Melanie Wood

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Melanie Wood Matchett, born 1981 in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a graduate student mathematician currently studying at Princeton University. She has set numerous "firsts" as a woman in the area of mathematics.

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[edit] Childhood

Melanie's mother, Sherry, began teaching her mathematics at age three in order to instill in Melanie the spirit and memory of her father, Archie (a middle-school math teacher), who died of cancer when Melanie was only six weeks old.

By age four, she began to show signs of becoming a child prodigy in mathematics; as a result of being "bored walking around the mall" her mother began to teach her linear equations. Nevertheless, Melanie was a solid but not spectacular math student throughout school.

However, in seventh grade Melanie's incredible mathematical giftedness would suddenly re-emerge. In 1994, somewhat "at the last minute", Melanie was asked to enter MathCounts, a national math contest, since her school needed another team member. With no prior preparation or knowledge of the contest, Melanie surprised herself and everyone else by finishing first in the local competition. She would then continue her amazing streak by finishing first in state, and later 40th in the entire nation. In 1995, having prepared ahead of time, she duplicated her local and state success, and finish 10th in the nation. Melanie continues to work with the MathCounts program to this day.

While a high school student at Park Tudor School in Indianapolis, Melanie became the first, and until 2004, the only female American to make the U.S. International Math Olympiad Team, receiving silver medals in the 1998 and 1999 International Mathematical Olympiad.

[edit] College Years

Recruited by numerous universities, Melanie eventually chose to attend Duke University due to its strong emphasis on undergraduate research.

She won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Fulbright fellowship, and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship in 2003, in addition to becoming the first American woman and second woman overall to be named a Putnam Fellow. During the 2003-2004 year she studied at Cambridge University.

In 2004, she won the Morgan Prize for work in two topics: Belyi-extending maps and P-orderings, the first woman to win this award. Her paper on the second topic was published in the Journal of Number Theory.

In 2005, she coached the Princeton Putnam math team to a second place finish. She was also named the Deputy Leader of the U.S. team that finished second overall at the 2005 International Mathematical Olympiad.

[edit] Trivia

  • Melanie's mother, a foreign language teacher, tried to teach Melanie both French and Spanish along with math; those attempts were unsuccessful and she elected to allow Melanie to pursue her own academic interests.
  • Melanie was the third Duke math team student (and first female) to have her "number retired" (the number is actually chosen after the award is given, when the student can choose his/her number). Unlike the other students who chose irrational numbers, Melanie chose the simple "2".
  • In addition to mathematics, Melanie has an interest in theater, having been involved in several Duke University productions. She sees the two having commonality, both requiring a degree of technical and creative abilities. She won the Faculty Scholar award in theater in 2002.
  • Her husband, Philip, is a doctoral student (also in mathematics) at Rutgers University.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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