Rachel Justine Pries is an 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 ...

whose research focuses on

arithmetic geometry In mathematics, arithmetic geometry is roughly the application of techniques from algebraic geometry to problems in number theory. Arithmetic geometry is centered around Diophantine geometry, the study of rational points of algebraic varieties. ...

and

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

. She is a professor at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

and both a Fellow of the

American Mathematical 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, ...

and a Fellow of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

Education

Pries was a student at the

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as "CRLS" or "Rindge", is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, Rindge Technical Sc ...

, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. She received a B.S. degree from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

in 1994, and received a Ph.D. in mathematics from 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 ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

in 2000 under the supervision of

David Harbater David Harbater (born December 19, 1952) is an American mathematician at the University of Pennsylvania, well known for his work in Galois theory, algebraic geometry and arithmetic geometry. Early life and education Harbater was born in New York ...

Career and research

After her doctoral studies, Pries was appointed a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

VIGRE post-doctoral fellow at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for 2000 to 2003. After her post-doc at Columbia, Rachel joined the faculty at

Fort Collins A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, where she is currently a full professor. In one of her most cited works, ''Families of wildly ramified covers of curves'', Pries studied smooth Galois covers of curves, ramified over only one point. In a second highly cited paper, ''Hyperelliptic curves with prescribed p-torsion'', Pries and co-author Darren Glass, proved several results regarding the existence of Jacobian varieties having interesting ''p''-torsion as measured in terms of invariants such as the ''p''-rank and the ''a''-number. Pries serves on the Steering Committee of Women in Number Theory (WIN), a research collaboration community for women mathematicians interested in

. She was an editor of Directions in Number Theory: Proceedings of the 2014 WIN3 Workshop (Association for Women in Mathematics Series), which was published by Springer Verlag in 2016.

Honors

Pries was elected to the 2018 class of fellows of the

. Her citation read "for contributions to arithmetic geometry, and for service to the mathematical community." Pries was selected as the inaugural lecturer in the

Distinguished Lecture Series at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, in 2013. In 2004, Pries was selected as Outstanding Professor in Graduate Instruction by the mathematics graduate students of Colorado State University Pries was elected to the 2023 class of fellows of the

"for supporting the research careers of women through mentorship and advocacy; for her vision and hard work establishing the Women in Numbers workshops and research network; and for broadening the participation of women in mathematics through service and leadership both at her institution and in high-profile national and international programs."

References

External links

Rachel Pries' website

Dr. Rachel Pries - Number Theory
(2017 video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pries, Rachel Justine Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians University of Pennsylvania alumni Fellows of the American Mathematical Society American number theorists Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians Brown University alumni