Forbes Portugal Names Fonseca to Most Powerful Women in Business List

Irene Fonseca, Kavčić-Moura University Professor of Mathematics and director of the Center for Nonlinear Analysis, is one of two Carnegie Mellon University professors to be recognized in Forbes Portugal's 2024 list of the Most Powerful Women in Business, in the Education and Science category.

Fonseca, who joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1987, is a leading researcher in the field of applied mathematics. Her work lies at the interface of applied analysis with materials and imaging sciences.

She has significantly contributed to the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, serving as the coordinator of the dual degree doctoral program in Applied Mathematics and advising several doctoral students and postdocs. She also served as principal investigator at Carnegie Mellon under the math project Thin Structures, Homogenization and Multi Phase Problems.

Earlier in 2024, Fonseca was appointed vice-president of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2025-2027 and is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the European Academy of Sciences. For her teaching and research contributions to CMU, she received the Mellon College of Science endowed chair in 2003 and was named a University Professor in 2014. 

Fonseca was bestowed a knighthood in the Military Order of St. James (Grande Oficial da Ordem Militar de Santiago da Espada) by the then President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio, in 1997 in recognition of her contributions to the advancement of research in her area of expertise.

In addition to Fonseca, Manuela Veloso, head of J.P. Morgan Chase AI Research and Herbert A. Simon University Professor Emerita, was named to the list.