Krystyna M. Kuperberg (born ''Krystyna M. Trybulec''; 17 July 1944) is a Polish-American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who currently works as a professor of mathematics at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

, where she was formerly an Alumni Professor of Mathematics."Krystyna Kuperberg", Biographies of Women Mathematicians

Agnes Scott College Agnes Scott College is a Private university, private Women's Colleges in the Southern United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. The college enrolls approximately 1,000 undergra ...

, retrieved 2014-06-24Krystyna M. Kuperberg
, Profiles of Women in Mathematics, Association for Women in Mathematics, retrieved 2014-06-24.

Early life and family

Her parents, Jan W. and Barbara H. Trybulec, were

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

s and owned a pharmacy in

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east– ...

. Her older brother is Andrzej Trybulec. Her husband Włodzimierz Kuperberg and her son Greg Kuperberg are also mathematicians, while her daughter Anna Kuperberg is a photographer.

Education and career

After attending high school in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, she entered the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

in 1962, where she studied mathematics. Her first mathematics course was taught by

Andrzej Mostowski Andrzej Mostowski (1 November 1913 – 22 August 1975) was a Polish mathematician. He worked primarily in logic and foundations of mathematics and is perhaps best remembered for the Mostowski collapse lemma. He was a member of the Polish Academy ...

; later she attended

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

lectures of

Karol Borsuk Karol Borsuk (8 May 1905 – 24 January 1982) was a Polish mathematician. His main area of interest was topology. He made significant contributions to Shape theory (mathematics), shape theory, a term which he coined. He also obtained important r ...

and became fascinated by topology. After obtaining her undergraduate degree, Kuperberg began graduate studies at Warsaw under Borsuk, but stopped after earning a master's degree. She left Poland in 1969 with her young family to live in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, then moved to the United States in 1972. She finished her Ph.D. in 1974, from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, under the supervision of William Jaco. In the same year, both she and her husband were appointed to the faculty of Auburn University. From 1996 to 1998, Kuperberg served as an

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, ...

Council member at large.

Contributions

In 1987 she solved a problem of

Bronisław Knaster Bronisław Knaster (22 May 1893 – 3 November 1980) was a Polish mathematician; from 1939 a university professor in Lwów and from 1945 in Wrocław. In 1945, he completed a project in collaboration with Karol Borsuk and Kazimierz Kuratowski con ...

concerning bi-homogeneity of continua. In the 1980s she became interested in fixed points and topological aspects of

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...

s. In 1989 Kuperberg and Coke Reed solved a problem posed by

Stanislaw Ulam Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...

in the Scottish Book. The solution to that problem led to her 1993 work in which she constructed a smooth counterexample to the Seifert conjecture. She has since continued to work in dynamical systems.

Recognition

In 1995 Kuperberg received the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize from the Kościuszko Foundation. Her major lectures include an

Plenary Lecture in March 1995, a

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

Plenary Lecture in January 1996, and an

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

invited talk in 1998. In 2012 she became a fellow of the

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-01-27.

Selected publications

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuperberg, Krystyna Polish emigrants to the United States Polish women mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century Polish mathematicians 21st-century Polish mathematicians Topologists 1944 births Living people People from Tarnów University of Warsaw alumni Rice University alumni Auburn University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Dynamical systems theorists American systems scientists 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians 20th-century Polish women