Chikako Mese is an American mathematician known for her work in

differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

, geometric analysis and the theory of

harmonic map In the mathematical field of differential geometry, a smooth map between Riemannian manifolds is called harmonic if its coordinate representatives satisfy a certain nonlinear partial differential equation. This partial differential equation for ...

s. She is a professor of mathematics at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Education and career

Mese graduated from

Elk Grove High School (Elk Grove Village, Illinois) Elk Grove High School, or EGHS, is a public four-year high school located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 214, which also includes Buffalo G ...

in 1987. As a

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

player at Elk Grove, she broke the national record for the number of runs scored in a season, with 69 runs. Although primarily a catcher, she played in seven different positions for her team, and also tied the state record for the most walks in a season, 35. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1991 from the honors program at the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

, majoring in mathematics, and completed a Ph.D. 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 1996. Her dissertation, ''Minimal Surfaces and Conformal Mappings Into Singular Spaces'', was supervised by

Richard Schoen Richard Melvin Schoen (born October 23, 1950) is an American mathematician known for his work in differential geometry and geometric analysis. He is best known for the resolution of the Yamabe problem in 1984. Career Born in Celina, Ohio, and a 1 ...

. Before joining the Johns Hopkins University faculty in 2004 as an associate professor, she held assistant professorships at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

. At Johns Hopkins, she became the first tenured female mathematician. She was promoted to full professor in 2007, and chaired the mathematics department from 2008 to 2011.

Recognition

In 2007, Elk Grove High School recognized Mese as a distinguished alumna. She was named a Simons Fellow by the

Simons Foundation The Simons Foundation is a private foundation established in 1994 by Marilyn and Jim Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the US with assets of over $5 billion in 2022, the foundation's mission ...

in 2017. She was elected as a Fellow 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, ...

in the 2020 Class, for "contributions to the theory of harmonic maps and their applications, and for service to the mathematical community".

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mese, Chikako Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Differential geometers University of Dayton alumni Stanford University alumni University of Southern California faculty Connecticut College faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 20th-century American women 21st-century American women