Mary Schaps | |
|---|---|
מלכה אלישבע שפס | |
| Born | Mary Elizabeth Kramer (1948-08-06)August 6, 1948 (age 77) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) Harvard University (MA,PhD) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Two |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical mathematics |
| Thesis | Non-singular deformations of space curves, using determinantal schemes (1972) |
| Doctoral advisor | David Mumford Heisuke Hironaka |
Mary Elizabeth Schaps (Hebrew:מלכה אלישבע שפס; born August 6, 1948), also known asMalka Elisheva Schaps, is an Israeli-American mathematician. She is Professor of Mathematics and Dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences atBar Ilan University. She received her Ph.D. fromHarvard University, and has published indeformation theory,group theory, andrepresentation theory. She is also a writer, authoring several novels under the pseudonymRachel Pomerantz.
Mary Elizabeth Kramer was born on August 6, 1948, inCleveland, Ohio, United States.[1][2][3] From 1965 to 1969, she was educated atSwarthmore College in Pennsylvania,majoring in mathematics, philosophy and history, and graduatingsumma cum laude in 1969.[4] She then attendedHarvard University as a mathematics graduate student: she completed herMaster of Arts (MA) degree in 1971 and herDoctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1972.[4] Her doctoral thesis was titled "Non-singular deformations of space curves, using determinantal schemes": her advisors wereDavid Mumford andHeisuke Hironaka.[3]
She was brought up aPresbyterian and then aUnitarian Universalism.[1] She became interested in Judaism, andformally converted toConservative Judaism in college.[1][5] In 1968, she married David Schaps, a classics professor who was then also studying for a PhD at Harvard.[6][7] They both gradually felt more and more drawn toOrthodox Judaism and considered themselvesHaredi by the time they had completed their doctorates.[1][5] The couple madealiyah (moved to Israel) in 1972.[2]
Together, she and her husband had two children: this was a small family by Haredi standards, and they raised four morefoster children.[1][5] They live inBnei Brak, a Haredi city near Tel Aviv.[5]
Schaps had some teaching experience at Harvard University: she wasteaching assistant from 1971 to 1972, and alecturer at the 1975Harvard Summer School.[3] In 1972, having moved to Israel, she was appointed a lecturer in mathematics atTel Aviv University.[3][5] In her second year in Israel theYom Kippur War occurred: the change in language, culture and the threat to her new family were a shock.[1] In 1977, she moved toBar-Ilan University as asenior lecturer: she was promoted toassociate professor in 1991 andfull professor in 2006.[4] She was the only femaleHaredi professor in Israel.[2] In October 2013, she was appointedDean of Exact Sciences at Bar-Ilan University: having been the only female Haredi professor, she now became the highest ranking Haredi woman in Israeli academia.[2][8] She stepped down as dean in 2015, and was madeProfessor Emeritus on retirement in 2016.[3]
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