists everywhere, but opportunities are not always equally distributed. Women often have to work harder to be recognized, and representation in many scientific fields is still limited. My journey reflects both personal determination and the broader context of striving for excellence in environments where opportunities are sometimes limited. This identity has strengthened my resilience, ambition, and sense of purpose.

I believe that achieving gender equality in STEM starts with changing mindsets and ensuring equal opportunities. Encouraging girls to pursue STEM is important, but it is equally essential that society as a whole supports and values women’s contributions in science. I also believe that a fulfilling professional life can coexist with a meaningful personal life. In the future, I hope to build both a career and a family. While balancing these responsibilities can be challenging, I believe it is possible with determination, organization, and support.

For me, mathematics remains more than a discipline, it is a way of thinking, a source of inspiration, and a path toward understanding the world while appreciating its beauty, much like flowers.

Posted by HMS in Stories
17
Sep
2025
Poetry as Lens: Two Historical Women Mathematicians

Poetry as Lens: Two Historical Women Mathematicians

by Jessy Randall

In 2015, I attended a talk on Sarah Frances Whiting given by Colorado College physics professor Barbara Whitten. Whiting was part of a group of women who cataloged stars at Harvard University in the late 19th century. I sat in the audience scribbling notes about these amazing women – I always listen better with a pen in my hand – and got particularly interested when Whitten showed a slide of a murky blob, an example of the star photographs these women used in their work. To my eyes, it looked like nothing much. Really just a smear.

After the talk, I looked up additional information. (Did I mention I’m a librarian?) I learned that one of Whiting’s colleagues, Annie Jump Cannon, cataloged hundreds of thousands of stars and, years later, could still recognize and identify the blurry photos she’d used doing that work. I pictured her being shown a blobby shape and saying “Oh, yes, that’s good old XZ437583, I remember that one.” Or “Hello, PQ2843b!” I started writing poems about Cannon, persona poems written from what I imagined to be her point of view. 

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
(first appeared in Asimov’s)
 
1. Annie Jump Cannon Cataloged Stars
 
Annie Jump Cannon
cataloged stars.
 
The work was tedious.
The pay was terrible.
 
But every day for forty years
she went to work
and held the universe together.
 
2. Annie Jump Cannon Goes Home from the Lab
 
She can’t stop seeing them:
the photographs,
black and white smears of stars.
 
They look like throwaways.
They look like nothing.
But not to her, to her they’re clear
 
as alphabets, because 
she’s good at what she does.

Her name led to others, and I found myself spending my lunch hour in the science section of the Colorado College library stacks. Soon my desk was piled high with thick books about historical women in STEM fields. There were SO MANY MORE women scientists and mathematicians than I ever knew. Than I ever dreamed! I wrote a lot more poems. 

Around this time, some powerful men bragged that with enough fame and power, they could get away with anything, including sexual assault. This made me really mad. So mad that I decided to do something about it! But as a librarian and a poet, what could I do, exactly? Well, I wrote a collection of poems about historical women in STEM fields. Maybe not the most effective form of resistance, but the project staved off my feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. 

I got particularly attached to a set of “biobibliographic source books” edited by Louise S. Grinstein,* and went through them page-by-page looking for women to write about. Frequently, some detail of the lives or work of these women leapt out as a perfect metaphor. When I read the entry on Soviet mathematician Nina Bari, the phrase “mathematics for ladies” led to this poem:

Nina Karlovna Bari (1901-1961)
(first appeared in Strange Horizons)
 
After the revolution, she passed the boys’ exam 
and became the first woman in the Luzitania,
students of Nikolai Luzin known for 
their interest in a new kind of math,
 
descriptive math, something more like 
philosophy, sometimes described as
mathematics for ladies.
 
This particular lady worked on functions
converging “almost everywhere”
(a precise term in trigonemetricheskii)
 
and she herself converged almost everywhere, too:
Paris, France; Lvov, Poland; Bologna, Italy;
even a mountain pass named for her lover, Nemytski,
whom she later married.
 
She married Nemytski, but some say her real love
was Luzin. They say she was despondent at his death,
and that when she was not yet sixty (in other words, 59), 
she threw herself in front of a Moscow Metro train.
 
There’s no way to know. It could have been an accident.
But when a woman had made her name calculating 
functions that converge almost everywhere,
we have to think she knew what she was doing.

In the 1920s in the Soviet Union, “mathematics for ladies” (математика для дам / matematika dlya dam) was a derogatory term for descriptive mathematics such as function theory. As in English, the word for “ladies” in Russian has a different connotation than the word for “women” – ladies (дам / dam) being more fancy and posh, not the Soviet ideal of real-world working women (женщины / zhenshchiny). 

