Joan Birman

Joan Sylvia Lyttle, born in 1927 in New York City, is an American mathematician and university teacher. She works in topology, braid theory, knot theory, and mathematics. She has been employed by Barnard College, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. She is a member of the American Mathematical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Moscow Mathematical Society, and European Mathematical Society.

Birman received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, the Chauvenet Prize, and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was educated at Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, Columbia University, Barnard College, and New York University. Her doctoral advisor was Wilhelm Magnus. Her doctoral students include Efstratia Kalfagianni and Józef Przytycki. She has an Erdős number of 3 and speaks English. Her sibling is Ruth Lyttle Satter.