Judith Roitman

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Judith Roitman
Prof. Judy Roitman during the conference "Boise Extravaganza in Set Theory BEST 17", Boise, Idaho, March 2008
Prof. Judy Roitman during the conference "Boise Extravaganza in Set Theory BEST 17", Boise, Idaho, March 2008
Residence Lawrence, Kansas
Nationality Flag of the United States United States
Fields Mathematician
Institutions University of Kansas
Doctoral advisor Robert M. Solovay
Known for topology, set theory, Boolean algebras, mathematics education.


Judith "Judy" Roitman (born November 12, 1945) is a mathematician, currently a professor at the University of Kansas. She specializes in set theory, topology, Boolean algebra, and mathematics education[1].

Contents

[edit] Biography

Roitman was born in 1945 in New York City. She attended Oberlin College, followed by Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1966 with a degree in English literature. Next she became interested in mathematical linguistics. As she had little formal mathematical education, Roitman started taking mathematics classes at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She had enjoyed mathematics as a high school student, and found her interest renewed. In 1969 she started graduate studies in mathematics at Berkeley. During graduate school she spent some time teaching mathematics in elementary schools as a Community Teaching Fellow. Roitman received her Ph.D. in 1974 from UC Berkeley with a thesis in topology; her thesis advisor was Robert M. Solovay[2]. She taught at Wellesley College for three years, then spent a semester at the Institute for Advanced Study. She has been at the University of Kansas since then.

She has been involved in the field of mathematics education for much of her career, running workshops for elementary school teachers and high school teachers and observing them in the classroom. She has encouraged individual mathematicians and the mathematical community at large to get involved and take mathematics education more seriously. She was in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics writing group that produced Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Dismayed at the politicization of U.S. mathematics education, Roitman has insisted, "There is no math war."

Roitman has been active in the Association for Women in Mathematics since its early years, and she served as President for the term 1979–1981.[3] She has been a Zen Buddhist since 1976, and is currently the guiding teacher of the Kansas Zen Center, of which she and her husband Stanley Lombardo were founding members.[4]

Roitman is also a poet. Her poetry has appeared in a number of magazines and three chapbooks.[5]

[edit] Selected publications

[edit] References

  1. ^ Faculty Directory. University of Kansas. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  2. ^ Judith Roitman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ AWM History. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  4. ^ Our Teachers. Kansas Zen Center. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  5. ^ Riddle, Larry (May 22, 2007). Judith Roitman. Biographies of Women Mathematicians. Agnes Scott College. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Roitman, Judith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH