Chehrzad "Cheri" Shakiban (born 1951) is an Iranian and American mathematician, the first Iranian woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics and the first Iranian woman to become a full professor of mathematics. She is retired after working for 37 years as a professor of mathematics at the

University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) The University of St. Thomas (also known as UST or simply St. Thomas) is a private Catholic research university with campuses in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1885 as a Catholic seminary, it is named after Thom ...

, where she was the first female full professor; she is also a former director of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. She is the author of a textbook on applied

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrix (mathemat ...

, and has published highly cited work on the use of

differential invariant In mathematics, a differential invariant is an invariant for the action of a Lie group on a space that involves the derivatives of graphs of functions in the space. Differential invariants are fundamental in projective differential geometry, and th ...

s in

image recognition Computer vision tasks include methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g. in the form o ...

Early life and education

Shakiban was born in 1951 in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, to a family of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

. As a high school student, she came to the US for her final year of high school study through the

AFS Intercultural Programs AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS, originally the American Field Service) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations, each with its own network of volunteers, professional ...

, at a high school in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. After receiving a US high school diploma and returning to Iran, she took a job at Pakistan's Embassy to Iran and studied at night, eventually earning an Iranian high school diploma by examination in 1970 rather than returning to school. She became an undergraduate mathematics student at the National University of Iran, mentored in

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

there by Ahmad Mirbagheri and completing her degree program in three years. In the last year of her studies, a conference brought

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...

Paul Halmos Paul Richard Halmos (; 3 March 1916 – 2 October 2006) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian-born United States, American mathematician and probabilist who made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, operat ...

, and

Garrett Birkhoff Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory. The mathematician George Birkhoff (1884–1944) was his father. Life The son of the mathematician Ge ...

to Tehran, and she served as their guide and translator. At the invitation of Birkhoff, and with the support of the Iranian government, she went to

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 ...

in the US as a special student from 1973 to 1975, receiving a master's degree with a thesis in the

calculus of variations The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in Function (mathematics), functions and functional (mathematics), functionals, to find maxima and minima of f ...

. She continued her studies at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

from 1975 to 1979, working there with

Wendell Fleming Wendell Helms Fleming (March 7, 1928 – February 18, 2023) was an American mathematician, specializing in geometrical analysis and stochastic differential equations. Fleming received his PhD in 1951 under Laurence Chisholm Young at the Unive ...

. During this time, in 1976, she married mathematician

Peter J. Olver Peter John Olver (11 January 1952, Twickenham) is a British-American mathematician working in differential geometry. Education and career After moving to the USA in 1961, Olver obtained a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics at Brown Univer ...

, a student of Birkhoff. She followed her husband to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in England in 1978, continuing her studies at Brown remotely. She became a refugee from Iran after the

Iranian revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

in 1978 and 1979, in which her brother was killed. Pregnant with her first child, she successfully defended her dissertation, ''The Euler Operator in the Formal Calculus of Variations'', in 1979, becoming the first Iranian woman to complete a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Career and later life

After receiving her doctorate, Shakiban became a tutor in

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

in 1979. In 1980, her husband took a position at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and she moved with him, taking a teaching position at

St. Catherine University St. Catherine University (St. Kate's) is a private Catholic university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was established as one of the first institutions of higher learning specifically for women in the Midwest and was known as the College of St. C ...

. She moved to the

in 1983. In 1996, she was promoted to full professor, the first woman to become a full professor at the University of St. Thomas, and the first Iranian woman to become a full professor of mathematics. She chaired the Department of Mathematics at the University of St. Thomas from 1996 to 2004, and directed the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications from 2006 to 2008, later becoming its associate director for diversity. She retired in 2020, but continues as a senior fellow in the university's Center for Common Good. As an expatriate Iranian Baháʼí, she has taught online courses aimed at Iranian members of the Baháʼí Faith, who have been blocked from accessing higher education in Iran, and has protested the treatment of Baháʼí in Iran.

Recognition

In 2024,

Heriot Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by royal ...

in Scotland gave Shakiban an honorary doctorate, recognizing her as "a renowned international figure in higher education, teaching and inspiring generations of mathematicians for over four decades".

Selected publications

* *; 2nd ed., Springer, 2018

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakiban, Chehrzad 1951 births Living people Iranian Bahá'ís American Bahá'ís Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States Iranian mathematicians Iranian women mathematicians American mathematicians American women mathematicians Shahid Beheshti University alumni Harvard University alumni Brown University alumni St. Catherine University faculty University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) faculty