Jane Ye awarded the 2015 CMS Krieger-Nelson prize for research excellence

University of Victoria professor Jane J. Ye is the recipient of the 2015 Krieger-Nelson Prize for her outstanding research contributions. Jane’s research includes optimization, optimal control theory and variational analysis, and its application in economics, engineering, management science, operations research and statistics. She has published over 70 articles and her work has been cited in almost 700 articles. 

“Jane has positively influenced the mathematics community with her research contributions,” said CMS president Lia Bronsard. “The CMS is proud to honour Jane’s accomplishments and recognize an exceptional female mathematician in Canada.”

"Jane has had significant contributions to research in her chosen area for many years and the cumulative effect is impressive and has had a definite influence in shaping the field," said Pauline van den Driessche and Marcelo Laca, in their nomination letter for Ye. 

Jane is also an exceptional teacher, committed to helping her students succeed, with the ability to match problems to her students' interests and abilities. She serves as a role model and mentor for her younger colleagues and encourages them to become contributing members of the mathematics research community.

Born and educated in China, Jane graduated with a B.Sc. in pure mathematics from Xiamen University in 1982. After arriving in Canada, she earned an MBA degree in from Dalhousie University in 1986. Jane held a Killam postgraduate scholarship from Dalhousie University from 1987 to 1990, while completing a PhD in applied mathematics. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Centre de Recherches Mathematiques in Montreal, before joining the University of Victoria in 1992, as NSERC Women's Faculty Award holder.

As an applied mathematician, Jane develops powerful theoretical tools and designs algorithms to attack some complicated optimization questions. Jane has been a full professor in the department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria since 2002.