Today, on May 12th, the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is joining the world-wide mathematical community in celebrating women in mathematics. Why May 12th? This is the birthdate of the late Maryam Mirzakhani – the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, a prestigious award for mathematics, for her outstanding contributions to the field.
In our community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, we feel it is especially important to continue to strive toward supporting and encouraging equity, diversity, and inclusivity. On this day of recognition, IQC is featuring some of the highly accomplished women in our community to share their experience, achievements, and advice for the next generation of women in math.
Spotlight on IQC's women in mathematics
Debbie Leung
Faculty, IQC
Professor, Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo
1. How did you get your start in mathematics and what is your educational background? What do you like most about mathematics?
By accident, I had an opposite school schedule than my four siblings. Without many toys, internet, nor company, the textbooks from my older siblings (especially those with mathematics problems and atlases) were major sources of entertainment in my alone time. Later, I got into DIY optics, stargazing and then cosmology, so I took undergraduate majors of mathematics and physics as preparations. That turned out very helpful when I switched into quantum information in my early months in graduate school.
I received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and in physics from Caltech, then earned my MSc and PhD in physics from Stanford University.
I am obsessed with finding out whether something is true or not, and in mathematics there is the additional thrill of proving so.
2. What is your current role and research area at IQC? Are there any accomplishments that you would like to highlight?
I am a faculty member at IQC and a full professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo. I specialized in the theory of quantum communications and quantum information, which is concerned with the properties of quantum data and how best to transmit them.
Recently, my collaborators and I found special quantum error correcting codes using novel quantum effects to communicate at a higher rate unattainable otherwise.
3. What is your experience as a woman in mathematics and what advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a future in this field?
My experience has been mostly gender unspecific. It would have been nice to see more women in my field, but most researchers were kind and supportive to me.
A researcher and their research are in a special relationship that is no one else's business. Given this distance, it is easier to benefit from mentoring or peer influence, but with less risk of being overwhelmed or discouraged.
Sara Zafar Jafarzadeh
Postdoctoral Fellow, IQC
Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo
1. What is your educational background and how did you get your start in mathematics? What is your experience as a woman in this field?
Protecting the privacy and safety of our digital communication became a priority for me during my master’s studies in machine learning and AI. That's when I decided to pursue cryptography. I have earned a PhD in computer science from Université de Montréal, during which I worked on quantum cryptography with Dr. Gilles Brassard and Dr. Louis Salvail.
I am delighted by how we, as academics, are encouraging girls and young women to enjoy mathematics and consider pursuing math as a career. I think we should continue to do that in academia and in our everyday lives.
2. What is your current role and research area at IQC? Are there any accomplishments that you would like to highlight?
I am a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Michele Mosca. My main research area is quantum safe cryptography.
I am passionate about the applications of mathematics to cryptography and quantum computing, and I love teaching! I enjoy disseminating my knowledge to general audiences and have participated in many of IQC’s outreach activities. At the 2022 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Summer School for graduate students and young postdoctoral fellows, I gave a lecture on information theoretic security.
Additionally, I co-instructed the introduction to quantum information processing, an undergraduate level course offered at the University of Waterloo to students in mathematics, computer science, and computer engineering programs. I have also been invited to give talks and presentations to leading cryptography conferences
3. What is it that you like about mathematics the most and what advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a future in this field?
Mathematics is the universal language used to describe everything – from the core laws of physics to how we manage our financial assets. I love its plethora of applications and how mathematics plays a crucial role in modern cryptography.
My advice to the future generation is “don't overthink it.” You don't need to be top of your class to pursue a career/education in STEM. Mathematics is gender neutral. Women can pursue a career in mathematics with different levels of mathematical understanding and are no way different from male mathematicians.
Kelly Wurtz
PhD Student, IQC
Applied Math, University of Waterloo
1. What is your educational background and how did you get your start in mathematics? What is your experience as a woman in this field?
I went to my undergraduate university to study film. While there, I started taking physics classes out of interest, and liked them so much I ended up getting a second major in physics. By the end, I was so in love with physics that I put film behind me and started figuring out what I had to do to get a PhD. I was most drawn to the mathematical, fundamental aspects of physics, and that’s what drew me to theoretical physics and landed me in the Department of Applied Mathematics PhD program at the University of Waterloo. As for my experience as a woman in this field, while I find women are very much underrepresented in my research areas, I have always felt I am treated as an equal by my peers here.
2. What is your current role and research area at IQC? Are there any accomplishments that you would like to highlight?
I’m currently a second-year PhD student doing research in relativistic quantum information. My first PhD paper was accepted for publication a few weeks ago! It looks at the entanglement structure of the vacuum state of a quantum field.
3. What is it that you like about mathematics the most and what advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a future in this field?
In physics, mathematics provides a unique lens into the universe. Many scientific discoveries were predicted purely based on mathematics decades before we gained direct physical evidence for them. While theories must still be confirmed by experiment, it’s amazing that math alone enables us to push the frontiers of knowledge about the world we live in.
To women interested in pursuing a future in this field, I would say to expect self-doubt, expect doubt from others, and to expect these things to often be more challenging than the mathematics itself. But know that anyone who has passion and puts in the time and focus has the potential to contribute something to the field of mathematics.
Jennifer Zhu
PhD Student, IQC
Pure Math, University of Waterloo
1. What is your educational background and how did you get your start in mathematics? What is your experience as a woman in this field?
I received my bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2018. To be frank – I did not like math enough to consider it as a vocation until I took my first real analysis course. This was the first class in which I felt the problems were puzzles on which I could dwell all day, rather than computations made to achieve an end. I chased that feeling into graduate school, first starting my PhD at Texas A&M University in 2019, then transferring to the University of Waterloo in 2021 with my advisor.
I have met the most compassionate and steadfast people through mathematics, but I still hear sexist remarks and see how old traditions do not work for — or outright harm — those who do not conform to normative gender roles. I am grateful for all the people before me who have done work combatting these issues.
2. What is your current role and research area at IQC? Are there any accomplishments that you would like to highlight?
My connection to the IQC is through their interdisciplinary graduate program. My home department is the Department of Pure Mathematics, and my interests are in the intersection of operator algebras and quantum information theory.
The Operator Algebras Mentor Network is an organization that is devoted to advocating for and supporting operator algebraists who have faced or may face negative bias due to gender identity or expression — this includes women, non-binary people, and transgender people. I have been a member of its Board of Directors for the past year, and it has become an organization dear to my heart.
3. What is it that you like most about mathematics and what advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a future in this field?
There is great joy in the mutual understanding mathematicians reach after long discussions. This, to me, is fundamentally what mathematics is — understanding and being understood. (William P. Thurston explains this much more eloquently than I can in his essay “On Proof and Progress in Mathematics.”) I regret having worked in solitude as much I did in undergrad. Despite the unchecked egos that run rampant in mathematical social circles, I think it is worth putting forth some effort in finding people with whom you can do mathematics together.