Leah Wrenn Berman Williams (born 1976) is a mathematician at the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for cla ...

, specializing in

discrete geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geome ...

. At the University of Alaska, she is a professor of mathematics, the head of the department of mathematics and statistics, and was the interim dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. She was also a member of the borough assembly of

Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska The Fairbanks North Star Borough is a borough located in the state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,665, down from 97,581 in 2010. The borough seat is Fairbanks. The borough's land area is slightly smaller than that of ...

from 2018-2021.

Research

Berman's research involves

, and in particular the geometry of configurations of points and lines. Her discoveries in this area have included the construction of the first known movable configurations with four points per line and four lines through each point. With another mathematician at the University of Alaska, Jill Faudree, she has developed methods for constructing highly symmetric configurations with as many as six points per line and six lines through each point.

Education and career

Berman was born in 1976 in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. She is the daughter of Harry J. Berman, a psychologist and

gerontologist Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". Th ...

at the

University of Illinois at Springfield The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) is a public university in Springfield, Illinois. The university was established in 1969 as Sangamon State University by the Illinois General Assembly and became a part of the University of Illinois s ...

. As a high school student at the

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public secondary education institution in Aurora, Illinois, United States, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students. Enrollment is generally offered to inc ...

, Berman competed in the state Scholastic Bowl Tournament. She chose a double major in mathematics and philosophy at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & Cl ...

, graduating in 1997 as one of the seven members of that year's graduating class to join the college's Pamplin Society of Fellows. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics in 2002 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 ...

. Her dissertation, ''Astral Configurations'', was supervised by

Branko Grünbaum Branko Grünbaum ( he, ברנקו גרונבאום; 2 October 1929 – 14 September 2018) was a Croatian-born mathematician of Jewish descentemeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. After working as a faculty member in the department of mathematics and computer science at

Ursinus College Ursinus College is a private liberal arts college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869 and occupies a 170-acre campus. History 19th century In 1867, members of the German Reformed Church began plans to establish a college w ...

from 2002 to 2009, Berman joined the University of Alaska faculty in 2009.

Political activities

In 2018, Berman was elected to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly for a three-year term. As a member of the assembly, she sponsored successful legislation to rewrite the borough's ordinances using gender-neutral pronouns.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Leah Living people 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Lewis & Clark College alumni University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni Ursinus College faculty University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty 1976 births 21st-century American women