Mathematics People

understanding of semantics for theoretical and ‘natural 2011–2012 AMS Centennial kind’ terms and of the implications of this semantics for Fellowship Awarded philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science and metaphysics.” Putnam is best known among The AMS has awarded its Centennial Fellowship for mathematicians for work that, together with work by Mar- 2011–2012 to Andrew S. Toms of Purdue University. The tin Davis, Julia Robinson, and Yuri Matiasevich, provided fellowship carries a stipend of US$79,000, an expense a solution to Hilbert’s tenth problem. allowance of US$7,900, and a complimentary Society The Rolf Schock Prizes are awarded every three years in membership for one year. the fields of logic and philosophy, mathematics, the visual Andrew Toms was born in Montreal in 1975. He received arts, and the musical arts. The prize amount is US$75,000. his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2002. After They are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sci- holding faculty positions at the University of New Bruns- ences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, and the wick and York University, he was appointed associate pro- Royal Swedish Academy of Music. fessor in the Department of Mathematics at Purdue —The Rolf Schock Foundation University in 2010. Re- cently he was the recipient of two Canadian awards: the Canadian Mathemati- Clay Research Awards cal Society’s 2010 G. de B. The Clay Mathematics Institute has awarded its 2011 Re- Robinson Award, given by search Awards to Yves Benoist, CNRS, Université de Paris the Canadian Mathematical Sud 11, and Jean-François Quint, CNRS, Université de Society, and the Israel Hal- Paris 13, for their work on stationary measures and orbit

Department of Mathematics. perin Prize for outstand- closures and to Jonathan Pila, Mathematical Institute, ing work in operator alge- Oxford University, for his resolution of the André-Oort bras or operator theory by conjecture in the case of products of modular curves.

Photo courtesy of the Purdue University members of the Canadian According to the citations, Benoist and Quint were hon- mathematical community. Andrew S. Toms ored “for their spectacular work on stationary measures Toms’s mathematical in- and orbit closures for actions of nonabelian groups on terests include the classification of C*-algebras and points homogeneous spaces. This work is a major breakthrough of contact between operator algebras, logic, and topology. in homogeneous dynamics and related areas of mathemat- —Elaine Kehoe ics. In particular, Benoist and Quint proved the follow- ing conjecture of Furstenberg: Let H be a Zariski dense semisimple subgroup of a Lie group which acts by left Aschbacher and Putnam translations on the quotient of G by a discrete subgroup with finite covolume. Consider a probability measure m Awarded Rolf Schock Prizes on H whose support generates H. Then any m-stationary Michael Aschbacher of the California Institute of Tech- probability measure for such an action is H-invariant.” Pila nology and Hilary Putnam of Harvard University have was honored “for his resolution of the André-Oort conjec- been awarded Rolf Schock Prizes for 2011. ture in the case of products of modular curves. This work Aschbacher was awarded the 2011 Rolf Schock Prize in gives the first unconditional proof of fundamental cases Mathematics “for his fundamental contributions to one of of these general conjectures beyond the original theorem the largest mathematical projects ever, the classification of André concerning the product of two such curves. The of finite simple groups, notably his contribution to the foundational techniques that Pila developed to achieve this quasi-thin case.” He has made fundamental contributions to group theory, especially regarding the classification breakthrough range from results in real analytic geometry of finite simple groups. He received the AMS Cole Prize which give sharp upper bounds for the number of rational in 1980 and was elected a member of the U.S. National points of bounded height on certain analytic sets to the Academy of Sciences in 1990. use of O-minimal structures in mathematical logic.” Putnam was awarded the 2011 Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy “for his contribution to the —From a Clay Mathematics Institute announcement

