Christodoulou and Hamilton Awarded Shaw Prize

On June 7, 2011, the Shaw Foundation announced Demetrios Christodoulou was born in 1951 the awarding of its annual Shaw Prize in Mathemat- in Athens, Greece. He is currently professor of ical Sciences to Demetrios Christodoulou and mathematics and physics at the ETH Zürich in Richard S. Hamilton “for their highly innovative Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. in physics in works on nonlinear partial differential equations 1971 from Princeton University. He was professor in Lorentzian and Riemannian geometry and their of mathematics at Syracuse University from 1985 applications to general relativity and topology.” to 1987, at the Courant Institute of Mathematical The prize carries a cash award of US$1 million. Sciences from 1988 to 1992, and at Princeton Uni- The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences com- versity from 1992 to 2001. He received the Bôcher mittee made the following statement: Memorial Prize of the AMS in 1999. He is a member “Since Riemann’s invention of a geometry to of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and describe higher dimensional curved spaces and the European Academy of Sciences. Einstein’s introduction of his equations to describe Richard S. Hamilton was born in Cincinnati, gravity, the theory of the associated nonlinear par- Ohio, in 1943 and is currently Davies Professor of tial differential equations has been a central one. Mathematics at Columbia University. He received These equations are elegant, but in general they are notoriously difficult to study. One of the key issues his Ph.D. in 1966 from Princeton University. He has is whether the solutions develop singularities. held positions at the University of California Irvine, “Demetrios Christodoulou has made funda- the University of California San Diego, and Cornell mental contributions to mathematical physics and University. He received the Oswald Veblen Prize especially in general relativity. His recent strik- in Geometry of the AMS in 1996. He is a member ing dynamical proof of the existence of trapped of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the surfaces in the setting of Einstein’s equations in American Academy of Arts and Sciences. a vacuum demonstrates that black holes can be The Shaw Prize is an international award es- formed solely by the interaction of gravitational tablished to honor individuals who are currently waves. Prior to that he made a deep study of this active in their respective fields and who have phenomenon in symmetrically reduced cases achieved distinguished and significant advances, showing that unexpected naked singularities can who have made outstanding contributions in occur but that they are unstable. In joint work with culture and the arts, or who have achieved excel- Klainerman he established the nonlinear stability lence in other domains. The award is dedicated to of the Minkowski spacetime. His work is charac- furthering societal progress, enhancing quality of terized by a profound understanding of the phys- life, and enriching humanity’s spiritual civilization. ics connected with these equations and brilliant Preference is given to individuals whose significant mathematical technique. work was recently achieved. “Richard S. Hamilton introduced the Ricci flow The Shaw Prize consists of three annual awards: in Riemannian geometry. This is a differential the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Science and equation which evolves the geometry of a space Medicine, and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. according to how it is curved. He used it to estab- Established under the auspices of Run Run Shaw lish striking results about the shape (topology) in November 2002, the prize is managed and ad- of positively curved three- and four-dimensional ministered by the Shaw Prize Foundation based spaces. During the last three decades he has de- veloped a host of original and powerful techniques in Hong Kong. to study his flow—for example, a technique called Previous recipients of the Shaw Prize in Math- surgery allowing for the continuation of the evolu- ematical Sciences are Jean Bourgain (2010), tion should singularities form. A primary goal of Simon K. Donaldson and Clifford H. Taubes (2009), his theory was to classify all shapes in dimension Vladimir Arnold and Ludwig Faddeev (2008), three and in particular to resolve the Poincaré Robert Langlands and Richard Taylor (2007), conjecture. Hamilton’s program was completed David Mumford and Wen-Tsun Wu (2006), An- in the brilliant work of Grigory Perelman. With his drew Wiles (2005), and Shiing-Shen Chern (2004). Ricci flow, Hamilton has provided one of the most powerful tools in modern geometry.” — From Shaw Foundation announcements

OCTOBER 2011 NOTICES OF THE AMS 1293