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Letter from the Chair Celebrating the Lives of John and Alicia Nash

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Letter from the Chair Celebrating the Lives of John and Alicia Nash Spring 2016 Issue 5 Department of Mathematics Princeton University Letter From the Chair Celebrating the Lives of John and Alicia Nash We cannot look back on the past Returning from one of the crowning year without first commenting on achievements of a long and storied the tragic loss of John and Alicia career, John Forbes Nash, Jr. and Nash, who died in a car accident on his wife Alicia were killed in a car their way home from the airport last accident on May 23, 2015, shock- May. They were returning from ing the department, the University, Norway, where John Nash was and making headlines around the awarded the 2015 Abel Prize from world. the Norwegian Academy of Sci- ence and Letters. As a 1994 Nobel Nash came to Princeton as a gradu- Prize winner and a senior research ate student in 1948. His Ph.D. thesis, mathematician in our department “Non-cooperative games” (Annals for many years, Nash maintained a of Mathematics, Vol 54, No. 2, 286- steady presence in Fine Hall, and he 95) became a seminal work in the and Alicia are greatly missed. Their then-fledgling field of game theory, life and work was celebrated during and laid the path for his 1994 Nobel a special event in October. Memorial Prize in Economics. After finishing his Ph.D. in 1950, Nash This has been a very busy and pro- held positions at the Massachusetts ductive year for our department, and Institute of Technology and the In- we have happily hosted conferences stitute for Advanced Study, where 1950s Nash began to suffer from and workshops that have attracted the breadth of his work increased. paranoid schizophrenia, which per- mathematicians (and Princeton He was always known for apply- sisted for the next three decades. As alumni) from around the world. ing novel approaches to the hardest the subject of Sylvia Nasar’s biog- problems, and throughout the early raphy, A Beautiful Mind, and the Since the fall, we have honored Pro- 1950s his research extended to the 2001 film of the same name, Nash fessors John Conway, Yasha Sinai, fields of partial differential equa- became far more than an influential and Sergiu Klainerman on the occa- tions and geometric analysis. For mathematician; he became a symbol sion of their birthdays and to mark these contributions, Nash shared of hope and an inspiration for those their great contributions to their the 2015 Abel Prize with Louis Ni- suffering from schizophrenia and respective fields. We also hosted renberg. for their loved ones. Nash’s story the 31st Annual Geometry Festival goes from the peaks of academic in April and have the annual visit “I think he prided himself that achievement to the valley of despair, of the “Women and Mathematics he had his way of thinking about yet he managed to overcome his Program” (co-sponsored with the things,” recounts Professor David condition. After receiving the Nobel Institute for Advanced Study) and Gabai *80. “He was such an ex- Prize, he returned to Princeton in a workshop in Algebraic Geometry traordinary exemplar of the things 1995 as a senior research mathema- taking place this May. Significant that this department strives for. Be- tician, where he remained a regular mathematics are discussed and cel- yond great originality, he demon- fixture in Fine Hall until his death. ebrated at these events, which also strated tremendous tenacity, cour- provide us with the opportunity age and fearlessness.” Professor Sergiu Klainerman: “We to see the familiar faces of former all miss him. It was not just the leg- graduate students and junior facul- Were Nash’s story solely that of end behind him. He was a very, very ty who are now well-established in his mathematical achievements, nice person to have around. He was their various fields. it would be amazing enough. Un- very kind, very thoughtful, very fortunately, beginning in the mid- Continued on next page... Continued on next page... Page 1 Nash ...continued from previous page From the Chair ...continued from previous page considerate and humble. All that contributed to his legacy We take pride in the awards bestowed upon our col- in the department. The fact that he was always present in leagues, alumni, and students. Professor Emeritus the department, I think that by itself was very moving. Andrew Wiles was recently awarded the 2016 Abel It’s an example that stim- Prize by the Norwegian government, a prize that was ulated people, especially awarded to Professor Yakov Sinai in 2014 and John students. He was an in- Nash in 2015. Professor Christopher Skinner was a spiring figure to have recipient of a highly-prestigious Simons Investigator around, just being there award. Professor Fernando Codá Marques (together and showing his dedica- with our former Assistant Professor André