Joan Birman

Joan S. Birman Lyttle (* May 30, 1927 in New York City ) is an American mathematician who specifically deals with low-dimensional topology, knot theory.

Birman received her bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1948 from Barnard College, Columbia University and her master's degree in physics in 1950 from Columbia University. She worked until 1955 as a systems analyst in the aerospace industry and then took a break to to raise their three children. In 1961 she began while at Wilhelm Magnus with their work for the promotion, which took place in 1968 at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University ( Braid groups and Their relation to mapping class groups). 1968 to 1971 she was Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, and from 1972 Associate Professor. From 1973 she was a professor of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she is Professor Emeritus since 2004. In 1987, she was at the Institute for Advanced Study and 1991 at the IHES. 2004-2007 she was a research professor at Columbia University. In addition, she was a visiting professor, among others, in Paris, Jerusalem ( Hebrew University ) and at the Technion in Haifa, where she has been since 1997 an honorary doctor.

Birman is known for her work on knot theory, Theory of braids, mapping class groups and 3 - manifolds. She held, inter alia, a eulogy to the winner of the Fields Medal Vaughan Jones on the ICM 1990 on the new knot invariants it also worked.

She is an honorary member of the Moscow Mathematical Society, European Mathematical Society and the New York Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. 1974-1976 she was Sloan Fellow. 1994/95 it was Guggenheim Fellow. In 1996, she received the Chauvenet Prize for New points of view in knot theory ( Bulletin of the AMS, Bd.28, 1993, p.253 ). In 2005 she received the Award for Excellency in Science and Technology of the New York mayor.

She is married to the theoretical physicist Joseph Birman since 1950. In memory of Ruth Lyttle Satter her sister she donated Ruth Lyttle Satter prize in 1990 for women in mathematics.

Writings

• Braids, links and mapping class groups. Annals of Mathematical Studies, Princeton 1975.
• Recent developments in knot and link theory. Mathematical Intelligencer Bd.13, No.1, 1991, p.52.
• Birman: New points of view in knot theory. Bulletin AMS 1993.