Pauline van den Driessche (born 1941) is a British and Canadian applied mathematician who is a professor emerita in the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Victoria, where she has also held an affiliation in the department of computer science. Her research interests include

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of the living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development a ...

, matrix analysis, and

stability theory In mathematics, stability theory addresses the stability of solutions of differential equations and of trajectories of dynamical systems under small perturbations of initial conditions. The heat equation, for example, is a stable partial diffe ...

Education and career

Van den Driessche earned bachelor's and master's degrees in 1961 and 1963 respectively from Imperial College London. She completed her doctorate in 1964 from the University College of Wales; her dissertation concerned fluid mechanics. She stayed on for a year in Wales as an assistant lecturer; she was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Victoria in 1965, and retired in 2006..

Contributions

, van den Driessche's contributions include important work on delay differential equations and on Hopf bifurcations, and the effects of changing population size and immigration on epidemics. She has also done more fundamental research in linear algebra, motivated by applications in mathematical biology. Her work in this area includes pioneering contributions to the theory of

combinatorial matrix theory Combinatorial matrix theory is a branch of linear algebra and combinatorics that studies matrices in terms of the patterns of nonzeros and of positive and negative values in their coefficients. Concepts and topics studied within combinatorial matr ...

in which she proved connections between the sign pattern of a matrix and its stability, as well as results on matrix decomposition.

Awards and honors

In 2005, the journal '' Linear Algebra and its Applications'' published a special issue in her honor.. She was the 2007 winner of the Krieger–Nelson Prize of the

Canadian Mathematical Society The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) (french: Société mathématique du Canada) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research, outreach, scholarship and education in Canada. It serves the ...

,. and in the same year became the inaugural Olga Taussky-Todd Lecturer, an award given every four years at the

International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics The International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) is an international congress in the field of applied mathematics held every four years under the auspices of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. T ...

by the

International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) is an organisation for professional applied mathematics societies and related organisations. The current (2020) President is Ya-xiang Yuan. History Until 1999 the Council was ...

and Association for Women in Mathematics.. In 2013 she became a fellow of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

"for contributions to linear algebra and mathematical biology". She received the CAIMS Research Prize from the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society in 2019, and the 2022 Hans Schneider Prize in Linear Algebra.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van den Driessche, Pauline 1941 births Living people British computer scientists British women computer scientists British mathematicians Canadian computer scientists Canadian women computer scientists British women mathematicians Canadian women mathematicians 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians 20th-century Canadian mathematicians 21st-century Canadian mathematicians Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Aberystwyth University Academics of Aberystwyth University Academic staff of the University of Victoria Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century Canadian women scientists