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Grigoris Paouris, Texas A&M University; Per-Olof Pers- Getz and Goresky Awarded son, University of California, Berkeley; Jessica S. Purcell, 2011 Balaguer Prize Brigham Young University; Robert M. Strain, University of Pennsylvania; Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero, Michigan State The Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation has awarded the University; Dapeng Zhan, Michigan State University. Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize for 2011 to Jayce Getz, McGill University, Montreal, and Mark Goresky, School of —From a Sloan Foundation announcement Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Uni- versity, for their joint monograph Hilbert Modular Forms with Coefficients in Intersection Homology and Quadratic Brenner Awarded Kovalevsky Base Change. According to the prize citation, the mono- Lectureship graph explains “deep phenomena in and algebraic geometry using geometric/topological methods, Suzanne Brenner of Louisiana State University has notably intersection homology. This builds on celebrated been chosen as the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecturer work by F. Hirzebruch and D. Zagier. It presents a pleas- for 2011 by the Association for Women in Mathematics ant equilibrium between the survey/monograph part and (AWM). She will deliver the AWM-SIAM Kovalevsky Lecture the research part: On the one hand it contains interesting at the 2011 International Congress on Industrial and Ap- results which appear here for the first time, but it also plied Mathematics. Brenner was honored for significant has several chapters which introduce the reader to the research accomplishments in multigrid methods, domain different subjects needed to understand the main results.” decomposition methods, and finite element analysis. The Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation of the In- stitut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) awards this international —From an AWM announcement prize every year to honor the memory of Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer (1912–1967), a self-taught Catalan mathemati- cian who gained international recognition for his research Pelayo Receives Rubio de in mathematical analysis despite the serious physical dis- abilities with which he was born. The prize carries a cash Francia Prize award of 15,000 euros (approximately US$21,000); the Álvaro Pelayo of the Institute for Advanced Study and winning monographs are published by Birkhäuser Verlag. Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded the Rubio de Francia Prize for 2010 by the Royal Spanish —From a Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation Mathematical Society (RSME). The prize was awarded for announcement contributions “at a very high level already at a very early stage of his career.” The prize honors the memory of J. L. Rubio de Francia Sloan Fellowships Awarded (1949–1988), an internationally renowned Spanish analyst. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced the names It is awarded annually to a young mathematician from of the recipients of the 2011 Sloan Research Fellowships. Spain, or residing in Spain, and it is the highest distinction Each year the foundation awards fellowships in the fields given by the RSME. of mathematics, chemistry, computational and evolu- The prize jury consisted of M. J. Carro, M. J. Este- tionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, ban, M. L. Fernández, D. Nualart, J. M. Sanz, T. Tao, and neuroscience, and physics. Grants of US$50,000 for a two- E. Zelmanov. year period are administered by each fellow’s institution. —From a Royal Spanish Mathematical Society (RSME) Once chosen, fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of announcement inquiry that most interest them, and they are permitted to employ fellowship funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims. Eisenbrand and Schröder Following are the names and institutions of the 2011 awardees in mathematics: Silas D. Alben, Georgia In- Awarded Humboldt stitute of Technology; Maria Cameron, University of Professorships Maryland, College Park; Sabin Cautis, Columbia Univer- sity; Carina P. Curto, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Friedrich Eisenbrand of École Polytechnique Fédérale Laurent Demanet, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- de Lausanne and Peter Schröder of the California In- ogy; Volker Elling, University of Michigan; Mikhail stitute of Technology have been awarded Alexander von Ershov, University of Virginia; Toby S. Gee, Northwestern Humboldt Professorships for 2011 by the Alexander von University; Philip T. Gressman, University of Pennsylvania; Humboldt Foundation. Matthew Hedden, Michigan State University; Michael A. Eisenbrand was awarded the professorship in math- Hill, University of Virginia; Roman Holowinsky, Ohio ematics. According to the prize citation, he “is a world State University; Aaron D. Lauda, ; leader in the field of algorithmics and discrete math- Xiaoqing Li, State University of New York at Buffalo; ematics and works at the intersection between pure Dragos Oprea, University of California, San Diego; research and applications.” He does research in integral

