Karen E. Smith

Karen E. Smith is the Keeler Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan. Smith pioneered advances in tight closure theory, developing and applying deep connections between mod-p algebraic and L^2-analytic methods in complex geometry, for example by showing that F-rationality implies rational singularities, that the test ideal (non-F-regular locus) equals the multiplier ideal (non-log-canonical locus), and by obtaining, with Ein and Lazarsfeld, uniform comparison results for symbolic and ordinary powers using asymptotic multiplier ideals. She has repeatedly found innovative ways to apply these methods to central problems in algebraic geometry.