Gigliola Staffilani: A Woman in Mathematics

May 16, 2008

Gigliola Staffilani is the sole female full professor of pure mathematics at MIT. "I have so many instances where I can zoom in and see the luck," she told the Boston Globe. "My life should have gone any other way than the way it did," she indicated.

Although she grew up poor on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, as a young girl she loved reading her brother's copies of the Italian version of Scientific American, fascinated by biographies of American scientists at the institutions that seemed "as distant as an alien." "My mother said I didn't need school, and I could marry one of my brother's doctor friends," Staffilani recalled.

Convincing her family that she would rather become a high school math teacher allowed her to attend the University of Bologna on a fellowship. Near the end of her college years an American student suggested she consider a career in mathematics and encouraged her to apply to a doctoral program at the University of Chicago.

At Chicago the well-known mathematician Paul Sally secured her path to mathematics.  When he met her, Staffilani was broke, discouraged, and on the verge of heading home. Sally gave her a $1,000 check, figuring "She just needed a little help." Staffilani is a "true talent," he said, "and she arrived at the right place all by herself." Staffilani earned her PhD in 1995, moving on to work on difficult mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, which led to a tenure track program at Stanford. Staffilani became a tenured associate professor at MIT in 2002, at age 36.

Having organized a recent Women in Math Conference, Staffilani made sure it focused on hard problems. "I don't think it's productive to sit around and cry about [the lack of women in the field]," she said. "That doesn't solve anything. You prove people wrong by solving difficult theorems."

Source: Boston.com (April 28)