Réka Albert (born 2 March 1972) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n- Hungarian scientist. She is a

distinguished professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

and is noted for the

Barabási–Albert model The Barabási–Albert (BA) model is an algorithm for generating random scale-free network, scale-free complex network, networks using a preferential attachment mechanism. Several natural and human-made systems, including the Internet, the World ...

and research into

scale-free network A scale-free network is a network whose degree distribution follows a power law, at least asymptotically. That is, the fraction ''P''(''k'') of nodes in the network having ''k'' connections to other nodes goes for large values of ''k'' as : P(k) ...

s and Boolean modeling of biological systems.

Education

Albert was born in Reghin, a city in

Mureș County Mureș County (, ro, Județul Mures, hu, Maros megye) is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș. The county was established in 1968, after the administrative ...

, located in the historical region of

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, in the north-central part of Romania. She obtained her

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

and

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degrees from

Babeș-Bolyai University The Babeș-Bolyai University ( ro, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai , hu, Babeș-Bolyai Tudományegyetem, commonly known as UBB) is a public research university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. UBB has a long academic tradition, started by Universitas ...

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

, Romania, in 1995 and 1996, respectively. She earned her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 2001.

Work

Albert is co-creator, together with

Albert-László Barabási Albert-László Barabási (born March 30, 1967) is a Romanian-born Hungarian-American physicist, best known for his discoveries in network science and network medicine. He is Distinguished University Professor and Robert Gray Professor of Netwo ...

, of the Barabási–Albert model for generating scale-free random graphs via

preferential attachment A preferential attachment process is any of a class of processes in which some quantity, typically some form of wealth or credit, is distributed among a number of individuals or objects according to how much they already have, so that those who ...

(see

). Her work extends to networks in a very general sense, involving for instance investigations on the error tolerance and attack vulnerability of complex networks and its applications to the vulnerability of the North American

power grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

. Her current research focuses on dynamic modeling of biological networks and

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological syst ...

Awards

Albert was selected as a

Sloan Research Fellow The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

in 2004, was awarded an

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

CAREER Award in 2007. She was named Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

in 2010. One year later she received the

Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award The Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award is an annual prize presented by the American Physical Society in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research by a woman. It recognizes and enhances outstanding achievements by women physicists in t ...

. In 2016 she was inducted as an external member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

. In 2018 Reka Albert was elected Fellow of the Network Science Society. She was elected a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

in 2019.

Selected publications

* Albert R., Barabási A.-L.: ''Statistical mechanics of complex networks'',

Reviews of Modern Physics ''Reviews of Modern Physics'' (abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. It was established in 1929 and the current editor-in-chief is Michael Thoennessen. The journal publishes re ...

, Vol. 74, Nr. 1, pp. 47–97, 2002,
arXiv:cond-mat/0106096v1
(submitted 6 June 2001) * Jeong H., Tombor B., Albert R., Oltvai Z.N., Barabási A.-L.: ''The large-scale organization of metabolic networks'', Nature 407, pp. 651–654, 2000,
arXiv:cond-mat/0010278
(submitted 19 October 2000) * Albert R., Jeong H., Barabási A.-L.: ''Error and attack tolerance of complex networks'', Nature 406, pp. 378–382, 2000,
arXiv:cond-mat/0008064v1
(submitted 3 August 2000) * Barabási A.-L., Albert R.: ''Emergence of scaling in random networks'',

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, Vol. 286, Nr. 5439, pp. 509–12, 15 October 1999,
arXiv:cond-mat/9910332v1
(submitted 21 October 1999)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert, Reka 1972 births Living people People from Reghin Babeș-Bolyai University alumni University of Notre Dame alumni Romanian biologists Romanian women physicists Hungarian biologists Hungarian women physicists Pennsylvania State University faculty Sloan Research Fellows Fellows of the American Physical Society Network scientists