Neves) tion to mathematics.” received the Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry from the American Mathematical Society. Stefanos Are- To honor and celebrate takis, an assistant professor in our department, was the lives of John and awarded one of 20 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow- Alicia Nash, the depart- ships for 2016, as was graduate alumni Elena Fuchs ment hosted an all-day *10, who is now an assistant professor of mathemat- event on October 24, ics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 2015. There were lec- tures on Nash’s work and In October we recognized some of our outstanding its legacy by Nobel Prize teachers by awarding departmental teaching awards winning economist Eric to assistant professors Adam Levine and Javier Gó- Louis Nirenberg shares remebrances at Maskin (Harvard), Pro- mez Serrano, and graduate student Gregory Gauth- the University Chapel fessor Sergiu Klainer- ier. man (Princeton), Abel Prize recipient Mikhail Gromov (IHES), and Professor This is the end of my term as an Acting Chair of the János Kollár (Princeton); a talk by Nasar on the lives Department. Our chair, Professor David Gabai, has of John and Alicia Nash; and a memorial service at the been on a very well-deserved hiatus at the Institute University Chapel. for Advanced Study, enjoying once again his life as a full-time professional mathematician. David will be Over 600 people attended the service at the Chapel where returning for his second term as Chair next year. It family, friends and colleagues of the Nashes shared their has been my privilege to work with my colleagues, remembrances. Remarks were given on behalf of Presi- the University’s Administration and our amazing dent Eisgruber by Robert Durkee, Vice President and staff on continuing the tradition of excellence in our Secretary of the University, followed by Kirsti Strøm department. Bull, President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters; Louis Nirenburg, who shared the 2015 Abel It is my pleasure to thank Bob and Louisa Fernholz, Prize with Nash; David Smith, President of the MIT Wei-Tong Shu, and the Class of 1971 Fund for their Club of Princeton (where Alicia was an active member); very generous and ongoing support of the activities James Manganaro, friend of John and Alicia; and John of our department. I also want to thank Otto Al- David Stier, John Nash’s son. brecht for his generous donation of the Gomboc, a Sylvia Nasar gave a talk on the lives of John and Alicia Nash small sculpture of a convex body that will be placed in our Common Room for everyone to enjoy. As many of you know, Princeton Reunions will take place from May 26th through 29th. We invite you to join us for our annual open house on Friday, May 27th, at 2 p.m. in the Fine Hall Common Room. Igor Rodnianski, Acting Chair Page 2 Faculty Awards Stefanos Aretakis Fernando Codá Marques made international headline news. was among 5 shared the 2016 Oswald Veblen In 1994 he cracked Fermat’s Last Princeton fac- Prize in Geom- Theorem, which at the time was the most famous, and long-running, un- ulty members etry with André solved problem in the subject’s his- selected as Sloan Neves (Imperial tory.” Research Fellows College London this year by the and Princeton Shou-wu Zhang Alfred P. Sloan faculty mem- was named a 2016 Simons Fellow Foundation. ber from 2005- in Mathematics 2009) by the Simons Foundation. The Manjul Bhargava *01 Fellows Pro- received honorary doctorate degrees Christopher Skinner *97 grams provide from the Indi- was named one of the 2015 Simons funds to faculty an Institute of Investigators. for up to a se- Technology, Ma- The citation for mester-long re- dras and Bates Professor Skin- search leave from classroom teach- College. Profes- ner remarks on ing and admin- sor Bhargava's his work “in istrative obligations with the goal of other honors this number theory increasing creativity and providing year include: the and arithmetic intellectual stimulation. Credit: Denise Applewhite Indo-Canadi- geometry. One an Chamber of of his striking Fellows of the Ameican Commerce’s Male Professional of recent results is Mathematical Society the Year Award, India Abroad Pub- a proof, in joint work with collabo- Professors Alice Chang, Mihalis lisher’s Award for Excellence, the rators, that a positive proportion of Dafermos *01, Australian Mathematical Society’s elliptic curves defined over the ra- and Shou-wu Blue Hat Award, Children’s Hope tional numbers satisfy the Birch– Zhang have been India’s Making a Difference Award, Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.” named fellows of and the Asian American Engineer the American of the Year Distinguished Science Sir Andrew J. Wiles, Mathematical and Teaching Award. Professor of Mathematics, Emeri- Society for 2016. tus at Princeton and a Royal So- János Kollár Chang was cited ciety Research was awarded
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