Lydia Rosina Bieri (born 1972) is a Swiss-American

applied 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, structure, space, models, and change. History One ...

, geometric analyst,

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics is the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of ...

cosmologist Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wor ...

, and

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

whose research concerns

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

gravity wave In fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves in a fluid medium or at the interface between two media when the force of gravity or buoyancy tries to restore equilibrium. An example of such an interface is that between the atmosphere and the oc ...

s, and

gravitational memory effect Gravitational memory effects, also known as gravitational-wave memory effects are predicted persistent changes in the relative position of pairs of masses in space due to the passing of a gravitational wave. Detection of gravitational memory eff ...

s. She is a professor of mathematics and director of the Michigan Center for Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Early life

Bieri originally from

Sempach Sempach is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Sursee (Amt), Sursee in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Lucerne (canton), Lucerne in Switzerland. History It has retained some traces of its medieval appearance, ...

, in Switzerland, with her parents and younger brother. Always around nature, Bieri grew accustomed to inquiry and, with the guidance of her parents, learned early on to question others beliefs to further structure her own. Her journey with mathematics and physics started when she was young reading about astronomy.

Education and career

Bieri studied mathematics at

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, earning a diploma (the equivalent of a master's degree) in 2001. She completed a doctorate (Dr. sc.) at ETH Zurich in 2007, with the support of a Swiss National Funds Fellowship. Her dissertation, ''An Extension of the Stability Theorem of the Minkowski Space in General Relativity'', was supervised by

Demetrios Christodoulou Demetrios Christodoulou (; born 19 October 1951) is a Greek mathematician and physicist, who first became well known for his proof, together with Sergiu Klainerman, of the nonlinear stability of the Minkowski spacetime of special relativity in th ...

, and jointly promoted by

Michael Struwe Michael Struwe (born 6 October 1955 in Wuppertal) is a German mathematician who specializes in calculus of variations and nonlinear partial differential equations. He won the 2012 Cantor medal from the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung for "outs ...

. After postdoctoral research as a

Benjamin Peirce Benjamin Peirce (; April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for approximately 50 years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philoso ...

Fellow in mathematics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 2007 to 2010, Bieri became an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan in 2010. She became associate professor in 2015, director of the Michigan Center for Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics in 2019, and full professor in 2021.

Books

With Harry Nussbaumer of ETH Zurich, Bieri is the coauthor of a general-audience book on

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and its history, ''Discovering the Expanding Universe'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009), She is also the coauthor of a research

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

with Nina Zipser, ''Extensions of the Stability Theorem of the Minkowski Space in General Relativity'' (AMS/IP Studies in Advanced Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2009).

Research

Lydia Bieri has made profound contributions to understanding the mathematical structures and dynamics of the universe, with a primary focus on general relativity. Her research delves into the intricate interplay of geometry and physics as encapsulated in Einstein's equations, which describe the geometry of spacetime and the phenomenon of gravitation—the fundamental laws governing the universe. Bieri develops advanced geometric-analytic frameworks that not only solve significant questions in physics but also have independent mathematical implications, extending their application to diverse fields such as economics and biology. A key avenue of her work explores gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime resulting from cosmic events like black hole mergers, neutron star collisions, or supernovae. Since the groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO experiment in 2015, Bieri's investigations have illuminated how these phenomena provide unprecedented insights into otherwise inaccessible regions of the universe. Her studies encompass the memory effect of gravitational waves—lasting imprints on the curvature of spacetime—linking rigorous mathematical theory to experimental findings. Additionally, Bieri's research addresses foundational questions in astrophysics and cosmology, including the formation and stability of black holes and galaxies, as well as the profound mysteries connecting large-scale cosmological structures with quantum phenomena. These efforts aim to bridge the gap between general relativity and quantum field theory, tackling one of modern physics' greatest challenges: understanding the relationship between dark energy and vacuum energy. Through her work on nonlinear partial differential equations and geometric analysis, Bieri continues to unravel the complex synergy between mathematics and physics, advancing knowledge of the universe while opening new paths for interdisciplinary applications.

Recognition

Bieri won an

NSF CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

in 2013 and was named a Simons Fellow in Mathematics in 2018. She was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

(APS) in 2021, after a nomination from the APS Division of Gravitational Physics, "for fundamental results on the global existence of solutions of the Einstein field equations, and many contributions to the understanding of gravitational wave memory". She was named to the 2023 class of Fellows 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, ...

, "for contributions to mathematical

and

geometric analysis Geometric analysis is a mathematical discipline where tools from differential equations, especially elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs), are used to establish new results in differential geometry and differential topology. The use of ...

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bieri, Lydia 1972 births Living people People from Sursee District 21st-century American mathematicians American cosmologists American women physicists American physicists Swiss mathematicians Swiss women mathematicians Swiss cosmologists Swiss women physicists Cosmologists Applied mathematicians Differential geometers Mathematical physicists American historians of science ETH Zurich alumni University of Michigan faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women mathematicians