Kim Plofker
Kim Leslie Plofker(born November 25, 1964) is an American historian of mathematics, specializing inIndian mathematics.
Education and career
[edit]Born in Chennai, India, Plofker received her bachelor's degree in mathematics fromHaverford College.She received her Ph.D. in 1995 while studying with adviserDavid Pingree[1](Mathematical Approximation by Transformation of Sine Functions in Medieval Sanskrit Astronomical Texts) fromBrown University,where she conducted research and later joined as a guest professor.[2]
In the late 1990s, she was Technical Director of the American Committee for South Asian Manuscripts of theAmerican Oriental Society,where she was also concerned with the development of programs for the text comparison. From 2000 to 2004, she was at theDibner Institute for the History of Science and Technologyat theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.During 2004 and 2005, she was a visiting professor in Utrecht and at the same time Fellow of theInternational Institute for Asian Studiesin Leiden.[3]She is currently an associate professor atUnion Collegein Schenectady.[4]
Contributions
[edit]Plofker deals with the history of Indian mathematics, the topic of her 2009 bookMathematics in India.[2]She is particularly interested in the exchange of mathematics and astronomy between India and Islam in the Middle Ages and generally in the exact sciences between Europe and Asia from antiquity to the 20th Century.
WithClemency Montelle,she is the coauthor ofSanskrit Astronomical Tables(Springer, 2019).[5]
Recognition
[edit]In 2010 she gave a plenary lecture[6]at theInternational Congress of Mathematicians,Hyderabad(Indian rules, Yavana rules: foreign identity and the transmission of mathematics). In 2011, she was awarded theBrouwer Medalof theRoyal Dutch Mathematical Society.[2]
References
[edit]- ^Kim Plofkerat theMathematics Genealogy Project
- ^abc"The Brouwer Lecture and the Brouwer Medal".University of Twente.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-05-10.
- ^"Curriculum vitae"(PDF).Retrieved2021-01-15.
- ^"Kim Plofker".Mathematics Faculty and Staff.Union College.Retrieved2021-01-15.
- ^Reviews ofSanskrit Astronomical Tables:S. G. Dani,MR3929708;Scott Guthery,MAA Reviews
- ^"International Congress of Mathematicians 2010, Hyderabad » Invited speakers".International Congress of Mathematicians.Retrieved6 April2019.
- 1964 births
- Living people
- American historians of mathematics
- 20th-century American mathematicians
- 21st-century American mathematicians
- Haverford College alumni
- Brown University alumni
- Brouwer Medalists
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
- American Indologists
- 20th-century American women mathematicians
- 21st-century American women mathematicians