Elizabeth Samantha Meckes (1980–2020) was an American mathematician specializing in
probability theory
Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...
. Her research included work on
Stein's method
Stein's method is a general method in probability theory to obtain bounds on the distance between two probability distributions with respect to a probability metric. It was introduced by Charles Stein, who first published it in 1972,
to obtain ...
for bounding the distance between probability distributions and on
random matrices
In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all of its entries are sampled randomly from a probability distribution. Random matrix theory (RMT) is the ...
. She was a professor of mathematics, applied mathematics, and statistics at
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...
. She died in December 2020 after a brief battle with cancer.
Education and career
Meckes went to Case Western Reserve University as an undergraduate, and graduated ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in German. She remained at Case for a master's degree, which she completed in 2002. Her master's thesis, ''Harmonic Maps Between Graphs'', was supervised by E. Jerome Benveniste.
Next, Meckes became a doctoral student of
Persi Diaconis
Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University.
He is particularly known f ...
at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. She completed her Ph.D. there in 2006; her dissertation was ''An Infinitesimal Version of Stein’s Method''.
After postdoctoral research at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
and the
American Institute of Mathematics
The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is one of nine mathematical institutes in the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was founded in 1994 by John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics, and originally located ...
, Meckes returned to Case as a faculty member in 2007. She was tenured in 2013 and promoted to full professor in 2018.
Books
With Mark W. Meckes, Elizabeth Meckes wrote the textbook ''Linear Algebra'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018). She is also the author of ''The Random Matrix Theory of the Classical Compact Groups'' (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Recognition
In 2019, the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...
(IMS) recognized Meckes as an IMS Fellow, "for contributions to Stein’s method and to random matrix theory". She was twice named a Simons Fellow in Mathematics, in 2013 and 2020. She was a Fellow of the American Institute of Mathematics, 2006–2011.
In 2023, Case Western Reserve University began hosting an annual seminar series in her honor.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Home page*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meckes, Elizabeth
1980 births
2020 deaths
21st-century American mathematicians
American probability theorists
Case Western Reserve University alumni
Stanford University alumni
Case Western Reserve University faculty
Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
21st-century American women mathematicians