{{short description|American mathematician}} '''Rekha Rachel Thomas''' is a mathematician and [[operations research]]er. She works as a professor of mathematics at the [[University of Washington]], and was the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Professor there from 2008 until 2012. Her research interests include [[mathematical optimization]] and [[computer algebra|computational algebra]].<ref name="uw">{{cite web|url=http://www.math.washington.edu/~thomas/|title= Rekha R. Thomas| publisher=University of Washington|access-date=2014-12-31}}</ref>
Thomas earned a PhD in [[operations research]] from [[Cornell University]] in 1994, supervised by [[Bernd Sturmfels]]; her dissertation concerned [[Gröbner basis|Gröbner bases]] and [[integer programming]].<ref name="uw"/><ref>{{mathgenealogy|name=Rekha Rachel Thomas|id=44147}}</ref> Prior to joining the University of Washington in 2000, she did postdoctoral studies at [[Yale University]] and the [[Zuse Institute Berlin]], and held a faculty position at [[Texas A&M University]] beginning in 1995.<ref name="uw"/><ref name="ismp"/>
Thomas is the author of the textbook ''[[Lectures in Geometric Combinatorics]]'' (Student Mathematical Library, 33, [[American Mathematical Society]], 2006).<ref>Reviews of ''Lectures in Geometric Combinatorics'': Alexander Zvonkin (2007), {{MR|2237292}}; [http://www.maa.org/publications/maa-reviews/lectures-in-geometric-combinatorics Review], [[Miklós Bóna]] (April 26, 2007), MAA Reviews; [http://www.euro-math-soc.eu/review/lectures-geometric-combinatorics Review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101021929/http://www.euro-math-soc.eu/review/lectures-geometric-combinatorics |date=2015-01-01 }}, (June 1, 2011), [[European Mathematical Society]].</ref> She was a plenary speaker at the 21st International Symposium on Mathematical Programming in 2012.<ref name="ismp">[http://ismp2012.mathopt.org/en/program-plenary-rekha-thomas Speaker biography], ISMP 2012, retrieved 2014-12-31.</ref>
In 2013 she became one of the inaugural [[fellow]]s of the [[American Mathematical Society]].<ref>[http://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society], retrieved 2014-12-31.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{google scholar id|BuJtT18AAAAJ}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Rekha R.}} [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]] [[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]] [[Category:Cornell University alumni]] [[Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty]] [[Category:University of Washington faculty]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society]] [[Category:20th-century American women mathematicians]] [[Category:21st-century American women mathematicians]] [[Category:Combinatorialists]] [[Category:American operations researchers]] [[Category:American academics of Indian descent]]