Three Luce Fellows polish their first journal articles in astronomy, mathematics

May 12, 2010

Before enrolling at the University of Chicago in 2009, Olga Turanova and Jessica Lin had heard that graduate students in mathematics enjoy a special feeling of community here.

"It certainly is true," Turanova said. Added Lin: "The sense of community really is unique to the Math Department at University of Chicago. That solidified my choice."

Turanova and Lin are both recipients of a 2009 Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship at the University, as is Erin Martell in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, the fellowships support first-year women graduate students in physical sciences at the University.

Luce Fellows receive first-year tuition for graduate study, along with more than $22,000 in additional support. Turanova also has received a Microsoft Research 2010 Graduate Women's Scholarship, which provides $17,000 in support.

All three women began their research careers as undergraduates, and all three already also have their first journal articles in various stages of completion. Martell is on a team of eight co-authors completing a paper titled "Modeling broadband X-ray absorption of massive star winds."

The team, led by Maurice Leutenegger of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, includes David Cohen, associate professor of astronomy at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, with whom Martell collaborated as a senior.

Martell chose UChicago for graduate study because of its stellar collection of cosmologists. Swarthmore has only two astronomy professors. The compact program offered her the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research, but she is still adjusting to the size of Chicago's Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, which has 26 faculty members.

"It's always amazing to me when I come in every day how many astronomers there are in a place like this," she said.

Lin's "Platonic Dynamics" has been recommended for publication in the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems. Her co-author is William Ott, assistant professor in mathematics at the University of Houston, with whom she worked at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in 2007 and 2008.

Williams College connection

Lin has another paper in preparation: "Measurable time-restricted sensitivity," with Cesar Silva, Hagey Family professor of mathematics at Williams College, and four other co-authors. The paper is an outgrowth of her participation in the summer 2008 SMALL Mathematics Research Program at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Turanova also took part in the SMALL program that same summer, studying knot theory. Her group's resulting "The Spiral Index of Knots" has been accepted for publication in the Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Co-authored by Colin Adams, who headed Turanova's SMALL Mathematics Research Program, and W. George, R. Hudson, R. Morrison, L. Starkston, and S. Taylor, the paper explores the intricacies of knot theory. "The main idea of knot theory is, here's one knot and here's another and they're all tangled up. I want to know: are they the same or are they different?" Turanova said.

Turanova will focus on analysis for her doctoral specialty. The classes she has taken so far have all been interesting, she said.

"I like them all."

Lin is primarily interested in analysis, a branch of mathematics that includes calculus and other techniques often applied to scientific problems. "I've been interested in using math to understand phenomena in science and other areas. Analysis is one of the most natural ways to translate problems in physics and materials science into a mathematical context," she said.

Luce Fellows and the arts

Turanova, Lin and Martell have cultivated artistic interests over the years, as did the namesake of their fellowship. Clare Boothe Luce achieved success during her career as a playwright, editor, politician, journalist and diplomat.

Turanova enjoys making sketches of the outdoors, especially trees. Lin trained at the Ellison Ballet in New York City to become a professional ballerina before opting for mathematics. Martell managed the 100-member Swarthmore College Chorus and sang first soprano.

"I like drawing outdoors because there's always something new," Turanova said. "Trees change drastically with the seasons, and even from day to day, so even one tree turns out to be a lot to explore."

The Swarthmore College Chorus performed a wide variety of large choral pieces, from Bach's "Mass in B Minor" to Orff's "Carmina Burana." As manager, Martell's duties included designing recruitment posters and concert programs, and helping to set up the risers.

"I found that I actually got much, much stronger through my college years from having to set up and take down the risers with the conductor and no more than three other students," Martell said.

Lin grew up planning to become a professional ballerina. She had always enjoyed mathematics, but never saw it as a potential career until her first year at NYU. At the end of her first year, a professional ballet company offered her a contract, her original goal for going to New York. Nevertheless, her burgeoning interest in mathematics won out.

"As I study mathematics, I am always reminded of the lessons of hard work, discipline, attention to detail, and critical analysis of one's performance that I learned from ballet," Lin said.

-Steve Koppes

Photos

Erin Martell, a graduate student in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, was born in Boston, grew up on Cape Cod, and graduated with honors in astrophysics from Swarthmore College. At Swarthmore she received the Berman Prize, presented by the physics department to an outstanding graduating senior. With Swarthmore’s Emma Wollman she also received the best student poster award for their stellar wind research presentation at the Atomic Processes in Plasmas meeting in 2009.

Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

Erin Martell is part of a team that has developed a new, more accurate method for computing the X–ray transmission of stellar winds from a massive star. Stellar winds, which consist of charged particles blowing off the surface of a star, played a major role in forming the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) pictured here. The work is detailing how material from stellar interiors gets ejected into their galactic environments, where it may become recycled into newly forming stars.

Photo by European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

This summer, Erin Martell will work with Andrey Kravtsov, Associate Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics, seeking a better way to account for how massive stars disperse the material that surrounds them. “We’re hoping to incorporate that into simulations of galaxy formation so that we can better model how forming stars affect a forming galaxy,” Martell said.

Olga Turanova, a graduate student in mathematics at UChicago, was born in Ukraine, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College. Her honors include a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship, a Microsoft Research Graduate Women Scholarship, and Barnard’s 2008 Eleanor Thomas Elliot Prize for overall academic record, integrity and good citizenship.

Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

Jessica Lin, a graduate student in mathematics at UChicago, was born in Concord, Mass., grew up in Acton, Mass., and graduated with honors from New York University. Her honors include a Barry Goldwater Scholarship and a Student Paper Prize from the Mathematical Association of America’s Mathfest 2008. In 2009 Lin received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a McCormick Fellowship from the University of Chicago.

Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

Jessica Lin chose UChicago for graduate studies primarily for the Mathematics faculty. “When I was accepted here I was ecstatic because there were probably five faculty members at the time who I could see as potential advisers,” she said. “I felt great chemistry with each one of them when I came to visit.” Pictured here is Eckhart Hall, home of the University’s Mathematics Department.

Photo by Dan Dry

Luce Fellow Jessica Lin declined a professional ballet contract to pursue mathematics. Ballet continues to exert a major influence on her life, however. “Ballet class is somehow therapeutic; the moment I step into the studio, I am entirely focused on the dancing at hand. Being able to work in ballet class is an important part of my regular routine, and I insist on keeping it up throughout graduate school.”

Photo by Robert Turner/Turner Photography

Clare Boothe Luce is pictured here with her husband, Henry R. Luce, in 1954. UChicago’s Clare Boothe Luce Fellowships are supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Henry Luce was co–founder and editor–in–chief of Time magazine. Clare Boothe Luce left her mark in a variety of fields, working as an editor, playwright, politician, journalist and diplomat.