Zvezdelina Stankova

Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova
Stankova in 2012
Born (1969-09-15) 15 September 1969
Ruse, People's Republic of Bulgaria
EducationBryn Mawr College
Harvard University
Known forSkew-merged permutation
Studying permutations with forbidden subsequences
Establishing math circles
AwardsAlice T. Schafer Prize (1992)
Henry L. Alder Award (2004)
Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics (2011)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
WorkplacesMills College
University of California, Berkeley
Joe Harris
Websitehttps://math.berkeley.edu/~stankova/

Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova (Bulgarian: Звезделина Енчева Станкова; born 15 September 1969) is a Bulgarian and American mathematician who is a teaching professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, the founder of the Berkeley Math Circle, and an expert in the combinatorial enumeration of permutations with forbidden patterns.[1][2]

Early life

Stankova was born in Ruse, Bulgaria (then the People's Republic of Bulgaria).[3] She began attending the Ruse math circle as a fifth grader, the same year she learned to solve the Rubik's Cube[4] and began winning regional mathematics competitions.[1] She later wrote of this experience that "if I was not a member of Ruse SMC [Students Mathematical Circle] I would not be able to make such profound achievements in mathematics".[5] She became a student at an elite English-language high school, and competed on the Bulgarian team in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1987 and 1988, earning silver medals both times.[3][6] She entered Sofia University but in 1989, as the Iron Curtain was falling, became one of 15 Bulgarian students selected to travel to the US to complete their studies.[3]

Stankova studied at Bryn Mawr College, completing bachelor's and master's degrees there in 1992,[7] with Rhonda Hughes as a faculty mentor.[8] While an undergraduate, she participated in a summer research program with Joseph Gallian at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which began her interest in permutation patterns.[9] Next, she went to Harvard University for her doctoral studies and earned a Ph.D. there in 1997; her dissertation, entitled Moduli of Trigonal Curves, was supervised by Joe Harris.[10] She also earned a Massachusetts teaching credential in 1997 and California's equivalent credential in 1998.[11]

Career

Stankova joined the Mills College faculty in 1999, following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.[11][12] She remained on the Mills faculty until 2016, but began in 2002 also teaching one course per year at Berkeley as a visiting professor.[13][14][12] She joined Berkeley's mathematics department full-time in 2016, as a teaching professor.[12]

Parallel to her work in higher education, Stankova has taught middle and high school students. She founded the Berkeley Math Circle, an after-school math enrichment program, and co-founded the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad, both in 1998.[4][8][15][16][17] From 1998 to 2004, she coached the US International Mathematical Olympiad team.[8][18][19] In 2016, she founded Math Taught the Right Way, a Berkeley-based program that adapts Bulgarian middle- and high-school mathematics curricula for American students.[20] Since 2014, she has been president of the United Math Circles Foundation, the nonprofit umbrella organization of the Berkeley Math Circle.[21][22] She has also served on the advisory board of the Proof School in San Francisco.[1]

Since June 2026, Stankova has been a prominent advocate for reforms in undergraduate admissions. She co-authored an open letter, signed by thousands of UC faculty members, urging the university to reinstate an admissions testing policy it had rescinded in 2020.[23][24] She has represented the letter's stance in news media and before the UC Board of Regents.[25][26] She drew criticism in August 2026 following reports she had used generative AI to edit her public statements.[27][28] She subsequently discussed AI, including its utility and danger for higher education, during a live interview with Greta van Susteren.[29]

Contributions

In the theory of permutation patterns, Stankova is known for proving that the permutations with the forbidden pattern 1342 are equinumerous with the permutations with forbidden pattern 2413, an important step in the enumeration of permutations avoiding a pattern of length 4.[9][30]

The Berkeley Math Circle, which Stankova founded, was only the second math circle in the US (after one in Boston); following its success, over 100 other circles have been created,[4] and Stankova has assisted in the formation of many of them.[13]

Since 2013, Stankova has been featured in several videos on the mathematics-themed YouTube channel "Numberphile".[31]

Publications

With Tom Rike, she is co-editor of two books about her work with the Berkeley Math Circle, A Decade of the Berkeley Math Circle: The American Experience (Vol. I, 2008, Vol. II, 2014).[32]

Awards and honors

Stankova received the Alice T. Schafer Prize in 1992, while an undergraduate.[33] Awarded by the Association for Women in Mathematics, the prize recognized her research in combinatorics and her American Mathematical Society paper on forbidden sequences, work her advisor called "strikingly original."[9][13][33]

For her teaching, Stankova received the Mathematical Association of America's award for early-career teaching, the Henry L. Alder Award, in 2004.[34] Among that award's first two recipients, she was credited with "doubling the number of mathematics majors at Mills College."[19]

She then received, in 2011, the Mathematical Association of America's most competitive award for teaching: the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award.[8][13][18] The award recognized "her teaching ability, her enthusiasm for mathematics, and her capacity to dramatically change [students'] attitudes toward mathematics and their perceptions of their own mathematical abilities."[13]

Citing student reviews, Princeton Review included Stankova in its 2012 guide, "The Best 300 Professors."[35][36] Berkeley students selected Stankova, during her first full year teaching there, to receive the Mathematics Undergraduate Student Association's Distinguished Teaching & Service Award in 2017.[37]

From 2009 to 2012 she was the Frederick A. Rice Professor of Mathematics at Mills College.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Zvezdelina Stankova, Proof School, archived from the original on 2018-12-09, retrieved 2016-02-03
  2. ↑ "Zvezdelina Stankova | Department of Mathematics", math.berkeley.edu, retrieved 2026-08-20
  3. 1 2 3 Vigoda, Ralph (October 23, 1991), "Bulgarian Math Whiz Wows 'Em: Zvezdelina Stankova Already Is Joining The Ranks Of Top Mathematicians. "She's A Genius," Says Bryn Mawr's Head Of Math", The Philadelphia Inquirer, archived from the original on 2015-12-22.
  4. 1 2 3 Weld, Sarah (April 2014), "Proving Their Passion: The Berkeley Math Circle gives math kids a place to find solutions—together", The East Bay Monthly, archived from the original on 2019-02-09, retrieved 2016-02-02
  5. ↑ Ruse Students Mathematical Circle (PDF), Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  6. ↑ Participant record: Zvezdelina Stankova, International Mathematical Olympiad, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  7. ↑ "Zvezdelina Stankova", Mathematics Faculty and Staff, Mills College, retrieved 2016-02-01.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Bakke, Katherine (April 6, 2011), "Zvezdelina Stankova '92 Carries on a Bryn Mawr Tradition: Excellent Teaching in Mathematics", Meaningful Contributions, Bryn Mawr College.
  9. 1 2 3 Third Annual Alice T. Schafer Prize, Association for Women in Mathematics, July 1992, archived from the original on 2020-03-30, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  10. ↑ Zvezdelina Stankova at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  11. 1 2 3 Stankova, Zvezdelina, Curriculum vitae: Zvezdelina Stankova (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-02-02, retrieved 2016-02-01
  12. 1 2 3 Mathematics + Berkeley Fall 2016 (PDF), Fall 2016, archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-01-01
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 "Haimo Award Citation: Zvezdelina Stankova" (PDF), January 2011 Prizes and Awards, American Mathematical Society, p. 4, January 7, 2011, archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  14. ↑ Stankova's home page at Berkeley, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  15. ↑ Vandervelde, Sam (2009), Circle in a Box, MSRI mathematical circles library, vol. 2, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and American Mathematical Society, pp. 4, 34, ISBN 9780821847527.
  16. ↑ Bloom, Melanie (October 21, 2013), Moms Everyday: Making Math Fun, 10/11, archived from the original on 2016-05-20, retrieved 2016-02-02.
  17. ↑ Keith, Tamara (February 10, 1999), UC Berkeley mathematicians feed the minds of young local math whizzes, University of California, Berkeley.
  18. 1 2 Melendez, Lyanne (February 25, 2011), Mills College professor wins highest math award, ABC7 News.
  19. 1 2 "MathFest 2004: PRIZES and AWARDS" (PDF), August 13, 2004{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ↑ Stankova, Zvezdelina (September 25, 2018), "1145-M5-2925" (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-02
  21. ↑ Roberts, Andrea Suozzo, Alec Glassford, Ash Ngu, Brandon (May 9, 2013), "United Math Circles Foundation - Nonprofit Explorer", ProPublica, retrieved 2026-08-20{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "United Math Circles Foundation — Form 990 financials, salaries & grants (EIN 46-3636266) | philanthropy.org", 990 Scout, retrieved 2026-08-20
  23. ↑ Burke, Michael, "UC freshmen increasingly are not ready for college math. Some professors want to require the SAT again", EdSource, retrieved 2026-08-20
  24. ↑ Rony, Alexander (June 11, 2026), "UC Berkeley mathematicians reignite national conversation on college admissions and SAT/ACT scores", Letters & Science, retrieved 2026-08-20
  25. ↑ Peralta, Eyder (June 6, 2026), "UC Berkeley professor Zvezdelina Stankova explains push to reinstate standardized exams - VPM", retrieved 2026-08-20
  26. ↑ "Opinion: I teach calculus at Berkeley. Some of my students can't do middle school math", The San Francisco Standard, August 15, 2026, retrieved 2026-08-20
  27. ↑ Staff, Francis Luo | (August 18, 2026), "UC Berkeley professor admits to using AI in op-ed calling out students' lack of math proficiency", Daily Cal | Berkeley news, retrieved 2026-08-20
  28. ↑ Sullivan, Sophie (August 19, 2026), "UC Berkeley professor admits to using AI to edit op-ed on students' math skills", The Guardian, retrieved 2026-08-19
  29. ↑ Newsmax (August 21, 2026), Is America First Dead In Our Schools? | Greta Wire, retrieved 2026-08-21 – via YouTube
  30. ↑ Bona, Miklos (2012), Combinatorics of Permutations, Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications (2nd ed.), CRC Press, pp. 154–155, ISBN 9781439850527.
  31. ↑ "Zvezdelina Stankova on Numberphile", YouTube, retrieved 2026-08-21
  32. ↑ MSRI Mathematical Circles Library, National Association of Math Circles, archived from the original on 2017-06-06, retrieved 2016-02-01.
  33. 1 2 "FOCUS: The Newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America" (PDF), September 1992, archived from the original (PDF) on 2025-12-11
  34. ↑ "Henry L. Alder Award – Mathematical Association of America", retrieved 2026-08-21
  35. ↑ "Prof. John Majewski on Princeton Review's "Best 300 Professors" list. – Department of History, UC Santa Barbara", May 1, 2012, retrieved 2026-08-21
  36. ↑ "Mathematics + Berkeley: Fall 2012" (PDF), Fall 2012
  37. ↑ "Mathematics Undergraduate Student Association", math.berkeley.edu, retrieved 2026-08-21
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.