User:Cjardon-UIC/federico ardila



= Federico Ardila = Federico Ardila (1979) is a Colombian mathematician whose research is in combinatorics with a specialization in matroid theory. Ardila graduate from MIT and obtained a B.Sc. in Mathematics (1998) and his Ph.D in 2003, under the supervision of Richard P. Stanley. Ardila is currently a professor at the San Francisco State University, also holds an adjunct position at the University of Los Andes in Colombia.

Early life and education
Ardila was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. During his childhood Ardila showed great promise in mathematics, scoring the highest amongst his age group in the fourth grade. While attending the college-prep Colegio San Carlos de Bogotá, Ardila had the privilege to represent Colombia in the international math Olympics where he won a silver (1994) and bronze (1993) medal.

Prior to attending MIT, Ardila was already enrolled in another local university. Ardila had never heard of MIT, but a classmate told him that they offered financial aid to everyone, so he applied without knowing how competitive the school was.

Career
Under his NSF CAREER grant, Ardila has been committed to create a larger and more diverse community of members of underrepresented groups in mathematics. Federico follows certain principles, for cultivating diversity within his field of study, which he calls Axioms :


 * Axiom 1. Mathematical potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
 * Axiom 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
 * Axiom 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
 * Axiom 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Federico has provides over 200 hours of lecture videos on YouTube with additional resources for free. He is also well known for his appearances in the popular mathematics YouTube video series numperphile.

Awards
Ardila has received awards, among which are :


 * Mathematical Sciences Research Institute postdoctoral fellow 2003 to 2005
 * Clay Mathematics Institute scholar 2004 to 2006
 * National Science Foundation CAREER Award