Marie-Françoise Roy (born 28 April 1950 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

) is a French

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

noted for her work in

real algebraic geometry In mathematics, real algebraic geometry is the sub-branch of algebraic geometry studying real algebraic sets, i.e. real-number solutions to algebraic equations with real-number coefficients, and mappings between them (in particular real polynom ...

. She has been Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Rennes 1 The University of Rennes 1 is a public university located in the city of Rennes, France. It is under the Academy of Rennes. It specializes in science, technology, law, economics, management and philosophy. There are currently about students en ...

since 1985 and in 2009 was made a ''Chevalier'' of the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. In 2004, she received an

Irène Joliot-Curie Prize The Irène Joliot-Curie Prize is a French prize for women in science and technology, founded in 2001. It is awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Airbus Group corporate foundation, the French Academy of Scienc ...

Research

Roy works in

in particular real spectra and, most recently, in complexity of

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

in real algebraic geometry and also the applications.

Education and career

Marie-Françoise Roy got her education at

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education sca ...

de jeunes filles and was an assistant professor at Université Paris Nord during 1973. She received her PhD at Université Paris Nord in 1980, supervised by

Jean Bénabou Jean Bénabou (1932 – 11 February 2022) was a Moroccan-born French mathematician, known for his contributions to category theory. He directed the Research Seminar in Category Theory at the Institut Henri Poincaré and Institut de mathémati ...

. From 1981 she spent two years at

Abdou Moumouni University Abdou Moumouni University (French: Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, UAM) was formerly the University of Niamey from 1974 to 1994. On the right bank of the Niger River in Niamey, its students and faculty have historically been involved in prote ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesUniversity of Rennes 1 The University of Rennes 1 is a public university located in the city of Rennes, France. It is under the Academy of Rennes. It specializes in science, technology, law, economics, management and philosophy. There are currently about students en ...

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departm ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Service

Roy was president of

Société Mathématique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

from 2004 to 2007. In 1986, Roy was one of the founders of European Women in Mathematics (EWM), and was the convenor (president) of EWM 2009-2013. In 1987 she co-founded the French organization for women in mathematics,

Femmes et Mathématiques L'association femmes et mathématiques (English: Association of Women and Mathematics) is a voluntary association promoting women in scientific studies, research, and mathematics created in 1987.Official Association Website Nous Sommes, or About, p ...

, and became the organization's first president. Roy is scientific officer for Sub-Saharan Africa in Centre International de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées, CIMPA].CIMPA website
/ref> Roy is president of Association d'Echanges Culturels Cesson Dankassari (Tarbiyya-Tatali) an organization working for joint activities in a commune Dan-Kassari, Dan-Cassari in

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesCesson-Sévigné Cesson-Sévigné () is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a suburb directly to the east of Rennes, bordered on its west side by the University of Rennes and the Technopole Atalante. It is prim ...

Selected publications

* with Saugata Basu, Richard Pollack
''Algorithms in real algebraic geometry.'' Springer 2003.
http://perso.univ-rennes1.fr/marie-francoise.roy/bpr-ed2-posted2.pdf pdf-file freely available on author's homepage] * with Jacek Bochnak, Michel Coste: ''Real algebraic geometry.'' 2.Edition, Springer, Ergebnisse der Mathematik Bd. 36, 1998 (first in French 1. Edition 1987). * ''Three Problems in real algebraic geometry and their descendants.'' In: Engquist, Schmid: ''Mathematics unlimited- 2001 and beyond.'' Springer Verlag 2000, S. 991 (Hilberts 17th Problem, Algorithms, Topology of real algebraic varieties). * ''Géométrie algébrique réelle.'' In: Jean-Paul Pier (Hrsg.): ''Development of Mathematics 1950-2000.'' Birkhäuser 2000. * ''Introduction a la geometrie algebrique reelle'', Cahiers Sem. Hist. Math., 1991
Online

References

External links

Homepage International Center Scientific Research

Homepage in Rennes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Marie-Francoise 20th-century French mathematicians 21st-century French mathematicians 1950 births Living people French women mathematicians University of Paris alumni Algebraic geometers 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century French women 21st-century French women