Warwick professor recognised as a Royal Society Fellow

Professor Karen Vogtmann from Warwick Mathematics Institute has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society. She joins a distinguished group of outstanding scientists from across the globe to be recognised for their exceptional contributions to science.

Karen works in the areas of topology and algebra and is widely known for introducing new topological and geometric models for the study of infinite discrete groups She has had a particularly strong influence on the modern approach to automorphism groups of free groups. Her work has connections to fields as diverse as the study of phylogenetic trees and perturbative quantum field theory, as well as to other areas of mathematics such as algebraic K-theory, homotopy theory, and 'tropical' algebraic geometry.

Her honours and awards include a Royal Society Wolfson Research award, the Polya prize, a Humboldt Research Prize and an honorary degree from the University of Copenhagen in addition to a plenary address at the European Congress of Mathematicians and an invited address at the International Congress of Mathematicians. She is also a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society and of Academia Europa.

She has held an academic position at Warwick since 2013 and before relocating to England was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Mathematics at Cornell University having previously held positions at Columbia University, Brandeis University and the University of Michigan. Karen also served as Vice President of the American Mathematical Society and as a member and chair of their board of trustees.

Speaking of her accolade, she said:

I am enormously honoured and pleased. The idea of signing my name in the same book as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein is mind boggling. I’m feeling very happy that I moved to England, and the Warwick Math Institute is a great place to work.

Professor Karen Vogtmann