Ami Elizabeth Radunskaya is an American mathematician and musician. She is a professor of mathematics at Pomona College, where she specializes in

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...

s and the applications of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

to medicine, such as the use of cellular automata to model drug delivery. In 2016 she was elected as the president of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

(AWM)..

Early life and music

Radunskaya, the daughter of a

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

economist, began playing the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

as a 9-year-old. After graduating from high school at the age of 16,. she took ten years off from her education to work as cellist and music composer, including seven years as a member of the

Oakland Symphony The Oakland Symphony Orchestra Association (OSOA) was a professional regional symphony orchestra in Oakland, California, from 1933 to 1986. In 1986 the symphony filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is succeeded by the Oakland East Bay Symphony (OEBS ...

. As "a well known Bay Area cellist specializing in new music", she "performed throughout the U.S. and Europe with Don Buchla." In the late 1970s, Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments made a custom

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

for her, the "Sili-Con Cello", and several of her works use the radio baton, a controller for electronic music devices in the form of a conductor's baton. One of her cello and radio baton compositions, "A Wild and Reckless Place" (1990), is known for its use of the Bohlen–Pierce scale.

Education

Radunskaya did her undergraduate studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, as a single mother. There, she studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

before eventually majoring in

. She completed her doctorate in mathematics at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1992, under the supervision of

Donald Samuel Ornstein Donald Samuel Ornstein (born July 30, 1934, New York) is an American mathematician working in the area of ergodic theory. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1957 under the guidance of Irving Kaplansky. During his career at Sta ...

; her dissertation was titled ''Statistical Properties of Deterministic Bernoulli Flows''.

Mathematics career

After postdoctoral studies at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, as the only woman in the mathematics department there, she joined the Pomona College faculty in 1994. In June 2022, the college announced her appointment as the Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics, an endowed chair.

Awards and honors

Radunskaya was the AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer for 2010, speaking on "Mathematical Challenges in the Treatment of Cancer". In 2016 she was named as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

"for contributions to mathematical oncology, immuno-dynamics, and applications of dynamical systems to medicine, and for service to the mathematical community." She also won the Mentor Award of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

for her work as a founder and director of the EDGE Foundation, a national program that encourages women to study mathematics at the graduate level.. Radunskaya was president of the

(AWM) from February 2017 to January 2019. She was selected as a Fellow of the

in the Class of 2021 "''for her career-long efforts to invite women into our profession by learning about people’s individual journeys and driving the community to be more welcoming of diverse pathways into mathematics via her work during her AWM presidency and as co-director of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education summer program''." Radunskaya gave the opening plenary lecture at the 2022 AWM Research Symposium.

References

External links

Video interview
at Meet a Mathematician! {{DEFAULTSORT:Radunskaya, Ami E. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Cellular automatists American cellists Microtonal composers University of California, Berkeley alumni Stanford University alumni Pomona College faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 21st-century women mathematicians Scientists from California Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics 21st-century American women 20th-century cellists