Karen Uhlenbeck
1995 Common Wealth Award for Science and Invention

A professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Texas, Austin, Karen Uhlenbeck helped solve one of science’s great mysteries—understanding the fundamental properties of matter in the universe. She holds the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Mathematics. Her road in science was one that few women dared to tread when she was a university student—mathematics as a profession. She chose it because she was discouraged from pursuing it and because she loved it. She wanted to show people that she could succeed in a male-dominated discipline. Determination helped her become one of the world’s leading mathematicians. Uhlenbeck received her B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1964, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1966 and 1968, respectively.