Mary Rees
Encyclopedia
Susan Mary Rees, FRS
(born Cambridge
, 31 July 1953) is a British mathematician and a Professor of Mathematics at Liverpool University since 2002, specialising in research in complex dynamical systems.
After obtaining her BA in 1974 and MSc in 1975 at St Hugh's College, Oxford
, she did research in mathematics under the direction of Bill Parry at Warwick University, obtaining a PhD in 1978. She was awarded a Whitehead Prize
of the London Mathematical Society
in 1988. The citationnotes that, in particular,
In recent years, much of Prof Rees's work has focused on the dynamics of quadratic rational maps; i.e. rational maps of the Riemann sphere of degree two, including an extensive monograph. In 2004, she also presented an alternative proof of the Ending Laminations Conjecture of Thurston
, which had been proved by Brock, Canary and Minsky shortly before.
in 2002.
is also a distinguished mathematician, who worked on Enigma
in Hut 6
at Bletchley Park
.
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(born Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, 31 July 1953) is a British mathematician and a Professor of Mathematics at Liverpool University since 2002, specialising in research in complex dynamical systems.
After obtaining her BA in 1974 and MSc in 1975 at St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...
, she did research in mathematics under the direction of Bill Parry at Warwick University, obtaining a PhD in 1978. She was awarded a Whitehead Prize
Whitehead Prize
The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to a mathematician working in the United Kingdom who is at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C...
of the London Mathematical Society
London Mathematical Society
-See also:* American Mathematical Society* Edinburgh Mathematical Society* European Mathematical Society* List of Mathematical Societies* Council for the Mathematical Sciences* BCS-FACS Specialist Group-External links:* * *...
in 1988. The citationnotes that, in particular,
Her most spectacular theorem has been to show that in the space of rational maps of the Riemann sphereRiemann sphereIn mathematics, the Riemann sphere , named after the 19th century mathematician Bernhard Riemann, is the sphere obtained from the complex plane by adding a point at infinity...
of degree d ≥ 2 those maps that are ergodicErgodicityIn mathematics, the term ergodic is used to describe a dynamical system which, broadly speaking, has the same behavior averaged over time as averaged over space. In physics the term is used to imply that a system satisfies the ergodic hypothesis of thermodynamics.-Etymology:The word ergodic is...
with respect to Lebesgue measureLebesgue measureIn measure theory, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of n-dimensional Euclidean space. For n = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides with the standard measure of length, area, or volume. In general, it is also called...
and leave invariant an absolutely continuous probability measureProbability measureIn mathematics, a probability measure is a real-valued function defined on a set of events in a probability space that satisfies measure properties such as countable additivity...
form a set of positive measure.
In recent years, much of Prof Rees's work has focused on the dynamics of quadratic rational maps; i.e. rational maps of the Riemann sphere of degree two, including an extensive monograph. In 2004, she also presented an alternative proof of the Ending Laminations Conjecture of Thurston
William Thurston
William Paul Thurston is an American mathematician. He is a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology. In 1982, he was awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds...
, which had been proved by Brock, Canary and Minsky shortly before.
FRS
She was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal SocietyRoyal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 2002.
Family
Her father David ReesDavid Rees (mathematician)
David Rees ScD Cantab, FIMA, FRS is an emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Exeter, having been head of the Mathematics / Mathematical Sciences Department at Exeter for many years....
is also a distinguished mathematician, who worked on Enigma
Enigma
An enigma is a type of riddle generally expressed in radical or allegorical language that requires ingenuity and careful thought for its solution.Enigma, aenigma, or enigmatic may also refer to:-Music:...
in Hut 6
Hut 6
Hut 6 was a wartime section of Bletchley Park tasked with the solution of German Army and Air Force Enigma machine ciphers. Hut 8, by contrast, attacked Naval Enigma...
at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
.
Works
- Mary Rees (2010) "Multiple equivalent matings with the aeroplane polynomial". Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, pp. 20
- Mary Rees (2008) "William Parry FRS 1934–2006". Biographical Memoirs of the Royal Society, 54, pp. 229–243
- Mary Rees (2004) "Teichmuller distance is not $C^{2+\varepsilon }$". Proc London Math, 88, pp. 114–134
- Mary Rees (2003) "Views of Parameter Space: Topographer and Resident". Asterisque, 288, pp. 1–418
- Mary Rees (2002) "Teichmuller distance for analytically finite surfaces is $C^{2}$." Proc. London Math. Soc. 85 (2002) 686 – 716.,85, pp. 686–716