Ruth Elizabeth Baker is a British

applied 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 ...

and

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

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a 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 world's second-oldest university in contin ...

whose research interests include

pattern formation The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, (statistically) orderly outcomes of self-organization and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature. In developmental biology, pattern formation refers to the generation of ...

morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek ''morphê'' shape and ''genesis'' creation, literally "the generation of form") is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of deve ...

, and the mathematical modeling of

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living a ...

and

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of ste ...

Education and career

Baker read mathematics at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Doroth ...

, and earned a doctorate (D.Phil.) at the University of Oxford in 2005. Her dissertation, ''Periodic Pattern Formation in Developmental Biology: A Study of the Mechanisms Involved in Somite Formation'', was jointly supervised by biologist

Santiago Schnell Santiago Schnell FRSC is a Venezuelan theoretical and mathematical biologist. He is the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, as well as a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, an ...

and mathematician

Philip Maini Philip Kumar Maini (born 16 October 1959 in Magherafelt, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish mathematician. Since 1998, he has been the Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford and is the director of the Wolfson Centre fo ...

, who was also the

doctoral supervisor A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a university faculty whose role is to guide graduate students who are candidates for a doctorate, helping them select coursework, as well ...

of Schnell. After postdoctoral research in Germany, the US, and Australia, funded by a UK Research Council Junior Research Fellowship, she returned to a permanent position at Oxford. She is a professor of applied mathematics at the

Mathematical Institute The Mathematical Institute is the mathematics department at the University of Oxford in England. It is one of the nine departments of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The institute includes both pure and appl ...

of the

and a tutorial fellow in mathematics in

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accep ...

since 2010.

Recognition

Baker was a 2014 winner of 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 ...

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 ...

"for her outstanding contributions to the field of Mathematical Biology". She was awarded a

Leverhulme Research Fellowship The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...

for her work in "efficient computational methods for testing biological hypotheses" in 2017.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Ruth Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British mathematicians Women mathematicians Applied mathematicians Theoretical biologists Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford