Irena Swanson
{{short description|American mathematician}}
Irena Swanson is an American mathematician specializing in commutative algebra. She is head of the Purdue University Department of Mathematics since 2020{{r|purdueAnnouncement}}. She was a professor of mathematics at Reed College from 2005 to 2020.
Education and career
Swanson is originally from the former Yugoslavia, in what is now Slovenia,{{r|geomq|wim}} and was attracted to mathematics from a very young age.{{r|wim}}
She came to the US as an exchange student in Tooele, Utah in her last year of high school.{{r|wim}} There, she became interested in Reed College, the alma mater of her host family's daughter,{{r|geomq}} and applied only to Reed for her undergraduate studies.{{r|wim}} She is a 1987 graduate of Reed,{{r|profile}} with an undergraduate thesis on functional analysis.{{r|wim}}
She went to Purdue University for graduate study, completing her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1992. Her dissertation, Tight Closure, Joint Reductions, And Mixed Multiplicities, was supervised by Craig Huneke.{{r|profile|mgp}} She became assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 1992{{cite web |url=https://www.math.purdue.edu/~iswanso/shortvita.pdf |title=Short CV |date= July 2020 |work=purdue.edu |format=pdf |access-date=2022-07-28}} and joined the faculty at New Mexico State University in 1995, becoming full professor in 2005. In the same year she moved back to Reed.{{r|profile}}
Swanson returned to Purdue in 2020 as Head of the Department of Mathematics. She is the first woman to hold the position.{{r|purdueAnnouncement}}
Contributions
With her advisor, Craig Huneke, Swanson is the author of the book Integral Closure of Ideals, Rings, and Modules (Cambridge University Press, 2006).{{r|icirm}} She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Commutative Algebra.
Swanson is also a creator of mathematical quilts,{{r|geomq|quilt}}
and is the inventor of a quilting technique, "tube piecing", for making quilts more efficiently.{{r|geomq}}
Recognition
Swanson was included in the 2019 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to commutative algebra, exposition, service to the profession and mentoring".{{r|fams}}
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/new-fellows|title=2019 Class of the Fellows of the AMS|publisher=American Mathematical Society|accessdate=2018-11-08}}
{{citation|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/march2016/articles/features/irena-swanson.html|title=The Geometry of Quilting: Prof. Irena Swanson '87 adds a new twist to a mathematical art form|first=Katelyn|last=Best|magazine=Reed Magazine|volume=95|issue=1|date=March 2016|publisher=Reed College|accessdate=2018-11-08}}
Reviews of Integral Closure of Ideals, Rings, and Modules:
- {{citation|title=none|first=Liam|last=O'Carroll|year=2008|journal=Mathematical Reviews|mr=2266432}}
- {{citation|title=none|first=Yukio|last=Nakamura|journal=Sugaku|volume=61|issue=1|language=Japanese|doi=10.11429/sugaku.0611097|year=2009}}
{{citation|url=https://www.reed.edu/faculty-profiles/profiles/swanson-irena.html|title=Irena Swanson '87|work=Faculty Profiles|publisher=Reed College|accessdate=2018-11-08|archive-date=2020-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710231111/https://www.reed.edu/faculty-profiles/profiles/swanson-irena.html|url-status=dead}}
}}
External links
- [http://people.reed.edu/~iswanson/ Home page]
- [https://www.tubepiecing.com/ Tube piecing online]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanson, Irena}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:21st-century American mathematicians
Category:Yugoslav mathematicians
Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society