I found this idea pretty hilarious. A special kind of math just for women? Different math for different genders? Aren’t numbers the same for everyone? Numbers and formulas and equations don’t change depending on your gender. But then I remembered those statistics about the gender pay gap – that for every dollar a man makes, women make 84 cents, or 90 cents, or 66 cents, depending whom you ask. 

In Bari’s time, math was supposed to be for practical purposes: engineering, architecture, and so on. “Mathematics for ladies” wasn’t real math – real mathematicians considered it to be useless, more like philosophy than math. Much has changed in the past hundred years. Abstract math, or pure math, is now standard in college and university math programs, and pure math scholars receive as much respect as their comrades in applied math (if, perhaps, not always as much funding).

For more information about the books, links to online poems, and subject indexes, visit http://tinyurl.com/MathforLadies.

Literature

*Women of Mathematics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook. Ed. Louise S. Grinstein and Paul J. Campbell. New York: Greenwood, 1987.

*Women in Chemistry and Physics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook. Ed. Louise S. Grinstein, Rose K. Rose, and Miriam H. Rafailovich. New York: Greenwood, 1993.

*Women in the Biological Sciences: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook. Ed. Louise S. Grinstein, Carol A. Biermann, and Rose K. Rose. New York: Greenwood, 1997.

About the author

Born in Rochester, New York, USA. Studied English Literature at Columbia University in New York City. Master’s Degree in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill. Lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Curator of Special Collections at Colorado College and author of two collections of poetry about historical women in STEM fields: Mathematics for Ladies (Goldsmiths Press, 2022) and The Path of Most Resistance (Goldsmiths Press, 2025).

More information: http://tinyurl.com/MathforLadies

Published on September 17, 2025.
Photo credit header: Nethery Wylie

Posted by HMS in Blog
21
May
2025
Laura Lewis

Laura Lewis

Born in China • Studied mathematics and computer science at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in USA • Master’s in mathematics from University of Cambridge in UK • Lives in USA • Quantum information student, pursuing PhD at the University of California, Berkeley

Throughout my educational journey meandering through pure math, theoretical computer science, physics, and ultimately arriving in quantum information, I’ve seen that all these fields have deep foundations in mathematics, regardless of their outward label.

Early in life, I was drawn to math for its concreteness. To add two numbers together, there was a fixed set of rules, in contrast to other subjects we learn in elementary school, e.g., spelling which (especially in English) has many arbitrary rules and exceptions.

I was lucky to have a previous college math professor as my high school math teacher. He taught advanced math courses not typically covered in the high school curriculum, e.g., real and complex analysis.

With this initial interest, my experiences during high school solidified it and greatly influenced my academic path. I was lucky to have a previous college math professor as my high school math teacher. He taught advanced math courses not typically covered in the high school curriculum, e.g., real and complex analysis. With this, I was able to get a head start on math and got a glimpse of how it is explored in higher education: less through calculations and numbers, but with proofs.

Another pivotal experience was when I attended a program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the summer of my junior year in high school. There, I was challenged with advanced courses and projects but, perhaps most importantly, it was where I was first exposed to quantum mechanics. It immediately fascinated me due to its mystery, where even the first axioms are still debated. This is especially in contrast to other high school physics subjects, e.g., kinematics and electromagnetism, which are taught as having already been solved. This first experience with quantum mechanics planted a seed which would grow in college.

I double majored in pure mathematics and computer science, and as a part of the freshman seminars, one professor mentioned the intersection of these fields with quantum physics: quantum computing. I was fascinated.

When I started my undergraduate degree at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), I kept in mind my previous exposure to quantum physics and kept my eyes peeled for any interesting opportunities. I double majored in pure mathematics and computer science, and as a part of the freshman seminars, one professor mentioned the intersection of these fields with quantum physics: quantum computing. I was fascinated. This subject would allow me to explore my interdisciplinary interests in math, physics, and computer science, and I thought it was a great fit. That summer, I reached out to the professor and started a project with him on how to efficiently check the correctness of a powerful quantum computation using only your laptop. With this experience, I saw how important a strong mathematical foundation is for this type of research, which focuses on rigorously proving the security of such verification protocols.

It was also at this point in my education where I started to notice the gender imbalance in math and quantum science, where I was the only female pure math major in my year in undergrad. This was not at all specific to Caltech but representative of the field as a whole.

During my undergrad, I also worked on designing machine learning algorithms to predict  ground states. A ground state is the lowest energy state of a system, where one can think of a ball lying at the bottom of a bowl. A good understanding of ground states can provide us with insights into different properties of quantum systems, so this is an important problem in quantum physics. In this project, I was able to leverage my mathematical background in analysis to provide rigorous theoretical proofs on the performance of my algorithms. It was fascinating to see how math could help pave the way for novel scientific exploration in important physics problems. I received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for my research (awarded to undergraduates in the USA for outstanding research), which increased my confidence to pursue the subject further.

