BSSC congratulates one of our most eminent alumni, and former Bendigo High School Dux, Professor Ruth Williams, who has received a prestigious international Maths Prize.
Professor Williams, was honored with the 2016 John von Neumann Theory Prize, given annually for “fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences.”
Her fundamental research has found applications in assembly lines, customer service centres and freeways at rush hour.
The award was recently conferred at the annual meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, an international society for researchers in that discipline. Her prize is regarded as the Nobel Prize in this branch of mathematics.
Ruth explained that while computers have become a powerful tool for mathematicians, she uses them to do simulation experiments from her theoretical models to test out conjectures or to explore extensions of theory.
“Part of the battle in mathematics is figuring out what might be true,” she said.
Read more at http://www.bssc.edu.au/news/ruth-williams-dux-bendigo-high-1972/
