Trachette Levon Jackson (born July 24, 1972) is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and is known for work in mathematical

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

. She uses many different approaches, including continuous and discrete mathematical models, numerical simulations, and experiments to study tumor growth and treatment. Specifically, her lab is interested in " molecular pathways associated with intratumoral

angiogenesis Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature by processes of sprouting and splitting ...

," "cell-tissue interactions associated with tumor-induced angiogenesis," and "tumor heterogeneity and cancer stem cells."

Education and career

Jackson's parents were in the military and traveled frequently through her childhood; as a teenager, she lived in

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the most populous city in the East Valley (Phoenix metropolitan area), East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by ...

. There, in a summer calculus course, her talent for mathematics brought her to the attention of

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

mathematics professor Joaquín Bustoz, Jr. She went on to undergraduate studies at ASU, originally intending to study engineering, but she was steered to mathematics by Bustoz. From there, her interest in pure math developed into an interest in

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 ...

when she attended a talk by her future PhD advisor,

James D. Murray James Dickson Murray FRSE FRS, (born 2 January 1931) is professor emeritus of applied mathematics at University of Washington and University of Oxford. He is best known for his authoritative and extensive work entitled '' Mathematical Biology' ...

, on the mathematics of pattern formation and "how the leopard got its spots." She graduated in 1994, and she earned her MS and PhD at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1996 and 1998. After postdoctoral research at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

, and

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, she joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2000, and she was promoted to full professor in 2008.

Awards and recognition

She was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2003, becoming the second African-American woman after Kathleen Adebola Okikiolu to become a Sloan Fellow in mathematics. She won a James S. McDonnell 21st Century Scientist Grant in 2005, and won the Blackwell-Tapia Prize in 2010. In 2017, she was selected as a fellow of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

in the inaugural class. Jackson's work also earned her recognition by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2017 Honoree. She was named a

SIAM Fellow The SIAM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognizes outstanding members of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The goal of the program is to: *honor SIAM members who are recognized by their peers as distinguished ...

in the 2021 class of fellows, "for innovative contributions to mathematical modeling in cancer biology and for the advancement of underrepresented minorities in science". In 2021, she was awarded the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship at the University of Michigan, in recognition of her "extraordinary commitment to increasing opportunities for girls, women, and underrepresented minority students in

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

, through her teaching and leadership."

References

External links

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Meet a mathematician! Video Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Trachette 21st-century American mathematicians Theoretical biologists Arizona State University alumni University of Washington alumni University of Michigan faculty African-American mathematicians African-American women mathematicians Living people 1972 births Sloan Research Fellows Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 21st-century American women mathematicians 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women