It was also at this point in my education where I started to notice the gender imbalance in math and quantum science, where I was the only female pure math major in my year in undergrad. This was not at all specific to Caltech but representative of the field as a whole. I hope that by continuing to pursue a research career, I can inspire other young women to follow their passions and dive into mathematics with confidence.

After college, I pursued two master’s degrees in the UK through a Marshall Scholarship (awarded to recent college graduates from the USA to perform two years of graduate study in the UK). The first was at Cambridge in mathematics, a course which is well-known for offering an extensive array of advanced math classes. The second is a research degree at the University of Edinburgh in computer science, where I am free to explore a research topic of choice. These past two years have allowed me to hone my research interests and learn new mathematical tools to attain these goals. Soon I will start my Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley, focusing on quantum information, and I’m excited to see where my pursuit of mathematics leads me next in advancing our scientific understanding of the universe.

Published on May 21, 2025.
Photo credit: Daniel Chen

Posted by HMS in Stories
12
Mar
2025
Catherine Micek

Catherine Micek

Born in United States • Studied PhD in Mathematics at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, United States • Lives in United States • Occupation Data Scientist

Galileo Galilei said “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” I chose to have a career in mathematics because I wanted to be a “translator” for the language of mathematics. 

The first time I realized that I might enjoy teaching math was when I was in sixth grade.  I was writing up a solution to a pre-algebra problem for a school newspaper article, and I discovered that I loved breaking the problem down into smaller steps that could each be carefully explained. Communicating a logical and precise solution was beautiful to me.

When I went to college, choosing a major was tough because I was curious about many subjects. What drew me towards math during my freshman year was the idea of becoming a college math professor. A career as a math professor would allow me to combine the challenge of solving math problems as well as communicating the results.  Furthermore, the fact that mathematics could be applied to a variety of fields appealed to my widespread curiosity. During college, I studied applications of math to some familiar and loved subjects (such as music) as well as some new and interesting ones (such as computer science). I majored in math and minored in physics and computer science with the goal of pursuing a Ph.D. in applied mathematics upon graduation.

Graduate school was very different from my undergraduate studies. The coursework was more demanding, so I had to improve my study habits, and research required that I develop an entirely new set of skills. The nature of research was very different from the syllabus structure of problem sets and exams in a course. Since my goal was to solve a problem no one had ever solved before, it required a creative and flexible approach, one that emphasized the exploration, experimentation, and steady refinement of ideas.  But perhaps the most important lesson I learned was that there is no single “correct” way to be a mathematician. I saw that fellow students succeeded by developing a process of learning and research that worked for their unique set of talents and interests. I, too, had to develop such a process, even though it was an arduous and intimidating journey, fraught with a lot of trial and error. Ultimately, though, the effort was worth it because it built my self-confidence.

Since my goal was to solve a problem no one had ever solved before, it required a creative and flexible approach, one that emphasized the exploration, experimentation, and steady refinement of ideas.  But perhaps the most important lesson I learned was that there is no single “correct” way to be a mathematician.

At the end of graduate school, I had an unforeseen change of plans. My goal had always been to get a tenure-track job (which is the career track to a permanent academic position in America) at a local school. However, since no local positions were open the year I was graduating, I had to consider the trade-offs between my geographic location and the type of job I wanted. If I didn’t relocate, I would have to broaden my job search to include non-academic jobs (which I didn’t know much about) and temporary academic jobs (which had more uncertainty). It was scary to consider changing my long-held career plans, but I had an established support system of family and friends locally who were an important part of my life. After extensive deliberation, I accepted a two-year faculty position at a local school and began investigating non-academic career paths.  

Luckily for me, jobs in data science were starting to surge around the time I started looking at industrial jobs. Companies were looking to hire employees who understood complex statistical and machine learning algorithms and could write computer code.  Data science was a great fit for my interests and skills – I had a lot of programming experience and was willing to learn whatever additional mathematics I needed for a job – so I began looking for jobs where I could use and further develop my technical skills.  

My first industry job was building statistical models for pricing policies at an insurance company, and from there I segued into data scientist and software developer roles. Although the domains are different and the mathematical techniques I use vary, my jobs generally have consisted of formulating the mathematical problem, writing the code to train the model and implementing the solution, and explaining the results to business stakeholders. I’ve worked as a data scientist at several companies on problems with diverse applications: energy, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and media.   Although the details of my professional life are different than if I was a math professor – the work is interdisciplinary and team-oriented – I still get to be a “translator” of mathematics. 

Even though my career path has gone differently than I originally planned, I am happy with the unexpected directions it has taken me. Keep in mind that the best career path is not about what the majority is doing or what others advise that you “should” do: it is the path you create for yourself.

Published on March 12, 2025.
Photo credit: Catherine Micek

Posted by HMS in Stories