Kerstin Jordaan

Kerstin Heidrun Jordaan is a South African mathematician whose research interests include special functions and orthogonal polynomials.[1] She is a professor in the Department of Decision Sciences at the University of South Africa,[2][3] the executive director of the South African Mathematics Foundation, and the former president of the South African Mathematical Society.[4]

Education and career

Going into her university studies, Jordaan considered medicine and psychology before ending up in mathematics.[5] After earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics and geography at the University of Pretoria, Jordaan earned a second bachelor's degree in mathematics education at the University of the Witwatersrand, and became a secondary school mathematics teacher in Pretoria. She earned a master's degree from the University of Pretoria, before taking a break from academia to raise a family. After doing so, she returned to graduate school for a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand.[6] Her 2001 dissertation, Zeros of general hypergeometric polynomials, was supervised by Kathy Driver.[7]

She was a member of the academic staff at the University of Pretoria until moving to the University of South Africa as a full professor in 2017.[8] She served as president of the South African Mathematical Society from 2016 to 2019.[4]

Recognition

Jordaan is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.[9]

References

  1. ^ Mohlala, Thabo (17 June 2022), "South Africa's best female mathematics genius", Women in Science Africa, retrieved 2024-02-07
  2. ^ "Prof KH Jordaan", Staff members: School of Economic and Financial Sciences, University of South Africa, retrieved 2024-02-07
  3. ^ McManus, Virginia (9 May 2022), "Meet Professor Kerstin Jordaan – A whiz with numbers", College of Economic & Management Sciences, University of South Africa, retrieved 2024-02-07
  4. ^ a b "Prof. Kerstin Jordaan", Council member biographies, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, retrieved 2024-02-07
  5. ^ Celebrating women's day with Prof Kerstin Jordaan, South African Mathematics Foundation, 9 August 2022, retrieved 2024-02-07
  6. ^ "Prof Kerstin Jordaan", Advisory board members, National Graduate Academy for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Pretoria, retrieved 2024-02-07
  7. ^ Kerstin Jordaan at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  8. ^ "Plenary speaker biography" (PDF), 66th Annual Congress of the South African Mathematical Society Book of Abstracts, University of Johannesberg, p. xiii, December 2023, retrieved 2024-02-07
  9. ^ Members, Academy of Science of South Africa, retrieved 2024-02-07