836 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 58, NUMBER 6 Mathematics People optimization that “could be of use to both industry and telecommunications in capacity planning.” Putnam Prizes Awarded Peter Schröder was awarded the professorship in The winners of the seventy-first William Lowell Putnam computer science. According to the prize citation, he “is Mathematical Competition have been announced. The regarded as one of the world’s most eminent researchers Putnam Competition is administered by the Mathematical in the field of computer graphics and the mathematics on Association of America (MAA) and consists of an examina- which it is based. He thus acts as a bridge between numeri- tion containing mathematical problems that are designed cal and geometry mathematics and computer science.” to test both originality and technical competence. Prizes The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship honors are awarded to both individuals and teams. researchers from outside of Germany who are interna- The five highest ranking individuals, listed in alpha- tionally recognized leaders in their fields and allows betical order, were Yu Deng, Massachusetts Institute them to spend five years conducting research at German of Technology; Brian R. Lawrence, California Institute universities. The award is valued at up to five million of Technology; Seok Hyeong Lee, ; euros (approximately US$7,300,000) and is endowed Colin P. Sandon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. and Alex (Lin) Zhai, Harvard University. Each received a cash award of $2,500. —From a Humboldt Foundation announcement Institutions with at least three registered participants obtain a team ranking in the competition based on the rankings of three designated individual participants. The Glynn and Asmussen Awarded five top-ranked teams (with team members listed in al- phabetical order) were: California Institute of Technology John von Neumann Theory (Yakov Berchenko-Kogan, Jason C. Bland, Brian Lawrence); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sergei S. Bernstein, Prize Whan Ghang, Jacob N. Steinhardt); Harvard University The 2010 John von Neumann Theory Prize, the high- (Kevin Lee, Arnav Tripathy, Alex (Lin) Zhai); University est prize given in the field of operations research and of California, Berkeley (David D. Gee, Shiyu Li, Evan M. management science, has been awarded to Peter Glynn O’Dorney); and University of Waterloo (Steven N. Karp, of Stanford University and Søren Asmussen of Aarhus Boyu Li, Malcolm A. Sharpe). University “for their outstanding contributions in ap- The first-place team receives an award of US$25,000, plied probability and the theory of stochastic simula- and each member of the team receives US$1,000. The tion.” According to the prize citation, Glynn “has made awards for second place are US$20,000 and US$800; for third place, US$15,000 and US$600; for fourth place, sustained and important contributions in stochastic US$10,000 and US$400; and for fifth place, US$5,000 and simulation theory over the last thirty years.” Asmussen US$200. “has made fundamental contributions in many areas of The Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize, which goes to the applied probability and stochastic operations research, outstanding woman in the competition, was awarded to including queueing systems, large deviations and rare Yinghui Wang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- events, heavy-tailed phenomena, insurance-risk models, ogy. She received a cash award of US$1,000. matrix-analytic algorithms and the theory of stochas- —From a Putnam announcement tic simulation.” The award, which is presented by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) carries a cash prize of US$5,000. Intel Science Talent Search —From an INFORMS announcement Winners Announced Two students who work in the mathematical sciences have Rollo Davidson Prizes received scholarship awards in the 2011 Intel Science Tal- ent Search. Evan O’Dorney, a seventeen-year-old student Awarded from Danville, California, was awarded the top prize of US$100,000 for his mathematics project “Continued frac- The Rollo Davidson Trust has awarded the 2011 Rollo tion convergents and linear fractional transformations”, in Davidson Prize jointly to Christophe Garban of the École which he compared two ways to estimate the square root Normale Supérieure de Lyon and Gábor Pete of the Uni- of an integer. Evan discovered precisely when the faster versity of Toronto “for striking and important new results way would work. As a by-product of his research, he solved for planar random processes, particularly in establishing other equations useful for encrypting data. O’Dorney has a theory of noise sensitivity for critical percolation and been a member of the U.S. International Mathematical the application of this theory to dynamical percolation.” Olympiad Team and also won the National Spelling Bee in The Rollo Davidson Trust was founded in 1975 and 2007 and the national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician awards an annual prize to young mathematicians working competition in 2010 and 2011. in the field of probability. Keenan Monks, a seventeen-year-old student from —From a Rollo Davidson Trust announcement Hazelton, Pennsylvania, was awarded sixth place and

