Catherine Greenhill wins Australian Academy of Science 2015 Christopher Heyde Medal

Associate Professor Catherine Greenhill has been announced as winner of the Australian Academy of Science's 2015 Christopher Heyde Medal.

According to the Australian Academy of Science, the Christopher Heyde Medal honours the contributions to mathematics by Professor Christopher Charles Heyde, who was the Foundation Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the Australian National University, and Professor Emeritus of Statistics at Columbia University, New York.

The award recognises distinguished research in the mathematical sciences by researchers up to 15 years post-PhD in the calendar year of nomination. The 2015 Christopher Heyde Medal is for the field of pure mathematics.

A/Prof Greenhill has received the award jointly with Dr Scott Morrison from the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Australian National University.

A/Prof Catherine Greenhill is internationally recognised as a leading expert in asymptotic, probablilistic and algorithmic combinatorics, undertaking research at the interface between combinatorics, probability and theoretical computer science. By studying fundamental combinatorial objects, such as graphs, she tackles problems of major significance to pure mathematics. Her highly-cited research achievements include new formulae and algorithms that have found broad application in many areas, from statistics to computer science, and physics to cryptography.

In early 2014, A/Prof Greenhill became the first female mathematician at UNSW to be promoted to Associate Professor. She was awarded the 2013 UNSW Faculty of Science June Griffith Fellowship for Academic Women in Leadership, which aims to provide opportunities for women to develop and strengthen their research.

UNSW Mathematics and Statistics has been very successful with the Christopher Heyde Medal in recent years. Professor David Warton was the 2014 recipient, while Associate Professor Josef Dick took out the medal in 2012.

A big congratulations to Associate Professor Catherine Greenhill on winning this prestigious award.