Sylvia Margaret Wiegand (born March 8, 1945) is an American mathematician.

Early life and education

Wiegand was born in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. She is the daughter of mathematician

Laurence Chisholm Young Laurence Chisholm Young (14 July 1905 – 24 December 2000) was a British mathematician known for his contributions to measure theory, the calculus of variations, optimal control theory, and potential theory. He was the son of William Henry Yo ...

and through him the grand-daughter of mathematicians

Grace Chisholm Young Grace Chisholm Young (née Chisholm, 15 March 1868 – 29 March 1944) was an English mathematician. She was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, England and continued her studies at Göttingen University in Germany, where in 1895 she receive ...

and

William Henry Young William Henry Young FRS (London, 20 October 1863 – Lausanne, 7 July 1942) was an English mathematician. Young was educated at City of London School and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He worked on measure theory, Fourier series, differential calcu ...

. Her family moved to Wisconsin in 1949, and she graduated from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United Sta ...

in 1966 after three years of study. In 1971 Wiegand earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation was titled ''Galois Theory of Essential Expansions of Modules and Vanishing Tensor Powers.''

Career

In 1987, she was named full professor at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

; at the time Wiegand was the only female professor in the department. In 1988 Sylvia headed a search committee for two new jobs in the math department, for which two women were hired, although one stayed only a year and another left after four years. In 1996 Sylvia and her husband,

Roger Wiegand Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages, Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", " ...

, established a fellowship for graduate student research at the university in honor of Sylvia's grandparents. From 1997 until 2000, Wiegand was president 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 ...

. Wiegand has been an editor for

Communications in Algebra ''Communications in Algebra'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering algebra, including commutative algebra, ring theory, module theory, non-associative algebra (including Lie algebras and Jordan algebras), group theory, and algebr ...

and the

Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess ...

. She was on the board of directors of the

Canadian Mathematical Society The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) (french: Société mathématique du Canada) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research, outreach, scholarship and education in Canada. It serves the ...

from 1997 to 2000. Wiegand was an

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 ...

(AMS) Council member at large.

Awards and recognition

Wiegand is featured in the book ''Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary'', edited by Charlene Morrow and Teri Perl, published in 1998. For her work in improving the status of women in mathematics, she was awarded the University of Nebraska's Outstanding Contribution to the Status of Women Award in 2000. In May 2005, the University of Nebraska hosted the Nebraska Commutative Algebra Conference: WiegandFest "in celebration of the many important contributions of Sylvia and her husband Roger Wiegand." In 2012 she became a fellow of the

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...

. In 2017, she was selected as a fellow of the

in the inaugural class.

References

External links

Sylvia Wiegand's homepage
* Sylvia Wiegand'

on MathSciNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiegand, Sylvia 1945 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Bryn Mawr College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Nebraska faculty Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century American women 21st-century American women