Maria Ivan

Bio

I have been doing mathematics since I was a child, competing in olympiads since I was 10, all the way until university. Whilst getting medals is exciting, the true underlying reason I was doing them was some sort of inexplicable curiosity and the addicting feeling of the Aha! moment. I am originally from a small village in Romania, but that never stopped me from dreaming big. At 14 I earned a scholarship and moved to the capital, Bucharest, in order to attend The International Computer High School of Bucharest (ICHB). I then later completed my BA, my Masters and my PhD in Mathematics at University of Cambridge, St John’s College. After that I became a Research Fellow at Magdalene College and part of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics in Cambridge.

My research lies in the area of Combinatorics. Whilst I am interested in lots of aspects of combinatorics, I would like to particularly highlight extremal combinatorics, Ramsey theory and poset saturation. I am always open for discussions about even the smallest seed of idea - to me mathematics is not a job, it is my lifestyle. For example, if a certain problem interests me and ideas are popping into my brain, or naturally flowing in a conversation, I will not stop until I either get stuck, or get the Aha! moment. It is true that sometimes mathematics can come in a scary looking package, but at its core lie gorgeous ideas. As such, I am passionate about teaching too, with the aim of demystifying mathematics and enabling the next generation to see the beauty that I see.

Academic Appointments

• Szego Asst Professor, Mathematics

Honors & Awards

• British Combinatorial Committee PhD Prize (Highly Commended), British Combinatorial Committee (BCC) (July 2024)

Professional Education

• PhD, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Mathematics (Combinatorics) (2023)
• MMath, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Mathematics (2019)
• BSc, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Mathematics (2018)