Miranda Chih-Ning Cheng (Chinese: 程之寧; born 6 June 1979, Taipei)[1] is a Taiwanese mathematician and theoretical physicist who works as an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam.
[2] She is known for formulating the umbral moonshine conjectures[3][4] and for her work on the connections between K3 surfaces and string theory.
The competitiveness and stress that came from school caused her to drop out and leave her parents' home to work at a record store and play in a punk rock band at the age of 16.
[3] After graduating from the Department of Physics at National Taiwan University in 2001,[6][7] she moved to the Netherlands to continue her studies, and earned a master's degree in theoretical physics in 2003 from Utrecht University, under the supervision of Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft.
[2] She completed her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Amsterdam under the joint supervision of Erik Verlinde and Kostas Skenderis.