Alison Beth Miller is an American mathematician who was the first American female gold medalist at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...

. She also holds the distinction of placing in the top 16 of the

Putnam Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

four times, the last three of which were recognized by the

Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Elizabeth Lowell Putnam (2 February 1862–1935) was an American philanthropist and an activist for prenatal care. She was born (as Bessie Lowell) in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member o ...

award for outstanding performance by a woman on the contest.

Biography

Miller was home-schooled in

Niskayuna, New York Niskayuna is a town in Schenectady County, New York, United States. The population was 23,278 at the 2020 census. The town is located in the southeast part of the county, east of the city of Schenectady, and is the easternmost town in the county. ...

, and in 2000 came in third place in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. She competed for the U.S. in the

in 2004, where she became the first American female gold medalist.. Includes an extended description of Miller's home education and early interest in mathematics. As an undergraduate, she studied mathematics at

Harvard University 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 le ...

. She won the

award for outstanding performance by a woman in the

in 2005, 2006, and 2007,. matching the record set ten years earlier by

Ioana Dumitriu Ioana Dumitriu (born July 6, 1976) is a Romanian-American mathematician who works as a professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego.China Girls Mathematical Olympiad The China Girls Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO) is a math competition with a proof-based format similar to the International Mathematical Olympiad. It was originally organized in 2002 for teams of girls representing different regions within China. ...

in 2007, the first year that the U.S. was represented in that Olympiad. In 2008, she became a co-winner of the

Alice T. Schafer Alice Turner Schafer (June 18, 1915 – September 27, 2009) was an American mathematician. She was one of the founding members of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1971.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 ...

for her three undergraduate research papers. That year she also received her B.A. degree with Highest Honors in Mathematics from Harvard University.. Her senior thesis, for which she won the

Hoopes Prize The Hoopes Prize is an award given annually to Harvard University undergraduates. The prize was endowed by Thomas T. Hoopes, Class of 1919. Awarded for outstanding scholarly work or research by students, recipients are selected by a committee of f ...

, was titled "Explicit Class Field Theory in Function Fields: Gross-Stark Units and Drinfeld Modules." She was then awarded a

Churchill Scholarship The Churchill Scholarship is awarded by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States to graduates of the more than one hundred colleges and universities invited to participate in the Churchill Scholarship Program, for the pursuit of rese ...

to study for a year at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in England. She earned her Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 2014, under the supervision of

Manjul Bhargava Manjul Bhargava (born 8 August 1974) is a Canadian-American mathematician. He is the Brandon Fradd, Class of 1983, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, the Stieltjes Professor of Number Theory at Leiden University, and also holds A ...

; her dissertation concerned

knot invariant In the mathematical field of knot theory, a knot invariant is a quantity (in a broad sense) defined for each knot which is the same for equivalent knots. The equivalence is often given by ambient isotopy but can be given by homeomorphism. Some i ...

s.. After graduation, she was a postdoc at

References

External links

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at Harvard Harvard University alumni Living people 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians International Mathematical Olympiad participants Princeton University alumni Scripps National Spelling Bee participants 21st-century women mathematicians Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women {{US-mathematician-stub