mathematics

Kaisa Matomäki

Kaisa Matomäki is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kaisa Matomäki rather than just read about it. In short: Kaisa Sofia Matomäki (born April 30, 1985) is a Finnish mathematician specializing in number theory. Since April 2023, she is a full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Key takeaways

Kaisa Matomäki belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kaisa Matomäki to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kaisa Matomäki from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kaisa Sofia Matomäki (born April 30, 1985) is a Finnish mathematician specializing in number theory. Since April 2023, she is a full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. Her research includes results on the distribution of multiplicative functions over short intervals of numbers; for instance, she showed that the values of the Möbius function are evenly divided between +1 and −1 over short intervals. These results, in turn, were among the central tools used by Terence Tao to prove the Erdős discrepancy problem.

Awards and honors Kaisa Matomäki, along with Maksym Radziwill of McGill University, Canada, was awarded the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for 2016. The Prize was established in 2005 and is awarded annually for outstanding contributions by young mathematicians to areas influenced by Srinivasa Ramanujan. The citation for the 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize is as follows: "Kaisa Matomäki and Maksym Radziwill are jointly awarded the 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for their deep and far reaching contributions to several important problems in diverse areas of number theory and especially for their spectacular collaboration which is revolutionizing the subject. The prize recognizes that in making significant improvements over the works of earlier stalwarts on long standing problems, they have introduced a number of innovative techniques. The prize especially recognizes their collaboration starting with their 2015 joint paper in Geometric and Functional Analysis which led to their 2016 paper in the Annals of Mathematics in which they obtain amazing results on multiplicative functions in short intervals, and in particular a stunning result on the parity of the Liouville lambda function on almost all short intervals - a paper that is expected to change the subject of multiplicative functions in a major way. The prize notes also the very recent joint paper of Matomäki, Radziwill and Tao announcing a significant advance in the case k = 3 towards a conjecture of Chowla on the values of the lambda function on sets of k consecutive integers. Finally the prize notes, that Matomäki and Radziwill, through their impressive array of deep results and the powerful new techniques they have introduced, will strongly influence the development of analytic number theory in the future." With Radziwill, she is one of five winners of the 2019 New Horizons Prize for Early-Career Achievement in Mathematics, associated with the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics. She is one of the 2020 winners of the EMS Prize. She was awarded the 2021 Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize by the American Mathematical Society "for her work (much of it joint with Maksym Radziwiłł) opening up the field of multiplicative functions in short intervals in a completely unexpected and very fruitful way, and in particular in their breakthrough paper, 'Multiplicative Functions in Short Intervals' (Annals of Mathematics 183 2016, 1015–1056)." For 2023 she received the Cole Prize in Number Theory of the AMS. She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2021.

Education and career Kaisa Matomäki was born in Nakkila, Finland, on April 30 1985. She attended high school in Valkeakoski, Finland and won the First Prize in the national mathematics competition for Finnish high school students. She did her Masters at the University of Turku and received the Ernst Lindelof Award for the best Master's Thesis in mathematics in Finland in 2005. After completing her PhD at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London in 2009 under the direction of Professor Glyn Harman, she returned to Turku where she worked as an associate professor and as Academy Research Fellow. She was made a full professor in April 2023.

Personal life Kaisa Matomäki is married to Pekka Matomäki, who is also a mathematician specializing in applied mathematics. They have three children. Currently they live in Lieto, close to Turku.

References

External links Homepage of Kaisa Matomäki "Video on Kaisa Matomäki created by Academy of Finland". November 25, 2016 – via YouTube.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kaisa Matomäki

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kaisa Matomäki claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kaisa Matomäki before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kaisa Matomäki ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kaisa Matomäki

In research: Kaisa Matomäki appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kaisa Matomäki in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kaisa Matomäki is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1985 births, 21st-century mathematicians, Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kaisa Matomäki outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kaisa Matomäki in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kaisa Matomäki means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kaisa Matomäki out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kaisa Matomäki in simple terms?

Why does Kaisa Matomäki matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kaisa Matomäki?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kaisa Matomäki.