Joan Sylvia Lyttle Birman (born May 30, 1927, in New York City[1]) is an American mathematician, specializing in low-dimensional topology.
Her late husband, Joseph Birman, was a physicist and a leading advocate for human rights for scientists.
After working in industry from 1950 to 1960, she did a PhD in mathematics at the Courant Institute at New York University under the supervision of Wilhelm Magnus, graduating in 1968.
[8] During the later part of this period she published a monograph, 'Braids, links, and mapping class groups' based on a graduate course she taught as a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1971–72.
She was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences Human Rights of Scientists Committee.
[14] In 1997, Birman received an honorary doctorate from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
[15] In 2005, she won the New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.
[19] From 1978 to 1980, and again from 1990 to 1992, Birman was an American Mathematical Society (AMS) Council member at large.
[23] In 2015, the Association for Women in Mathematics began awarding the Joan & Joseph Birman Research Prize in Topology and Geometry.
[24] In 2020, they included her in that year's class of Fellows for "her groundbreaking research connecting diverse fields, and for her award-winning expository writing; for continuously supporting women in mathematics as an active mentor and a research role model; and for sponsoring multiple prize initiatives for women".