Maria Bruna Estrach (born 1984) is an applied mathematician whose interests include stochastic modelling of multiscale phenomena with applications in

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

and industry. She is affiliated with 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 ...

, where she is a university lecturer and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and a Fellow of

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

Education and career

Bruna was born in 1984 in Barcelona and grew up in

Sant Cugat del Vallès Sant Cugat del Vallès () is a town and municipality north of Barcelona, Catalonia. Known as ''Castrum Octavianum'' in antiquity (which means ''the castle of Octavianus'') and as ''Pins del Vallès'' during the Second Spanish Republic, it is nam ...

, a town to the north of Barcelona, and while growing up there became an avid

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player with Júnior Futbol Club. She studied mathematics and

industrial engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

as an undergraduate at the Centro de Formación Interdisciplinaria Superior of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, completing her studies there in 2008. After coming to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

for a one-year master's degree program in mathematical

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

, she was invited to stay at Oxford for her doctoral studies, and completed a DPhil in applied mathematics in 2012. After completing her doctorate, Bruna was a postdoctoral researcher in computer science at the University of Oxford, an Olga Taussky Pauli Fellow and senior postdoctoral researcher at the Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics in Austria, and a junior research fellow in mathematics at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, before moving to Cambridge in 2019.

Recognition

In 2016 Bruna was awarded a L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship, the first given in mathematics. She is also a 2016 winner of the Aviva Women of the Future Awards. In 2020 the

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

gave Bruna a

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. Whitehe ...

"in recognition of her outstanding research in asymptotic homogenisation, most prominently in the systematic development of continuum models of interacting particles systems".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruna, Maria 1984 births Living people 21st-century Spanish mathematicians Spanish women mathematicians Applied mathematicians Polytechnic University of Catalonia alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Cambridge mathematicians