Bryna Kra

Bryna Kra (born 1966) is an American mathematician specializing in ergodic theory and dynamical systems. She is currently the Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Mathematics at Northwestern University.

Kra's research focuses on understanding the long-term behavior of complex systems, particularly in the context of number theory and combinatorics. She is well-known for her work on multiple recurrence, a concept central to Szemerédi's theorem, which states that any sufficiently dense subset of the integers contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Kra, along with Vitaly Bergelson and Neil Hindman, significantly advanced the understanding of multiple recurrence and its connections to algebraic structures known as nilmanifolds.

Kra received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1995, advised by Yitzhak Katznelson. Prior to joining Northwestern University, she held positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Institute for Advanced Study, and Pennsylvania State University.

Kra has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to mathematics. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2023. She has also been awarded a Clay Research Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, and a Simons Fellowship. She delivered an invited address at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2014.

Kra is also actively involved in promoting mathematics education and outreach. She has worked to increase the participation of women and underrepresented groups in mathematics.