Music or maths?
Interestingly, during the mathematics professor’s early life, she looked destined for a life under the bright lights entertaining the world with her musical talent rather than teaching a new generation of mathematicians. It was falling in love with the flute as a young girl during a school session where students could try different instruments which put her on that trajectory.
“I was normally shy, but music was never something I was shy about. I would play in front of people and just enjoy it. I felt like it was an easy way for me to communicate and I loved it so much that I started studying it a lot,” she explains.
The youngster poured herself into the flute to the point that at just 13 she was accepted into the Conservatory of Music of Perugia in her native Italy. Given her advanced skill level she was admitted in the third year, enabling her to graduate from conservatory and high school in the same year at the age of 18.
While doors were opening into the world of music, Maria Montanucci’s natural ability to grasp the logic behind mathematical concepts at her scientific high school made her keen to dive deeper into the subject. So, she decided to follow her innate curiosity and enroll at university to study mathematics rather than follow the seemingly obvious path.
“I don’t think my brain is designed for anything in particular. I just know that it is designed for curiosity somehow,” she says with a smile.
At the cutting edge
Having co-authored around 50 scientific articles with titles such as “MRD-codes arising from the trinomial xq + xq3 + cxq5 ∈ Fq6 [x]” it is evident that the professor’s field of research (see fact box) is no walk in the park. It is advanced level mathematics that pushes the boundaries of what has been and can be explained through logical thinking and mathematical concepts.
When Maria Montanucci approaches mathematical questions, she draws on a skill she honed while studying music, namely finding patterns and seeing the logic embedded in them.
“Music is full of patterns. If you read a piece written by Bach for example, then there are a lot of patterns—and that way of finding patterns which you must have if you want to play a piece by Bach and interpret it correctly, influenced me in how I approach my research,” she explains.
Early on, Maria Montanucci’s aptitude for her newly chosen field became abundantly clear: In 2015, while writing her master’s thesis, she managed to solve a conjecture, which had been open since 2011. An open conjecture is a mathematical statement that is believed to be true but which no one has yet rigorously proven.
A few years later, while on external stay at DTU during her PhD studies, she and Professor Peter Beelen—who heads the research group that she would eventually join as a faculty member—found a family of algebraic curves. It has been named after the duo, who published two papers on their work. An algebraic curve is essentially a shape drawn using an equation.
The pair have mutually inspired each other. In fact, when Maria Montanucci was exploring options for her external stay, she came across the “amazing work” of Peter Beelen and his group and discovered that he had cited the paper which she had written based on her master’s thesis:
“I simply could not stop reading their amazing work. So, I immediately understood that I could learn a lot at DTU with Peter and the algebra group.”
She beams a smile when recounting how much she enjoyed her fruitful stay at DTU:
“I said to Peter: “I really want to come back to Denmark at some stage if I can”. Then I came back in 2019 and never left – and I don't want to leave, if I can.”
A new home
Maria Montanucci started working at DTU pretty much exactly a year before the COVID-pandemic turned our worlds upside down. Trying to settle into her adopted homeland was extra challenging with social distancing and working from home, she admits:
“Finding housing was very difficult, because nobody was renting out and of course you couldn’t make friends. It was not an easy start, I would say. But I was very lucky because of my colleagues. We talked every day and organized daily digital coffee meetings in our section, so I never really felt alone. I felt very included and loved.”
Despite the rough start, the 34-year-old has come to love Denmark, which has a much more free and frank exchange of views and informal tone between students and faculty than she is used to from Italy.
“Denmark is an amazing country, and the Danish culture is perfect for the growth of a young person. It's an academic dream somehow. When I discovered teaching, I loved it even more. When I realized that students just call you by your first name and are not afraid of giving you feedback, I really felt this is the perfect place for me.”
