Federico Ardila

Federico Ardila (born 1979) is a Colombian mathematician 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. 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.

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 . While attending the college-prep Colegio San Carlos de Bogotá, Ardila had the privilege of representing Colombia in the International Math Olympics, winning a bronze medal in 1993 and a silver medal in 1994 .

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.

Under his NSF CAREER grant, Ardila has been committed to creating a larger and more diverse community of members of underrepresented groups within mathematics. Federico follows certain principles geared towards cultivating diversity within his field of study, which he calls Axioms:

• Axiom 1. Mathematical potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
• Axiom 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
• Axiom 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
• Axiom 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Federico has provided over 200 hours of lecture videos on YouTube with additional resources for free. He is also well known for his appearances in the popular mathematics YouTube video series Numberphile.

Ardila has received awards, among which are :

• Mathematical Sciences Research Institute postdoctoral fellow 2003 to 2005
• Clay Mathematics Institute scholar 2004 to 2006
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award