Mary Lynn Reed (born 1967) is an American mathematician, intelligence researcher, professor, and short fiction writer. She served as the Department Head in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

(RIT) from 2019 to 2022. She is currently a professor of Mathematics at RIT.

Education

Reed is a 1988 graduate of the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1995 from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. Her dissertation, supervised by

William Haboush William Joseph Haboush (born 1942) is an American mathematician at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who is best known for his 1975 proof of one of David Mumford's conjectures, known as Haboush's theorem In mathematics Haboush's theor ...

, was ''The Frobenius Direct Image of Line Bundles and the Structure of Representations'', and concerned

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...

. Reed writes that she was "drawn to writing in one form or another since I was a child", but that she began submitting her creative writing for publication in approximately 2005. In 2013, she completed a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in creative writing 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 Mary ...

. Her MFA thesis, ''Singularities'', was directed by

Maud Casey Maud Casey is an American novelist, and professor of creative writing at University of Maryland, College Park. Life She is the daughter of novelist John Casey. She graduated from University of Arizona with an M.F.A. She won a Guggenheim Fello ...

Career

After completing her doctorate, Reed obtained a faculty position at the

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, but "it was not her dream job", and she left to work at the

IDA Ida or IDA may refer to: Astronomy * Ida Facula, a mountain on Amalthea, a moon of Jupiter *243 Ida, an asteroid *International Docking Adapter, a docking adapter for the International Space Station Computing *Intel Dynamic Acceleration, a techn ...

Center for Communications Research Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

(CCR) in

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

and then in the software industry. She began working with the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in 2001. By 2016, she had become the chief of mathematics research at the agency. She has also been president of the Crypto-Mathematics Institute, an association of NSA mathematicians, and a member of the Board of Trustees of

. In 2019, she moved to the

as Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences.

Recognition

In 2018, the University of Illinois Department of Mathematics Alumni gave Reed their Outstanding Professional Achievement Award.

References

External links

Mary Lynn Reed
fiction blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Mary Lynn 1967 births Living people Georgia Tech alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of the Sciences faculty University of Maryland, College Park alumni National Security Agency people Rochester Institute of Technology faculty