Autumn Kent

Autumn Kent
NationalityAmerican
Alma materB.A., University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1999
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2006
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsGeometry, Topology
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
ThesisGeometry and algebra of hyperbolic 3-manifolds (2006)
Doctoral advisorCameron Gordon

Autumn Kent is an American mathematician specializing in topology and geometry. She is a professor of mathematics and Vilas Associate at the University of Wisconsin.[1][2][3] She is a transgender woman and a promoter of trans rights.[4][5][6]

Education

Kent received her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1999.[7] Originally, she had planned to become a high-school English teacher, but she switched to mathematics, majoring in it and in literature.[8] She earned her Ph.D. under the advising of Cameron McAllan Gordon at the University of Texas at Austin in 2006; her dissertation was entitled Geometry and Algebra of Hyperbolic 3-manifolds.[9] After a four-year position as the Tamarkin Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Brown University,[8] she joined the faculty of University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2010. She became associate professor in 2016, and a full professor in 2020.[7][1]

Career

Kent has published over 20 papers in various journals, mostly regarding low dimensional topology and knot theory. Many of these were published under her former name, or deadname, before she came out as transgender.[4][6][7]

Kent served on the Policy and Advocacy Committee for the Association for Women in Mathematics from Feb 2019-Jan 2022.[10] In addition, she served on the Association for Women in Mathematics Panel Discussion Promoting Inclusion in STEM at the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meeting.[11][12] With Harrison Bray, she organized the LG&TBQ+ conference at the University of Michigan to foster collaboration between LGBTQ+ mathematicians working in geometry, topology, and dynamical systems with funding from Kent's NSF Career Award.[13][14] She gave the Spectra Lavender Lecture at the 2022 Joint Mathematics Meeting.[15]

Recognition

In 1999, Kent won the Frank Gerth Dissertation Award.[8] In 2014, she was awarded an NSF Career Award to study moduli of Riemann surfaces.[13] In 2015 and 2016, she was a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study.[16] She was named as a Vilas Associate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for 2018 and 2019.[2][17] In 2019, she received a Simons Fellowship.[18][19][20][21]

She was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in the 2024 class of fellows.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b "Staff Specializations | Department of Mathematics". www.math.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  2. ^ a b "Autumn Kent named as a Vilas Associate". www.math.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-06-07. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  3. ^ Wallner, Grace (2018-06-12). "UW-Madison students, faculty break the silence about campus mental health". The Daily Cardinal. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  4. ^ a b Lamb, Evelyn. "Being a Trans Mathematician: A Q&A with Autumn Kent". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  5. ^ "WIMS – Gender Inclusivity in Mathematics". Harvard Gender Inclusivity in Mathematics. 2016-08-29. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  6. ^ a b Crowell, Rachel (2018-06-28). "500 Queer Scientists Speak Up About STEM Inclusivity". rewire.org. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  7. ^ a b c Kent, Autumn. "CV" (PDF). www.math.wisc.edu.
  8. ^ a b c "New Physical Sciences Faculty 2006". Brown University. 2006-09-05. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  9. ^ Autumn Kent at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  10. ^ "Policy & Advocacy Committee". Association for Women in Mathematics. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
  11. ^ "Activities of Other Organizations". Joint Mathematics Meetings. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  12. ^ "AWM at JMM 2019". Association for Women in Mathematics. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  13. ^ a b "CAREER: Moduli of curves via topology, geometry, and arithmetic". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  14. ^ "LG&TBQ". Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  15. ^ Meetings (JMM), Joint Mathematics. "Joint Mathematics Meetings". Joint Mathematics Meetings. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  16. ^ "Past von Neumann Fellow: Autumn Kent". Institute for Advanced Study. 9 December 2019.
  17. ^ "Past Winners Vilas Associates". University of Wisconsin. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  18. ^ "2019 Simons Fellows in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Announced". Simons Foundation. 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  19. ^ "Three UW professors receive Simons Fellowships in mathematics". The Badger Herald. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  20. ^ "UW–Madison mathematicians named Simons Fellows". University of Wisconsin–Madison. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  21. ^ "2019 Simons Fellows Announced". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  22. ^ "2024 Class of Fellows of the AMS". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved 2023-11-09.