Jing An & Georgiana Chatzigeorgiou interviewed for International Day for Women in Mathematics

MPI MiS: How did you get into math? What do you find particularly fascinating about this science? Why did you choose this particular field of research?

Jing: Although I was exposed to math competitions at a very young age, my genuine interest in working in math was established during my college years. The wonderful environment provided, including a world-class faculty and talented classmates, is inspiring and exciting. It makes me feel that math is the most valuable subject to study in my life. Math problems contain both pain and pleasure. One has to suffer from long stretches of pain when seeking a solution, but when the eureka moment comes, it also rewards you with incomparably great pleasure. I chose partial differential equations (PDEs) as my field of research because of a graduate PDE course I took in my senior year. Through the professor's fascinating instructions, that course instigated my curiosity to analyze the properties of PDEs to better understand their background sciences. Analyzing math with applications and using results to contribute to the real world is always the type of work I am most excited about and pursuing tirelessly.
Georgiana: I remember myself being excited with the math classes from a very young age, so when I had to decide what I would like to do in my life, I had no doubt that I wanted to study math. Solving a mathematical problem requires a delicate combination of a deep understanding of the existing mathematical theory with critical and analytical thinking. This is exactly what attracted my interest in becoming a researcher in math. The area which I found particularly attractive, as a student, was that of Mathematical Analysis. Therefore, as a researcher, I decided to focus on the (sub)area of Analysis of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). The development of the rigorous mathematical analysis for problems governed by PDEs is crucial not only for completion of the mathematical theory, but also because PDEs are one of the most important links between maths and other sciences (physics, biology, finance, etc.).

MPI MiS: Did you ever doubt your abilities as a scientist? Why? How did you handle these situations/feelings?

Jing: It happened before. When I got stuck in a math problem for a long time, I would start to doubt myself, and it got worse, especially when my peers were making progress at the same time. Such anxieties and frustration are normal. Any career path has ups and downs. The most important thing is how to handle these situations wisely and not burn yourself out. My strategy is to put the long-standing problem aside for a moment, either to go out to nature for a short break or to work on a different problem. When your brain gets refreshed, you might find a different perspective to tackle the old problem you are bogged down with.
Georgiana: Being a researcher means that you have to deal with open problems and provide answers to questions that have never been answered before. It is quite apparent that things could not go as planned, and unexpected difficulties could often arise in the study of a new project. For that reason, failure is sometimes unavoidable, and that could make you doubt your skills and think pessimistically. Whenever that happens, I try to remind myself that, as a scientist, facing these difficulties is reasonable, and this is exactly what makes the job of a researcher particularly challenging and beautiful at the same time.