Greta Cvetanova Panova (, born 1983 in

Sofia, Bulgaria Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

) is a Bulgarian-American

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 ...

. She is a professor of mathematics and Gabilan Distinguished Professor in Science and Engineering at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Her research interests include

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

probability Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...

and

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

Education and career

Panova received her B.S. in 2005 from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. She received M.A. in 2006 from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and Ph.D. in mathematics from

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 2011, under the supervision of Richard P. Stanley. She was then a postdoc at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

(2011–2014), Assistant and Associate Professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

(2014–2018), and is currently a tenured Professor at the

. In 2023, she was named Gabilan Distinguished Professor. Panova research is in

algebraic combinatorics Algebraic combinatorics is an area of mathematics that employs methods of abstract algebra, notably group theory and representation theory, in various combinatorial contexts and, conversely, applies combinatorial techniques to problems in algeb ...

with applications to

geometric complexity theory Geometric complexity theory (GCT), is a research program in computational complexity theory proposed by Ketan Mulmuley and Milind Sohoni. The goal of the program is to answer the most famous open problem in computer science – whether P =&nb ...

, probability and

statistical mechanics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applicati ...

. , she is a co-Editor-in-Chief of the ''

Electronic Journal of Combinatorics The ''Electronic Journal of Combinatorics'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering research in combinatorial mathematics. The journal was established in 1994 by Herbert Wilf (University of Pennsylvania) and Neil Calkin (Geor ...

'', and a member of the editorial board of ''Algebraic Combinatorics'' and the '' Arnold Mathematical Journal''.

Selected awards

Panova was a three time 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. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

(1999–2001, one gold and two silver medals) and a third prize winner at the

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual list of mathematics competitions, mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in th ...

(2001). She is a recipient of Katz Fellowship (UC Berkeley), Putnam Fellowship (Harvard), James Mills Peirce Fellowship (Harvard), Simons Postdoctoral Fellowship (UCLA), and von Neumann Fellowship ( IAS). Panova was an invited plenary speaker at the 2017

International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics The International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC) is an annual academic conference in the areas of algebraic combinatorics, algebraic and enumerative combinatorics and their applications and relations with ot ...

and at the 2023 Current Developments in Mathematics Conference. Panova is the 2020 recipient of the IMI Award, awarded once every three years by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Science to a Bulgarian citizen under the age of 40 for high achievements in the field of mathematics, and the 2024–5 Birman Fellow of the

American Mathematics 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, ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Panova, Greta 1983 births Living people Scientists from Sofia Bulgarian emigrants to the United States Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Southern California faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars 21st-century American mathematicians Bulgarian women mathematicians 21st-century Bulgarian mathematicians Combinatorialists Probability theorists Theoretical computer scientists 21st-century American women mathematicians