Federico Ardila

Summary

Federico Ardila (born 1977) is a Colombian mathematician and DJ who researches combinatorics and specializes in matroid theory. Ardila graduated from MIT with a B.Sc. in mathematics in 1998 and obtained a Ph.D. in 2003 under the supervision of Richard P. Stanley in the same institution.[1] Ardila is currently a professor at the San Francisco State University and additionally holds an adjunct position at the University of Los Andes in Colombia.[2]

Federico Ardila
Federico Ardila
Ardila at the 2020 Joint Math Meetings.
Born1977
NationalityColombian
EducationB.Sc. 1998, Ph.D. 2003
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
SpouseMay-Li Khoe
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsAlgebraic combinatorics
Institutions
ThesisEnumerative and Algebraic Aspects of Matroids and Hyperplane Arrangements (2003)
Doctoral advisorRichard P. Stanley
Websitemath.sfsu.edu/faculty/ardila

Early life and education edit

Ardila was born in Bogotá, Colombia. During his childhood Ardila showed great promise in mathematics, scoring the highest amongst his age group in the fourth grade.[3] While attending the college-prep Colegio San Carlos in Bogotá, Ardila represented Colombia in the International Math Olympiad, winning a bronze medal in 1993 and a silver medal in 1994.[4]

Prior to attending MIT, Ardila was already enrolled in another local university. Ardila had never heard of MIT, but a classmate told him that they offered financial aid to everyone, so he applied without knowing how competitive the school was.[3]

In addition to mathematics, Ardila enjoys making music and is a co-founder of the Oakland DJ collective La Pelanga.[5][3]

Career edit

Under his NSF CAREER grant, Ardila has worked to create a larger and more diverse community of members of underrepresented groups within mathematics.[6] Ardila follows certain principles geared towards cultivating diversity within his field of study, which he calls Axioms:[2]

  • Axiom 1. Mathematical potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
  • Axiom 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
  • Axiom 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
  • Axiom 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.[7]

As part of his SFSU-Colombia combinatorics initiative, Ardila has provided over 200 hours of lecture videos on YouTube with additional resources for free.[8][9] He is also well known for his appearances in the popular mathematics YouTube video series Numberphile.[10]

Awards edit

Ardila has received many awards, among which are:

Selected writings edit

  • Lagrangian geometry of matroids (2020), with Graham Denham and June Huh
  • CAT(0) geometry, robots, and society (2019)
  • Hopf monoids and generalized permutahedra (2017), with Marcelo Aguiar
  • Todos Cuentan: Cultivating Diversity in Combinatorics (2016)

References edit

  1. ^ "Mathematics Genealogy Project".
  2. ^ a b "federico ardila". math.sfsu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  3. ^ a b c "Mathematician Federico Ardila Dances to the Joys and Sorrows of Discovery". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Federico Ardila Mantilla". International Mathematical Olympiads. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  5. ^ "About". La Pelanga. 6 July 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  6. ^ "federico ardila . sfsu-colombia combinatorics initiative". math.sfsu.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  7. ^ Ardila, Federico (November 2016). "Todos Cuentan: Cultivating Diversity in Combinatorics" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 63 (10): 1164–1170. doi:10.1090/noti1434. PMC 5466815. PMID 28607525. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  8. ^ "Federico Ardila". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  9. ^ Bruntz, Michael (Fall 2010). "A World-Class Education" (PDF). SF State Magazine. pp. 16–17. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  10. ^ "Numberphile". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  11. ^ "Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award". Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Simons Foundation Announces 2019 Fellows". Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  13. ^ Padilla, Sara. "¿Quiénes son los ganadores de los Premios de Matemáticas 2019?". Sociedad Colombiana de Matemáticas (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  14. ^ Monahan, Patrick (21 November 2017). "Professor named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society". San Francisco State University. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  15. ^ "CAREER: Matroids, polytopes, and their valuations in algebra and geometry". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 4 May 2020.

External links edit

  • Professional webpage at San Francisco State University Archived 2020-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
  • Youtube channel
  • Twitter
  • Mathematics Genealogy Project
  • Google Scholar citations
  • Numberphile videos: Combinatorics and Higher Dimensions, The Cross Ratio, The Math (and money) of Soccer Stickers
  • La Pelanga DJ Collective