Gwyneth Mary Stallard is a British mathematician whose research concerns

complex dynamics Complex dynamics is the study of dynamical systems defined by iteration of functions on complex number spaces. Complex analytic dynamics is the study of the dynamics of specifically analytic functions. Techniques *General **Montel's theorem **Po ...

and the

iteration Iteration is the repetition of a process in order to generate a (possibly unbounded) sequence of outcomes. Each repetition of the process is a single iteration, and the outcome of each iteration is then the starting point of the next iteration. ...

meromorphic function In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a meromorphic function on an open subset ''D'' of the complex plane is a function that is holomorphic on all of ''D'' ''except'' for a set of isolated points, which are poles of the function. ...

s. She is a professor of pure mathematics at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

Education and career

Stallard read mathematics at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, finishing in 1985, and earned her Ph.D. from

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...

in 1991. Her dissertation, ''Some problems in the iteration of meromorphic functions'', was supervised by Irvine Noel Baker. She has spoken about the difficulty of finding postdoctoral research positions at a time when there were few such positions in England and the ties of her husband's job prevented her from moving abroad; she maintained her mathematical career at this stage by taking a temporary lectureship teaching engineering students at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

. When she became a professor of mathematics at the Open University, she became the first woman to be a professor in the department.

Activism and recognition

Stallard won the

Whitehead Prize The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to multiple mathematicians working in the United Kingdom who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C. Whitehea ...

in 2000, and describes this point as the moment when she became confident in her mathematical research abilities. Stallard was the chair of the Women in Mathematics Committee of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

from 2006 to 2015, and in 2015 she was named an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for her work in support of women in mathematics. In 2016 she was given a special award by the Suffrage Science Scheme on

Ada Lovelace Day Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event held on the second Tuesday of October to celebrate and raise awareness of the contributions of women to STEM fields. It is named after mathematician and computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace. It started in 20 ...

in recognition of her work in this area. In 2016, the London Mathematical Society selected her as their Mary Cartwright Lecturer.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stallard, Gwyneth Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British mathematicians Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of Imperial College London Academics of the Open University Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century women mathematicians Whitehead Prize winners