• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Indiana University IU

Open Search
  • About
    • History
    • Stories
  • Awards
    • University
      • Honorary Degrees
      • University Medal
      • Bicentennial Medal
    • Presidential
      • President’s Medal for Excellence
      • Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion
      • Distinguished Service Medal
    • Research & Creative Activity
      • Nobel Prize
      • National Academies
      • International Academies
      • MacArthur Fellowship
      • Pulitzer Prize
      • Guggenheim Fellowship
      • Fulbright Award
      • Andrew Carnegie Fellowship
      • Distinguished Professors
      • Titled Professors
      • Wylie Innovation Catalyst Medal
      • The Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers
    • Artistic & Performance
      • Emmy
      • Grammy
      • Oscar
      • Tony
    • Teaching
      • Frederic Bachman Lieber Memorial Award
      • Herman Frederic Lieber Memorial Award
      • President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching
      • Sylvia E. Bowman Award
      • Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award
      • President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Technology
      • Part-Time Teaching Award
      • Lieber Memorial Associate Instructor Award
    • Service
      • Chancellor and Provost Medallion
      • Distinguished International Service Award
      • John W. Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies
      • E. Ross Bartley Award
      • W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service
    • Historical
      • Bridging the Visibility Gap Initiative
      • IU Historical Marker Program
    • Student
      • Rhodes Scholarship
      • Marshall Scholarship
      • Mitchell Scholarship
      • Churchill Scholarship
      • Gates Cambridge Scholarship
      • Fulbright Award
      • Goldwater Scholarship
      • Truman Scholarship
      • Boren Scholarship and Fellowship
      • Beinecke Scholarship
      • Udall Scholarship
      • Wells Senior Recognition Award
      • Stahr Distinguished Senior Award
      • Kate Hevner Mueller Outstanding Senior Award
    • Athletic
      • Olympians
      • IU Bloomington Athletics Hall of Fame
      • IUPUI Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame
      • Z.G. Clevenger Award
      • Leanne Grotke Award
      • Bill Orwig Award
    • Alumni
      • University Alumni Awards
      • Campus Alumni Awards
      • School Alumni Awards
    • Philanthropy
      • Partners in Philanthropy Award
      • Presidents Circle Laurel Pin
      • IUPUI Spirit of Philanthropy Award
      • IU Foundation President’s Medallion
  • Nominations
  • Events
    • National Academies Events
    • Guggenheim Fellowship Events
  • Search Awards
  • Contact Us

University Honors & Awards

  • Home
  • About
    • History
    • Stories
  • Awards
    • University
    • Presidential
    • Research & Creative Activity
    • Artistic & Performance
    • Teaching
    • Service
    • Historical
    • Student
    • Athletic
    • Alumni
    • Philanthropy
  • Nominations
  • Events
    • National Academies Events
    • Guggenheim Fellowship Events
  • Search
  • Search Awards
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Awards

Antonia Wilson Bluher

Antonia Wilson Bluher

Awards

Churchill Scholar (1983)

About Antonia Wilson Bluher

Antonia Bluher is a Cryptologic Mathematician at the National Security Agency. There, she has the chance to apply techniques in algebra, probability, and number theory to intriguing problems in cryptography, or writing and deciphering code.

Bluher's attraction to mathematics stretches back to childhood, when, together with her brother, she figured out how to do calculations with an old slide rule and discovered how fractional exponents worked by playing with a scientific calculator. Her desire to pursue an intellectual career was shaped by an awareness of a family history that included many women and men of ingenuity, including her paternal grandmother who was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford, in 1923, and her maternal grandmother, who was the director of a new school in Egypt before her marriage, and who started helping her husband print his own newspaper in Greece. Her father is a retired Professor of Classics at the University of Alberta, and her mother is a self-employed clinical psychologist.

In addition to her family, another important mentor for Bluher was Professor Maynard Thompson, with whom she studied in an NSF-funded research program when she was eighteen years old. Thompson provided Bluher with a compelling problem in dynamical systems, which she was able to solve even though her background was limited to calculus. She recalls having the experience "of observing mysterious phenomena, struggling to understand the underlying cause, and finally viewing it in just the right way so that it all looks clear and obvious. That moment, when all is explained and the mysterious pieces fit together like crystals, is like a religious experience."

Bluher has degrees from Indiana, Cambridge, and Princeton University, where she received her doctoral degree in mathematics in 1988. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Alfred Sloan Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (1987-1988) and an NSF Postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University (1992-1994). When she embarked on her career as a mathematician, Bluher assumed that she would become a research professor in a major state school, not realizing how hard it would be to publish extensively while raising a family. (Her three children are the "joys of her life" and her ideal day concludes with a walk with her husband.) She considers herself fortunate for getting a job with the government, "thereby solving the tenure problem."

Bluher has found her research niche, but she keeps a flexible mind in approaching mathematics. Likewise, she encourages young people interested in the field to resist the tremendous pressure to become over-specialized, thereby closing their minds to creative solutions. Bluher counsels: "keep your curiosity alive, be playful in your approach to math, look for opportunities to collaborate, and keep your ears open to new problems."

  • University
  • Presidential
  • Research & Creative Activity
  • Artistic & Performance
  • Teaching
  • Service
  • Historical
  • Student
  • Athletic
  • Alumni
  • Philanthropy

University Honors & Awards resources

  • Office of the President

Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice | Copyright © 2023 The Trustees of Indiana University