Leah Wrenn Berman Williams (born 1976) is a mathematician at the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-, National Sea Grant College Program, sea-, and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, space-grant research university in ...

, specializing in

discrete geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geom ...

. At the University of Alaska, she is a professor of mathematics, the head of the department of mathematics and statistics, and was the interim dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. She was also a member of the borough assembly of

Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska The Fairbanks North Star Borough is a Borough (United States), borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 95,655, down from 97,581 in 2010. The borough seat is Fairbanks, Al ...

from 2018-2021.

Research

Berman's research involves

, and in particular the geometry of configurations of points and lines. Her discoveries in this area have included the construction of the first known movable configurations with four points per line and four lines through each point. With another mathematician at the University of Alaska, Jill Faudree, she has developed methods for constructing highly symmetric configurations with as many as six points per line and six lines through each point.

Education and career

Berman was born in 1976 in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. She is the daughter of Harry J. Berman, a psychologist and

gerontologist Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek ('), meaning "old man", and ('), meaning "study of". The fi ...

at the

University of Illinois at Springfield The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) is a public university in Springfield, Illinois, United States. The university was established by the Illinois General Assembly in 1969 as Sangamon State University with a focus on post-graduate edu ...

. As a high school student at the

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public secondary education institution in Aurora, Illinois, United States, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students. Enrollment is generally offered to in ...

, Berman competed in the state Scholastic Bowl Tournament. She chose a double major in mathematics and philosophy at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...

, graduating in 1997 as one of the seven members of that year's graduating class to join the college's Pamplin Society of Fellows. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics in 2002 at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. Her dissertation, ''Astral Configurations'', was supervised by

Branko Grünbaum Branko Grünbaum (; 2 October 1929 – 14 September 2018) was a Croatian-born mathematician of Jewish descentemeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

. After working as a faculty member in the department of mathematics and computer science at

Ursinus College Ursinus College is a private liberal arts college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869 and occupies a campus. Ursinus College's forerunner was the Freeland Seminary founded in 1848. Its $127 million endowment supports about 1, ...

from 2002 to 2009, Berman joined the University of Alaska faculty in 2009.

Political activities

In 2018, Berman was elected to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly for a three-year term. As a member of the assembly, she sponsored successful legislation to rewrite the borough's ordinances using gender-neutral pronouns.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Leah Living people 21st-century American mathematicians Lewis & Clark College alumni University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni Ursinus College faculty University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty 1976 births 21st-century American women mathematicians