Karine Chemla

Karine Chemla (born 8 February 1957) is a French historian of mathematics and sinologist who works as a director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).^[1] She is also a senior fellow at the New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.^[2] She was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.

Chemla studied at Paris Diderot University and the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles, earning an agrégation in mathematics in 1978 and a diploma of advanced studies in 1979.^[3] At this time, her work was in pure mathematics. However, in 1980, influenced by the work of Ilya Prigogine, she won a Singer–Polignac scholarship to travel to China and study the history of Chinese mathematics.^[4] Returning to France, she earned her Ph.D. in the history of mathematics from Paris 13 University in 1982, and began working for CNRS at that time.^[3]

Chemla's research interests include Chinese mathematics, 19th century French geometry, and the theory of the history of mathematics.^[1]

With Guo Shuchun, Chemla published in 2004 a critical edition and translation into French of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.^[4][5][6][7] She is also the co-editor, with Cécile Michel, of Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds (Springer, 2020).^[8]

Chemla was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1998.^[9][10] She became a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2004,^[11] of the International Academy of the History of Science in 2005,^[3] and of the Academia Europaea in 2013.^[12] In 2013–2014 she was the holder of the Sarton Chair of History of Science at Ghent University.^[13] She served as president of the European Society for the History of Science 2014–2016.^[14] She is the 2020 winner of the Otto Neugebauer Prize^[15] and the 2021 winner of the LMS-BSHM Hirst Prize.