Jeanette McLeod

{{short description|New Zealand mathematician}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=April 2022}}

Jeanette Claire McLeod is a New Zealand mathematician specialising in combinatorics, including the theories of Latin squares and random graphs. She is a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Canterbury, a principal investigator for Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence associated with the University of Auckland,{{r|cant}} an honorary senior lecturer at the Australian National University,{{r|anu}} and the president for three terms from 2018 to 2020 of the Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia.{{r|cmsa}}

McLeod earned her Ph.D. in 2007 from Australian National University. Her dissertation, Methods in Asymptotic Combinatorics, was supervised by Brendan McKay.{{r|mgp}}

She is one of the cofounders of Maths Craft New Zealand, a project to popularise mathematics using crafts such as crochet and origami.{{r|mulligan|star|te}}

In 2019, McLeod and fellow Canterbury mathematician Phil Wilson won the Cranwell Medal for Science Communication from the New Zealand Association of Scientists for their work on Maths Craft.{{Cite web |title=New Zealand Association of Scientists - 2019 Award Recipients |url=https://scientists.org.nz/2019-Awards-Recipients|access-date=2021-03-03 |website=scientists.org.nz}} McLeod's advocacy for creative practice within science and research saw her profiled in a Nature careers article in 2021.{{Cite journal |last=Dance |first=Amber|date=2021-02-09|title=How the arts can help you to craft a successful research career |journal=Nature |volume=590|issue=7845 |pages=351–353 |doi=10.1038/d41586-021-00334-2 |pmid=33564187 |bibcode=2021Natur.590..351D |doi-access=free}}