Zvezdelina Stankova

Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova
2012
Born	Ruse, Bulgaria
Residence	Berkeley, California
Nationality	Bulgarian
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Mills College University of California, Berkeley
Alma mater	Bryn Mawr College Harvard University
Doctoral advisor	Joe Harris
Known for	Studying permutations with forbidden subsequences Establishing math circles
Notable awards	Alice T. Schafer Prize (1992) Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award (2011)
Website www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/math/stankova/stankova.php

Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova (Bulgarian: Звезделина Енчева Станкова) is a professor of mathematics at Mills College in Oakland, California, the founder of the Berkeley Math Circle, and an expert in the combinatorial enumeration of permutations with forbidden patterns.

Stankova was born in Ruse, Bulgaria. She began attending the Ruse math circle as a fifth grader in Bulgaria, the same year she learned to solve the Rubik's Cube and began winning regional mathematics competitions. She later wrote of this experience that "if I was not a member of Ruse SMC I would not be able to make such profound achievements in mathematics". 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. 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.

Stankova studied at Bryn Mawr College, completing bachelor's and master's degrees there in 1992, with Rhonda Hughes as a faculty mentor. 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. 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.

...
Wikipedia