Elena Moldovan Popoviciu (26 August 1924–24 June 2009) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n mathematician known for her work in

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (e.g. Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics)#Defini ...

and specializing in generalizations of the concept of a

convex function In mathematics, a real-valued function is called convex if the line segment between any two points on the graph of a function, graph of the function lies above the graph between the two points. Equivalently, a function is convex if its epigra ...

. She was a winner of the

Simion Stoilow Prize The Simion Stoilow Prize ( ro, Premiul Simion Stoilow) is the prize offered by the Romanian Academy for achievements in mathematics. It is named in honor of Simion Stoilow. The prize is awarded either for a mathematical work or for a cycle of works ...

in mathematics.

Education and career

Elena Moldovan was born in

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

to Ioan Moldovan and his wife, Rozalia. She studied mathematics at the Victor Babeș University in Cluj, earning a bachelor's degree there in 1947; afterwards, she became a schoolteacher. She returned to the university for doctoral study in the early 1950s, initially working with Grigore Calugăreanu, but she soon came under the influence of

Tiberiu Popoviciu Tiberiu Popoviciu (February 16, 1906–October 29, 1975) was a Romanian mathematician and the namesake of Popoviciu's inequality and Popoviciu's inequality on variances. The Tiberiu Popoviciu High School of Computer Science in Cluj-Napoca is nam ...

and began working with him in

. She completed her Ph.D. in 1960. Her dissertation, ''Sets of Interpolating Functions And The Notion of Convex Function'', was supervised by Popoviciu. She married Popoviciu in 1964, remained at the university, and became a full professor there in 1969. During her career, she supervised the Ph.D. thesis of 23 students. She served as the second editor-in-chief of the journal ''Revue d’Analyse Numérique et de Théorie de l’Approximation'', founded in 1972 by her husband. She died in Cluj-Napoca on June 24, 2009.

Recognition

Popoviciu won the

of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

, for her achievements in mathematics, in 1972. A conference in honor of Popoviciu's 75th birthday was held in 1999 at the

Babeș-Bolyai University The Babeș-Bolyai University ( ro, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai , hu, Babeș-Bolyai Tudományegyetem, commonly known as UBB) is a public research university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. UBB has a long academic tradition, started by Universitas ...

in Cluj, and a second conference in her honor was held five years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popoviciu, Elena Moldovan Women mathematicians Functional analysts Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Academic staff of Babeș-Bolyai University Scientists from Cluj-Napoca 1924 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Romanian mathematicians