Ruth F. Curtain (16 July 1941 – 18 March 2018) was an Australian mathematician who worked for many years in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

as a professor of mathematics at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. Her research concerned infinite-dimensional

linear system In systems theory, a linear system is a mathematical model of a system based on the use of a linear operator. Linear systems typically exhibit features and properties that are much simpler than the nonlinear case. As a mathematical abstraction o ...

Education and career

Curtain was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. She was the daughter of a house painter, who wanted her to leave school at age 14, but with the support of her mother she persisted. She studied mathematics at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in 1962, diploma in education in 1963, and master's degree in 1965. She moved to

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, in the United States, for graduate study in applied mathematics, and completed her Ph.D. there in 1969. Her dissertation, ''Stochastic Differential Equations In A Hilbert Space'', was supervised by Peter Falb. She then joined the faculty at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

, but in 1971 moved to the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

. In 1977 she moved again, to the University of Groningen, where she remained until her 2006 retirement.

Books

Curtain was the author of: *''Functional Analysis in Modern Applied Mathematics'' (with A. J. Pritchard, Academic Press, 1977) *''Infinite Dimensional Linear Systems Theory'' (with A. J. Pritchard, Springer, 1978) *''An Introduction to Infinite-Dimensional Linear Systems Theory'' (with Hans Zwart, Springer, 1995)

Awards and honours

In 1991 Curtain was elected as a Fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, associated with the

IEEE Control Systems Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, "for contributions to the control theory of stochastic and infinite-dimensional systems". In 2012 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 ...

gave Curtain their

W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize The W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize is an annual award presented by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for outstanding research in, or other contributions to, the broadly defined areas of Differential equation, differential equati ...

for outstanding research in

differential equation In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

s and

control theory Control theory is a field of mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a ...

. The award citation recognized Curtain for her "fundamental contributions to the theory of infinite dimensional systems and the control of systems governed by partial and delay differential equation".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtain, Ruth F. 1941 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Australian mathematicians 20th-century Dutch mathematicians University of Melbourne alumni Brown University alumni Purdue University faculty Academics of the University of Warwick Academic staff of the University of Groningen Fellows of the IEEE 21st-century Australian mathematicians 21st-century Dutch mathematicians Australian expatriates in the Netherlands 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians