We are delighted to announce that the keynote speaker for the 2022 Advantage Testing Foundation/Jane Street Math Prize for Girls is Professor J. Elisenda Grigsby

September 15, 2022

We are delighted to announce that the keynote speaker for the 2022 Advantage Testing Foundation/Jane Street Math Prize for Girls is Professor J. Elisenda Grigsby!

Professor Grigsby is currently a faculty member of the Math department at Boston College’s Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. She received her A.B. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the Boston College faculty in 2009, she taught at Columbia University as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Professor Grigsby’s primary research interests are the mathematical foundations of machine learning algorithms, particularly those involving neural networks. Her recent courses include “Mathematics and Machine Learning” and “Graduate Differential Geometry.” She is also on the board of directors of Girls' Angle, a Cambridge math club for girls that was founded by her undergraduate thesis advisor and mentor, Ken Fan.

Another wonderful speaker joining us this year is Professor Asu Ozdaglar. Professor Ozdaglar, the head of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department, will serve as a representative of MIT. She first joined the faculty in 2003 as an Assistant Professor before continuing as an Associate Professor, a tenured Professor, and her current position as head of EECS. She earned her B.S. from Middle East Technical University in Turkey and her Ph.D. from MIT. Professor Ozdaglar’s research focuses on technical and societal aspects of large-scale data-driven systems. Her expertise includes optimization, machine learning, economics, and networks. In addition to her academic role, Professor Ozdaglar serves as Deputy Dean of Academics for the Schwarzman College of Computing.

This year’s program is expected to take place in person on Sunday, October 9, 2022, at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.