{{Short description|South African mathematician}} {{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=May 2024}} {{Use list-defined references|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Jennifer Key | image = Jennifer Key.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Jennifer Denise Hicks | birth_date = 1941 | birth_place = South Africa | fields = Mathematics | workplaces = Clemson University; Aberystwyth University; University of KwaZulu-Natal; University of the Western Cape | alma_mater = University of the Witwatersrand; University of London | thesis_title = ''Some Topics in Finite Permutation Groups'' | thesis_year = 1969 | doctoral_advisor = Ascher Wagner | known_for = Group theory; finite geometry; combinatorial designs; coding theory | notable_works = ''Designs and Their Codes'' (with Edward F. Assmus Jr., Cambridge University Press, 1992) }}

'''Jennifer Denise Key''' (née Hicks) is a retired South African mathematician whose research has concerned the interconnections between group theory, finite geometry, combinatorial designs, and coding theory.{{r|mt}} She is a professor emeritus at Clemson University in the US,{{r|clemson}} and an honorary professor at Aberystwyth University in the UK,{{r|aber}} and the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of the Western Cape in South Africa.{{r|mt}}

==Education and career== Key graduated with honours from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1963, and went to the University of London for graduate study in mathematics, earning a master's degree in 1967 and completing her Ph.D. in 1969.{{r|clemson}} Her dissertation, ''Some Topics in Finite Permutation Groups'', was supervised by Ascher Wagner.{{r|mg}}

She worked as an academic in England, at the University of Surrey, University of Reading, University of Manchester, and University of Birmingham, before moving to the US in 1990 to take a faculty position at Clemson University. She retired as professor emeritus in 2007.{{r|mt}}

Between 1997 and 2024 she was one of the three editors-in-chief of the journal ''Designs, Codes and Cryptography''.

==Book== Key is the author, with Edward F. Assmus Jr., of the book ''Designs and Their Codes'' (Cambridge University Press, 1992).{{r|d+c}}

==References== <references>

<ref name=aber>{{citation|url=https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/maths/staff-profiles/listing/profile/jek/|title=Prof Jennifer D. Key|work=Department of Mathematics Staff Profiles|publisher=Aberystwyth University|access-date=2024-05-20}}</ref>

<ref name=clemson>{{citation|url=https://www.clemson.edu/science/academics/departments/mathstat/about/profiles/keyj|title=Jennifer Key|work=Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Emeritus Faculty|publisher=Clemson University|access-date=2024-05-20}}</ref>

<ref name=d+c>Reviews of ''Designs and Their Codes'': *N. L. Biggs, ''Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society'', {{doi|10.1112/blms/25.6.613}} *Vera Pless, {{MR|1192126}} *V. D. Tonchev, {{zbl|0762.05001}} *M. A. Wertheimer, ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'', {{doi|10.1090/S0273-0979-1994-00485-9}} </ref>

<ref name=mg>{{mathgenealogy|44030}}</ref>

<ref name=mt>{{citation|url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/African_women_1/|title=African women with a doctorate in mathematics 1|work=MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive|access-date=2024-05-20}}</ref>

</references>

==External links== *[http://www.math.clemson.edu/~keyj/ Home page]

{{Authority control|state=collapsed}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Key, Jennifer}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:South African mathematicians Category:South African women scientists Category:South African women mathematicians Category:Coding theorists Category:Combinatorialists Category:Group theorists Category:University of Johannesburg alumni Category:Alumni of the University of London Category:Academics of the University of Surrey Category:Academics of the University of Reading Category:Academics of the University of Manchester Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham Category:Clemson University faculty