| Federico Ardila | |
| Birth Date: | 1977 |
| Birth Place: | Bogotá, Colombia |
| Nationality: | Colombian |
| Fields: | Algebraic combinatorics |
| Education: | B.Sc. 1998, Ph.D. 2003 |
| Alma Mater: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis Title: | Enumerative and Algebraic Aspects of Matroids and Hyperplane Arrangements |
| Thesis Url: | http://math.sfsu.edu/federico/Articles/TESIS.pdf |
| Thesis Year: | 2003 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Richard P. Stanley |
| Spouse: | May-Li Khoe |
| Partners: | )--> |
Federico Ardila (born 1977) is a Colombian mathematician and DJ who researches combinatorics and specializes in matroid theory. Ardila graduated from MIT with a B.Sc. in mathematics in 1998 and obtained a Ph.D. in 2003 under the supervision of Richard P. Stanley in the same institution.[1] Ardila is currently a professor at the San Francisco State University and additionally holds an adjunct position at the University of Los Andes in Colombia.[2]
Ardila was born in Bogotá, Colombia. During his childhood Ardila showed great promise in mathematics, scoring the highest amongst his age group in the fourth grade.[3] While attending the college-prep Colegio San Carlos in Bogotá, Ardila represented Colombia in the International Math Olympiad, winning a bronze medal in 1993 and a silver medal in 1994.[4]
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.[3]
In addition to mathematics, Ardila enjoys making music and is a co-founder of the Oakland DJ collective La Pelanga.[5] [3]
Under his NSF CAREER grant, Ardila has worked to create a larger and more diverse community of members of underrepresented groups within mathematics.[6] Ardila follows certain principles geared towards cultivating diversity within his field of study, which he calls Axioms:
As part of his SFSU-Colombia combinatorics initiative, Ardila has provided over 200 hours of lecture videos on YouTube with additional resources for free.[8] [9] He is also well known for his appearances in the popular mathematics YouTube video series Numberphile.[10]
Ardila has received many awards, among which are: