Krystyna Kuperberg is a researcher and educator best known for disproving the famous Seifert conjecture in topology. Her counterexample, first announced in the mid-1990s, was termed a "small miracle" of geometry by Ian Stewart. It was quickly generalized and should prove central to the continued development of dynamic systems theory, by way of the vector fields used to study physical and statistical phenomena.

Kuperberg was born Krystyna M. Trybulec in Tarnow, a city in southern Poland, on July 17, 1944. Her parents, Jan W. and Barbara H. (Kurlus) Trybulec, were both trained pharmacists. Her brother, Ardrzej, also became a mathematician. After receiving a master's degree from Warsaw University in 1966, Kuperberg had to wait until settling in the United States to earn her Ph.D. This was awarded by Rice University in 1974. Upon graduating she accepted her first post at Auburn University. Kuperberg remains a member of the faculty at...