JUNE/JULY 2011 NOTICES OF THE AMS 837 Mathematics People a prize of US$25,000 for his project “On supersin- (New York University), New York University; Carlee gular elliptic curves and hypergeometric functions”, Joe-Wong (Princeton University), Stanford University; Wil- detailing his research on a math equation that can liam A. Johnson (University of Washington), Massachu- help improve Internet security and cryptography. setts Institute of Technology; Tia Lee Lerud (University of Washington), Colorado State University; Kathleen Li (Rice —From an Intel Corporation announcement University), University of California Berkeley; Katherine McLaughlin (University of California Berkeley), University of California Berkeley; Ekaterina Merkurjev (University NSF Graduate Research of California Los Angeles), University of California Los Angeles; Ariana S. Minot (Duke University), University of Fellowships Announced California Berkeley; Alexander C. Moll (Columbia Uni- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a versity), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David W. number of Graduate Research Fellowships for fiscal year Montague (University of Michigan Ann Arbor), Princeton 2011. Further awards may be announced later in the year. University; Cris Negron (University of Washington), Uni- This program supports students pursuing doctoral study versity of Washington; Kiva L. Oken (Carleton College), in all areas of science and engineering and provides a North Carolina State University; Vivek Pal (Florida State stipend of US$30,000 per year for a maximum of three University), University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Aaron years of full-time graduate study. Following are the names Palmer (University of California Santa Cruz), University of the awardees in the mathematical sciences selected so of California Berkeley; John V. Pardon (Princeton Uni- far in 2011, followed by their undergraduate institutions versity), University of California Berkeley; Helen F. Parks (in parentheses) and the institutions at which they plan (University of California San Diego), University of California to pursue graduate work. San Diego; Arthur J. Parzygnat (City University of New Hannah Alpert (University of Chicago), Massachusetts York Graduate School, University Center), City University Institute of Technology; Theresa Anderson (Brown Uni- of New York Graduate School, University Center; Oliver versity), Brown University; David Appelhans (University Pechenik (University of Illinois), University of Illinois at of Colorado at Boulder), University of Colorado at Boulder; Urbana-Champaign; Alexander Perry (Columbia Univer- Dena M. Asta (Carnegie-Mellon University), Carnegie- sity), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Scott Pow- Mellon University; Kerstin Baer (Bryn Mawr College), ers (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Harvard Columbia University; Yakov I. Berchenko-Kogan (Cali- University; Benjamin D. Preskill (University of California fornia Institute of Technology), Massachusetts Institute Berkeley), University of California Berkeley; Claudia C. of Technology; Emily R. Berger (Massachusetts Institute Raithel (University of Michigan), New York University; of Technology), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rebecca I. Rebhuhn-Glanz (Bryn Mawr College), Uni- Sarah B. Brodsky (University of California Berkeley), versity of Michigan Ann Arbor; Richard Z. Robinson University of California Berkeley; Charles D. Brummitt (University of Washington), University of Washington; (University of California Davis), University of California Rebecca S. Rothwell (University of North Carolina Davis; Yaniel Cabrera (Texas A&M University), Texas at Chapel Hill), University of North Carolina at Chapel A&M University; Carey Caginalp (University of Pitts- Hill; Arman Sabbaghi (Harvard University), Harvard burgh), Princeton University; Natasha A. Cayco Gajic University; Geoffrey Schiebinger (Stanford Univer- (University of Washington), University of Washington; sity), Stanford University; Kimberly M. Short (Univer- Otis A. Chodosh (Cambridge University), Stanford Univer- sity of Arizona), University of California Los Angeles; sity; Zachary Clawson (North Carolina State University), Robert A. Silversmith (Williams College), University Cornell University; Daniel Collins (Princeton University), of California Berkeley; Sean K. Simmons (University Princeton University; Kathleen Curtius (University of of Texas at Austin), University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Washington), University of Washington; Anil Damle (Uni- Peter Smillie (Stanford University), Princeton University; versity of Colorado at Boulder), Yale University; James M. Joel B. Specter (Wesleyan University), Columbia Univer- Davis (Cornell University), Cornell University; Michelle sity; Melanie I. Stam (Georgia Institute of Technology), Delcourt (Georgia Institute of Technology), Rutgers Uni- State University of New York at Stony Brook; Yi An Sun versity; Sarah A. Fletcher (Georgia Institute of Technol- (University of Maryland College Park), Massachusetts ogy), Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Georgia Institute Institute of Technology; Andrei Tarfulea (University of Technology; Leilani Gilpin (University of California, of Chicago), New York University; Amelia N. Tebbe (Uni- San Diego), California Institute of Technology; Karsten versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), University of Gimre (University of Oregon, Eugene), Stanford University; Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Samantha M. Tracht (Uni- Sherry Gong (Harvard University), Princeton University; versity of Tennessee Knoxville), University of Tennessee Alan Guo (Duke University), Massachusetts Institute of Knoxville; Arnav Tripathy (Harvard College), Princeton Technology; Melissa A. Gymrek (Massachusetts Institute University; Bena M. Tshishiku (University of Chicago), of Technology), Harvard University; Daniel M. Harris, University of Chicago; Dmitry Vaintrob (Harvard Uni- (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Massachusetts versity), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Martin R. Institute of Technology; Vivian O. Healey (Brown Uni- Valdez-Vivas (Stanford University), Stanford University; versity), Brown University; Steven M. Heilman (New York Robert A. Van Gorder (University of Central Flor- University), New York University; Aukosh S. Jagannath ida), Cornell University; Michael Viscardi (Harvard

838 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 58, NUMBER 6 Mathematics People

University) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Al- exandria V. Volkening (University of Maryland Balti- SIAM Fellows Elected Jonathan P. more County), Johns Hopkins University; The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Wang (Harvard University), Massachusetts Institute of has elected its new fellows for 2011. Their names and Technology; Daniel K. Wells (Northwestern University), institutions follow. Northwestern University; Katelyn R. White (Univer- Mark J. Ablowitz, University of Colorado Boulder; sity of California Santa Cruz), University of California Kendall E. Atkinson Claude W. Bar- Santa Cruz; John D. Wiltshire-Gordon (University , University of Iowa; of Chicago), University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Sarah dos, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu; John T. Betts, Wolff (Dartmouth College), Dartmouth College; Cyn- Boeing; Charles R. Doering, University of Michigan; Jim thia I. Wood (Rice University), Rice University; Vic- Douglas Jr., University of Chicago/Purdue University; toria Y. H. Wood (University of California Berkeley), Alan S. Edelman, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- University of California Berkeley; Joseph Woodworth (Uni- ogy; Charbel Farhat, Stanford University; Jean-Pierre versity of Maryland), University of California Los Angeles. Fouque, University of California Santa Barbara; Alan M. Frieze, Carnegie Mellon University; Kenneth M. Golden, —From an NSF announcement University of Utah; Thomas A. Grandine, Boeing; Wil- liam D. Gropp, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Jungic Awarded 2011 PIMS Philip Holmes, Princeton University; Ilse C. F. Ipse, North Education Prize Carolina State University; Christopher K. R. T. Jones, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; David E. Keyes, Veselin Jungic of Simon Fraser University has been Columbia University/King Abdullah University of Science awarded the 2011 PIMS Education Prize of the Pacific In- and Technology; Suzanne M. Lenhart, University of stitute for the Mathematical Sciences. The prize recognizes Tennessee Knoxville; John G. Lewis, Cray Incorporated; individuals who have played a major role in encouraging Zhi-Quan (Tom) Luo, University of Minnesota; Olvi L. activities that have enhanced public awareness and ap- Mangasarian preciation of mathematics, as well as those who foster , University of California San Diego/Uni- Bernard J. Matkowsky communication among various groups concerned with versity of Wisconsin Madison; , mathematical education at all levels. Northwestern University; James McKenna, Bell Labo- Jungic has been involved in an enrichment program ratories; Volker L. Mehrmann, Technische Universität for high school students and the codevelopment of a Berlin; Boris Mordukhovich, Wayne State University; distance-education version of introductory calculus in K. W. (Bill) Morton, Computing which lectures are available as video streams. He has Laboratory; Ricardo H. Nochetto, University of Mary- been a leader in Simon Fraser University’s Aboriginal land College Park; Beresford N. Parlett, University of university preparation programs and in creating mentor- California Berkeley; Ahmed H. Sameh, Purdue University; ship programs for Aboriginal students at the Vancouver Robert D. Skeel, Purdue University; Craig A. Tracy, Uni- Friendship Center and at the Native Education College. He versity of California Davis; Stephen J. Wright, University produced and coauthored an animated film in both English of Wisconsin Madison; Jinchao Xu, Pennsylvania State and Blackfoot as part of an initiative to develop curricular Ya-xiang Yu materials in an Aboriginal context. University; , Chinese Academy of Sciences.

—From a PIMS announcement —From a SIAM announcement Guggenheim Fellowships Lalonde Appointed CRM Awarded Director The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has an- François Lalonde of the University of Montreal has been nounced the names of 180 artists, scholars, and scientists appointed director of the Centre de Recherches Mathéma- from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom tiques (CRM) beginning June 1, 2011. Lalonde previously who were selected as Guggenheim Fellows for 2011. Gug- served as director from 2004 to 2008. He holds a Canada genheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distin- Research Chair in Differential Geometry and Topology and guished achievement in the past and exceptional promise is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Fields for future accomplishment. The mathematicians selected Institute. His research focuses on fundamental problems to receive the 2011 fellowships are Bjorn Poonen, Mas- in symplectic topology, including the classification of sachusetts Institute of Technology, mathematics; Dimitris N. Politis, University of California San Diego, statistics; symplectic spaces and their mathematical structures, the Vijay Vazirani, Georgia Institute of Technology, com- study of their transformations and behavior under defor- puter science; and Vahid Tarokh, Harvard University, mation, and their connections to the quantum domain. applied mathematics. —From a Guggenheim Foundation news release —From a CRM announcement

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