Eleny-Nicoleta Ionel is a Romanian mathematician whose research concerns

symplectic geometry Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry and differential topology that studies symplectic manifolds; that is, differentiable manifolds equipped with a closed, nondegenerate 2-form. Symplectic geometry has its origins in the ...

, including the study of the

Gromov–Witten invariant In mathematics, specifically in symplectic topology and algebraic geometry, Gromov–Witten (GW) invariants are rational numbers that, in certain situations, count pseudoholomorphic curves meeting prescribed conditions in a given symplectic man ...

s and

Gopakumar–Vafa invariant In theoretical physics, Rajesh Gopakumar and Cumrun Vafa introduced in a series of papers new topological invariants, called Gopakumar–Vafa invariants, that represent the number of BPS states on a Calabi–Yau 3-fold. They lead to the following ...

. Among her most significant results are the construction of relative Gromov-Witten invariants of symplectic manifolds, and the proof of the vanishing in codimension at least ''g'' of the

tautological ring In algebraic geometry, the tautological ring is the subring of the Chow ring of the moduli space of curves generated by tautological classes. These are classes obtained from 1 by pushforward along various morphisms described below. The tautological ...

of the moduli space of genus-''g'' curves. She is a professor of mathematics at Stanford University, where she is chair of the mathematics department.

Education and career

Ionel is from Iași. She is the daughter of Adrian Ionel, a professor at the

Ion Ionescu de la Brad University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Iași An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...

. She attended the

Costache Negruzzi National College The Costache Negruzzi National College (''Colegiul Național „Costache Negruzzi”'') in Iași is one of the most prestigious high schools in Romania. Founded in 1895 as the ''Boarding High School of Iași'', it was named after the writer and p ...

, graduating in 1987. She earned a bachelor's degree from

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University ( Romanian: ''Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza"''; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia ...

in 1991, and completed her Ph.D. in 1996 from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Her dissertation, ''Genus One Enumerative Invariants in

\mathbf^n

'', was supervised by Thomas H. Parker. After postdoctoral research 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, Califo ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

and a position as C. L. E. Moore instructor at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

, she joined the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

faculty in 1998, and moved to Stanford in 2004.

Recognition

Ionel is a

Sloan Research Fellow The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

and a Simons Fellow. She was an invited speaker at the

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 Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

in 2002. She was selected as a Fellow 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 ...

in the 2020 Class, for "contributions to symplectic geometry and the geometric analysis approach to Gromov–Witten Theory".

Selected publications

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ionel, Eleny Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century Romanian mathematicians American women mathematicians Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Stanford University faculty Michigan State University alumni 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 21st-century Romanian mathematicians Sloan Research Fellows Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Scientists from Iași Costache Negruzzi National College alumni Romanian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American women 21st-century American women