Miranda Cheng
{{short description|Taiwanese-born and Dutch-educated mathematician and physicist}}
Miranda Chih-Ning Cheng ({{zh|t=程之寧}}; born 6 June 1979, Taipei)[http://albumacademicum.uva.nl/id/id090206 C. Cheng, 1979] at the University of Amsterdam Album Academicum. is a Taiwanese mathematician and theoretical physicist who works as an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam.[https://sites.google.com/site/mcheng0606/short-cv Curriculum vitae], retrieved 2016-08-02. She is known for formulating the umbral moonshine conjectures{{citation|title=Mathematicians Chase Moonshine's Shadow: Researchers are on the trail of a mysterious connection between number theory, algebra and string theory|first=Erica|last=Klarreich|magazine=Scientific American|date=April 7, 2015|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mathematicians-chase-moonshine-s-shadow/}} and for her work on the connections between K3 surfaces and string theory.{{citation|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160804-miranda-cheng-moonshine-string-theory/|title=Moonshine Master Toys With String Theory: The physicist-mathematician Miranda Cheng is working to harness a mysterious connection between string theory, algebra and number theory|magazine=Quanta|first=Natalie|last=Wolchover|date=August 4, 2016}}.
Early life
Cheng grew up in Taiwan, where she was first interested in literature. At around twelve years old, she was interested in music, including pop music, rock, and punk. Because the material at her school was too easy, she skipped two years and got moved to a special class. The competitiveness and stress that came from school caused her to drop out and leave her parents' home to work at a record store and play in a punk rock band at the age of 16.{{Cite web|title=Moonshine Master Toys With String Theory|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/moonshine-master-toys-with-string-theory-20160804/|last=Wolchover|first=Natalie|website=Quanta Magazine|date=4 August 2016|language=en|access-date=2020-05-02}} Despite not completing high school, she was able to enter university through a program for gifted science students that she had gone through.
Education
After graduating from the Department of Physics at National Taiwan University in 2001,{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/ntu.adm.academic-affs/5CG9_IjaLKQ|title=Google Groups|website=groups.google.com}}{{cite web|url=http://www.science.ntu.edu.tw/award-2.php|title=國立臺灣大學理學院|website=www.science.ntu.edu.tw|date=2 May 2020}} she moved to the Netherlands to continue her studies, and earned a master's degree in theoretical physics in 2003 from Utrecht University, under the supervision of Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft. She completed her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Amsterdam under the joint supervision of Erik Verlinde and Kostas Skenderis.{{mathgenealogy|id=201912}} After postdoctoral study at Harvard University and working as a researcher at CNRS, she returned to Amsterdam in 2014, with a joint position in the Institute of Physics and Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics.
Work with the Umbral Moonshine Conjecture
Cheng, along with John Duncan of Case Western Reserve University and Jeffrey Harvey of the University of Chicago, formulated the Umbral Moonshine Conjecture in 2012, providing evidence of 23 new moonshines. They postulated that for each of these moonshines, there is a string theory, in which the string states are counted by the mock modular forms and the finite group captures the model's symmetry.{{Cite journal|arxiv=1406.0619|last1=Cheng|first1=Miranda C. N|title=Umbral Moonshine and K3 Surfaces|last2=Harrison|first2=Sarah|journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics|year=2014|volume=339|issue=1|page=221|doi=10.1007/s00220-015-2398-5|bibcode=2015CMaPh.339..221C|s2cid=119644029}} In reference to the string theory underlying umbral moonshine, Cheng said that “it suggests that there’s a special symmetry acting on the physical theory of K3 surfaces.”
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://sites.google.com/site/mcheng0606/ Home page]
- {{google scholar id|Ac5xBvAAAAAJ}}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bUSWysV2B0|title=Miranda Cheng - Umbral Moonshine and String Theory (Talk at Strings 2014, Princeton)|website=YouTube|date=24 August 2014 }}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG4kbYE_x3U|title=Strings 2017 - Miranda Cheng - Progress on moonshine|website=YouTube|date=27 June 2017 }}
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Category:21st-century Dutch mathematicians
Category:21st-century Dutch women
Category:Dutch women mathematicians
Category:21st-century Dutch physicists
Category:Dutch women physicists
Category:Scientists from Taipei
Category:Utrecht University alumni
Category:University of Amsterdam alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam