Dame Frances Clare Kirwan, (born 21 August 1959) is a British mathematician, currently

Savilian Professor of Geometry The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was ...

at the University of Oxford. Her fields of specialisation are algebraic and symplectic geometry.

Education

Kirwan was educated at Oxford High School, and studied maths as an undergraduate at

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

in the University of Cambridge. She took a

D.Phil 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 ...

at Oxford in 1984, with the dissertation title ''The Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and

Algebraic Geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrica ...

'', which was supervised by Michael Atiyah.

Research

Kirwan's research interests include

moduli space In mathematics, in particular algebraic geometry, a moduli space is a geometric space (usually a scheme or an algebraic stack) whose points represent algebro-geometric objects of some fixed kind, or isomorphism classes of such objects. Such s ...

s in

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrica ...

, geometric invariant theory (GIT), and in the link between GIT and

moment map In mathematics, specifically in symplectic geometry, the momentum map (or, by false etymology, moment map) is a tool associated with a Hamiltonian action of a Lie group on a symplectic manifold, used to construct conserved quantities for the act ...

s in symplectic geometry. Her work endeavours to understand the structure of geometric objects by investigation of their algebraic and topological properties. She introduced the Kirwan map. From 1983 to 1985 she held a junior fellowship at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...

. From 1983 to 1986 she held a Fellowship at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 ...

, before becoming a Fellow of

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

.Academia Europaea member profile
retrieved 22 June 2014. She is an honorary fellow of

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

and also at Magdalen College. In 1996, she was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Mathematics. From 2004 to 2006 she was president of the London Mathematical Society, the second-youngest president in the society's history and only the second woman to be president. In 2005, she received a five-year

EPSRC The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...

Senior Research Fellowship, to support her research on the

s of complex

algebraic curve In mathematics, an affine algebraic plane curve is the zero set of a polynomial in two variables. A projective algebraic plane curve is the zero set in a projective plane of a homogeneous polynomial in three variables. An affine algebraic plane ...

s. In 2017, she was elected

, becoming the first woman to hold the post. While this entailed a move to New College, Oxford she was elected an emeritus fellow at Balliol. She was the convenor of the 2008–9 meeting of European Women in Mathematics and deputy convenor of the following meeting in 2010–11.

Prizes, awards and scholarships

* London Mathematical Society Whitehead Prize, 1989Dr Frances Kirwan awarded the Whitehead Prize
lms.ac.uk; accessed 9 May 2014. * Fellow of the Royal Society, 2001 * President, London Mathematical Society, 2003–2005 *

Senior Research Fellowship, 2005–2010, for her work in algebraic geometry * Fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, 2012 * London Mathematical Society Senior Whitehead Prize, 2013 * DBE for services to mathematics, 2014 *Maths and Computing

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

, 2016 * Member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

* Chairman of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust * Sylvester Medal of The Royal Society, 2021 * Honorary degree,

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, 2020 * Honorary degree,

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, 2022 Kirwan served on the medal selection committee for the awarding of the

Fields medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award h ...

to Dr. Mirzakhani.

Publications

* * with Jonathan Woolf: *

References

External links

Profile at the University of Oxford Mathematical Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirwan, Frances 1959 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Algebraic geometers British women mathematicians Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of New College, Oxford Female Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of Academia Europaea Harvard Fellows People educated at Oxford High School, England Whitehead Prize winners British women academics Fellows of the Royal Society Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians