Chantal David (born 1964) is a

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

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 works as a professor of mathematics at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

. Her interests include

analytic number theory In mathematics, analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. It is often said to have begun with Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet's 1837 introduction of Dir ...

, arithmetic statistics, and random matrix theory, and she has shown interest in

elliptic curves In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a Smoothness, smooth, Projective variety, projective, algebraic curve of Genus of an algebraic curve, genus one, on which there is a specified point . An elliptic curve is defined over a field (mathematics), ...

and Drinfeld modules. She is the 2013 winner of the Krieger–Nelson Prize, given annually by the

Canadian Mathematical Society The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS; French: ''Société mathématique du Canada'') is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to advancing mathematical research, outreach, scholarship and education in Canada. The Society se ...

to an outstanding female researcher in mathematics.

Education and career

David completed her doctorate in mathematics in 1993 at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, under the supervision of Ram Murty. Her thesis was entitled ''Supersingular Drinfeld Modules''. In the same year, she joined the faculty at Concordia University. She became the deputy director of the

Centre de Recherches Mathématiques The Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) is the first mathematical research institute in Canada, located at the Université de Montréal. The CRM has ten research laboratories, one in each of: mathematical analysis, number theory and symbolic ...

in 2004. In 2008, David was an invited professor at Université Henri Poincaré. She spent September 2009 through April 2010 at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

. From January through May 2017, she co-organized a program on analytic number theory at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

Research

In 1999, David published a paper with Francesco Pappalardi which proved that the Lang–Trotter conjecture holds in most cases. She has shown that for several families of curves over

finite fields In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field (so-named in honor of Évariste Galois) is a field that contains a finite number of elements. As with any field, a finite field is a set on which the operations of multiplication, addition, subt ...

, the zeroes of

zeta functions In mathematics, a zeta function is (usually) a function analogous to the original example, the Riemann zeta function : \zeta(s) = \sum_^\infty \frac 1 . Zeta functions include: * Airy zeta function, related to the zeros of the Airy function * A ...

are compatible with the Katz–Sarnak conjectures. She has also used random matrix theory to study the zeroes in families of elliptic curves. David and her collaborators have exhibited a new Cohen–Lenstra phenomenon for the group of points of elliptic curves over finite fields.

Awards and honors

David was awarded the Krieger-Nelson Prize by the Canadian Mathematical Society in 2013.

References

External links

* 1964 births Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian mathematicians Women mathematicians 21st-century Canadian women scientists Academic staff of Concordia University McGill University Faculty of Science alumni Number theorists French mathematicians {{France-mathematician-stub