Kathleen Marie Madden is an American mathematician who works in

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a function describes the time dependence of a point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water i ...

s. She was the dean of the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering at

California State University, Bakersfield California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB, Cal State Bakersfield, or CSU Bakersfield) is a public university in Bakersfield, California. It was established in 1965 as Kern State College and officially in 1968 as California State College Bak ...

. She won the

George Pólya Award The George Pólya Award is presented annually by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for articles of expository excellence that have been published in The College Mathematics Journal. The award was established in 1976 and up to two a ...

and is the co-author of the book ''Discovering Discrete Dynamical Systems''.

Education and career

Madden did her undergraduate studies at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

. She then spent two years with the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

teaching mathematics in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

before returning to the US for graduate study. She completed her Ph.D. in 1994 at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

; her dissertation, ''On the Existence and Consequences of Exotic Cocycles'', was supervised by Nelson G. Markley. Before joining California State University, Bakersfield as associate dean in 2015, she was a faculty member in the mathematics department at

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General La ...

and then at

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three sch ...

, where she also served as chair of the department and associate dean. At California State University, Bakersfield, she was appointed interim dean in 2016 and permanent dean in 2017. She served in this position until 2021, at which time she retired to a part-time position in the faculty.

Books and recognition

In 1998, Madden and

Aimee Johnson Aimee Sue Anastasia Johnson is an American mathematician who works in dynamical systems. She is a professor of mathematics at Swarthmore College, the winner of the George Pólya Award, and the co-author of the book ''Discovering Discrete Dynamical ...

won the George Pólya Award for their joint paper on

aperiodic tiling An aperiodic tiling is a non-periodic tiling with the additional property that it does not contain arbitrarily large periodic regions or patches. A set of tile-types (or prototiles) is aperiodic if copies of these tiles can form only non- peri ...

, "Putting the Pieces Together: Understanding Robinson's Nonperiodic Tilings". In 2017, Madden, Johnson, and their co-author Ayşe Şahin published the textbook ''Discovering Discrete Dynamical Systems'' through the Mathematical Association of America.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madden, Kathleen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Dynamical systems theorists University of Colorado alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Lafayette College faculty Drew University faculty California State University, Bakersfield faculty 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century American women 21st-century American women