Tanya Khovanova (, also spelled Tatyana Hovanova; born 25 January 1959) is a Soviet-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 ...

who became the second female gold medalist at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

s. She is a lecturer in mathematics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Education

As a high school student, Khovanova became a member of the Soviet team for the

(IMO). In the summer of 1975, Valery Senderov gave the team a list of difficult

mathematical problem A mathematical problem is a problem that can be represented, analyzed, and possibly solved, with the methods of mathematics. This can be a real-world problem, such as computing the orbits of the planets in the Solar System, or a problem of a more ...

s used in the entrance exams of Moscow State University to discriminate against Soviet Jews, a topic she later wrote about. Khovanova won the silver medal at the 1975 IMO, and a gold medal at the 1976 Olympiad. Her finish at the 1976 Olympiad was second among all competitors, the highest achievement for female students until 1984, when Karin Gröger from

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

tied for the first place. Khovanova graduated with honors from

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

(MSU) with a master's degree in mathematics in 1981. She completed her Ph.D. at MSU in 1988 with

Israel Gelfand Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand (, , ; – 5 October 2009) was a prominent Soviet and American mathematician, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, biologist, teache ...

as her doctoral advisor.

Career

Khovanova left the Soviet Union in 1990, and worked for several years in Israel and the US as a postdoctoral researcher. However, she stopped working as a researcher to raise her children, and then worked in the

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

and military contracting industry, before returning to academia as a lecturer at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. Khovanova has been a mathematics competition coach at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high ...

. In 2010, she helped found the MIT PRIMES program for after school mentoring of local high school students, and she continues to serve as its head mentor. She is also head mentor for mathematics of the

Research Science Institute The Research Science Institute (RSI) is an international summer research program for high school students. RSI is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, ...

, a summer research program for high school students at MIT.

Research

In Khovanova's earlier mathematical research, she studied

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebra, abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their element (set theory), elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies Module (mathematics), ...

, the theory of

integrable system In mathematics, integrability is a property of certain dynamical systems. While there are several distinct formal definitions, informally speaking, an integrable system is a dynamical system with sufficiently many conserved quantities, or first ...

quantum group In mathematics and theoretical physics, the term quantum group denotes one of a few different kinds of noncommutative algebras with additional structure. These include Drinfeld–Jimbo type quantum groups (which are quasitriangular Hopf algebra ...

theory, and

superstring theory Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings. 'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string t ...

. Her later work explores

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

and

recreational mathematics Recreational mathematics is mathematics carried out for recreation (entertainment) rather than as a strictly research-and-application-based professional activity or as a part of a student's formal education. Although it is not necessarily limited ...

Online activities

In the mid-1990s Khovanova created a website called Number Gossip, about the special properties of individual numbers. In 2007, she created a mathematics blog, centered on mathematical puzzles and problem solving.

Personal life

When Khovanova emigrated to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, she did not know how to drive. A friend gave her a copy of '' The Boston Driver's Handbook'' which she studied to learn tips before learning years later that the book was intended to be humorous. She has two sons; her first was born in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Recognition

An essay about Khovanova, "To Count the Natural Numbers," by Emily Jia, won the 2016 Essay Contest 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 ...

Selected works

Two of Khovanova's papers were included in the annual ''Best Writing on Mathematics'' volumes, in 2014 and 2016 respectively. *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khovanova, Tanya 1959 births Living people Mathematicians from Moscow 21st-century American mathematicians Soviet emigrants to the United States Soviet women mathematicians Soviet mathematicians 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians Moscow State University alumni Expatriate academics in the United States International Mathematical Olympiad participants Science bloggers 21st-century science writers Russian bloggers American women bloggers American bloggers Russian women bloggers 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century Russian mathematicians Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty 20th-century Russian women