Ilze Brigita Ziedins is a New Zealand statistician whose research concerns the

queueing theory Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because th ...

of stochastic networks, and the use of this theory to model problems in health care, communications, transportation, and climate change. She is an associate professor of statistics at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

Education and career

Ziedins is the daughter of Rudolfs Ziedins (1924–2012), a philosopher from Latvia who became a professor at the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

. She went to university at Waikato, and then travelled to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in England for doctoral study, completing her PhD in 1989. Her dissertation, ''Stochastic Models of Traffic in Star and Line Networks'', was supervised by

Frank Kelly Francis Kelly (28 December 1938 – 28 February 2016) was an Irish actor, singer and writer, whose career covered television, radio, theatre, music, screenwriting and film. He is best remembered for playing Father Jack Hackett in the Channel 4 ...

. After holding a research fellowship in

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

and a lecturer position at

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 roya ...

in England, Ziedins joined the academic staff of Auckland University in 1993.

Recognition

Ziedins is a Fellow of the

New Zealand Mathematical Society The New Zealand Mathematical Society is a New Zealand based learned society of mathematicians. It is listed by the Royal Society of New Zealand as the affiliate organisation responsible for mathematics research, and by the International Mathematic ...

. As a member of

Te Pūnaha Matatini Te Pūnaha Matatini is the New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems. Te Pūnaha Matatini is funded by the Tertiary Education Commission, hosted by the University of Auckland, and works in partnership with fifteen universi ...

, a centre of excellence for complex systems at the University of Auckland coordinating research on the coronavirus pandemic, she is a joint recipient of the 2020 Prime Minister's Science Prizes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziedins, Ilze Year of birth missing (living people) Living people New Zealand statisticians New Zealand women scientists New Zealand women statisticians University of Waikato alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of Heriot-Watt University Academic staff of the University of Auckland