Bryna Rebekah Kra (born 1966) is an American mathematician and Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor at Northwestern University who is on the board of trustees of the American Mathematical Society and was elected the president of American Mathematical Society in 2021. As a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences, Kra has made significant contributions to the structure theory of characteristic factors for multiple ergodic averages. Her academic work centered on
dynamical systems and
ergodic theory, and uses dynamical methods to address problems in
number theory
Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mat ...
and
combinatorics.
Education and career
Kra was born in 1966 in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1988, and obtained her Ph.D. from
Stanford University in 1995 under the guidance of
Yitzhak Katznelson. She held postdoctoral positions at the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
in Jerusalem, the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, the
IHÉS and the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
before joining the mathematics faculty at
Pennsylvania State University as an assistant professor. Since 2004 Kra has been a professor of mathematics at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, where she was department chair from 2009 to 2012.
Book
With Bernard Host, Kra is the author of the book ''Nilpotent Structures in Ergodic Theory'' (
Mathematical Surveys and Monographs 236,
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, ...
, 2018).
Honors
In 2010 Kra was awarded the
Levi L. Conant Prize for her expository article "The
Green–Tao theorem In number theory, the Green–Tao theorem, proved by Ben Green and Terence Tao in 2004, states that the sequence of prime numbers contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. In other words, for every natural number ''k'', there exist arith ...
on arithmetic progressions in the primes: an ergodic point of view". In 2006 she was an
invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians
This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...
in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
("From combinatorics to ergodic theory and back again"), and was named an AMS Centennial Fellow the same year. In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In 2016 she became a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
. In 2019, she was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences. She was named a 2021
Simons Fellows in Mathematics. Kra was elected to the 2023 class of fellows 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 ...
"for her vision and work creating programs to support women in mathematics, especially GROW (Graduate Research Opportunities for Women) and AWM student chapters; for her leadership in the mathematics community, including serving on the AWM Executive Committee and serving as president of AMS; and for making advocacy for women a priority throughout her career."
Kra was elected president 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, ...
and assumed that position on February 1, 2023.
Family relations
Kra is the daughter of mathematician
Irwin Kra.
Irwin Kra
Math for America board, retrieved 2016-06-24.
References
External links
Homepage at Northwestern University
Portrait at Northwestern University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kra, Bryna
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
Living people
1966 births
Stanford University alumni
Harvard University alumni
Pennsylvania State University faculty
Northwestern University faculty
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
Place of birth missing (living people)
University of Michigan faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
20th-century women mathematicians
21st-century women mathematicians
20th-century American women
21st-century American women