Spring 2018 • Issue 7 Department of MATHEMATICS Princeton University Letter from the CHAIR Congratulations faculty members and 6 postdoctoral Former Faculty Member to the 33 gradu- researchers. ROBERT LANGLANDS ating members of the class of Professors Elliott Lieb and Gang Tian RECEIVES ABEL PRIZE 2017 and the 9 both retired this year. Giants in their Robert P. Langlands has been awarded graduate stu- fields, Prof. Lieb joined our Depart- dents who are ment (joint with Physics) in 1975 the 2018 Abel Prize “for his visionary now *17. Thank while Prof. Tian has been with us program connecting representation theory you for reading since 2003. Speaking of former faculty to number the 2018 edition members, it brings me great pleasure theory;" of Fine Letters! to congratulate Robert Langlands, work done As I write these words, students are professor emeritus at the Institute for while he scrambling to finish their senior and Advanced Study, for winning the Abel was a Ph. D. theses, with graduation a dis- Prize. The Abel committee cited his 30-year-old tant goal, but I am looking forward to famous letter to André Weil (precursor Associate congratulating 34 new math grads, in- to what's now known as the Lang- Professor at cluding a record 10 women, as well as lands program) written as an Associate Princeton. 18 graduate students who are expected Professor in our Department. to complete their final public orals this Previous spring or summer. We were honored to host Umberto Abel Prize Zannier as our fall Minerva Lecturer This year we welcomed Noga Alon and Laure Saint-Raymond, Demetrios recipients include professor emeritus (joint with PACM) as our newest Christodoulou, and Paul Seidel as our Andrew Wiles, John Nash, and professor professor, as well as 7 new junior Minerva Distinguished Visitors. They Yakov Sinai. continued on page 2... INSIDE UPCOMING... the profile of mathematics in mainstream this issue media to totally unprecedented levels. —Marcelo Viana 2–5 Faculty Chair, ICM 2018 Organizing Committee 6–7 Honors and Awards Program Committee Chair: János Kollár 8 Distinguished Visitors Princeton Invited Speakers: 9 Faculty Research Alice Chang, Emmy Noether Lecture Assaf Naor, Plenary lecture 10–11 Undergraduate Program August 1–9 John Pardon, invited section lecturer 12 Graduate Program The Biennium of Mathematics 2017- Amit Singer, invited section lecturer 2018, formally proclaimed by the Allan Sly, invited section lecturer 13 Most recent Ph.D.s Alexandr Logunov (starting Sept. 1), Brazilian national parliament, encom- invited section lecturer 14 Advisory Council Visits passes a wide range of outreach initia- June Huh (IAS, Visiting Associate tives throughout the country, and raised Research Scholar), invited section 15 Fine Hall Update lecturer Faculty Appointments Department Welcomes PROFESSOR NOGA ALON The Department is pleased Professor Alon obtained his Ph.D. in 1983 from the to welcome Noga Alon as our Hebrew University. Following a two -year postdoctoral newest professor, joint with position at MIT he joined Tel Aviv University, where he the Program in Applied & remained until coming to Princeton. He is also currently a Computational Mathematics. member of Microsoft Research, Israel. He has supervised A world leader in the field of over 20 doctoral students in mathematics and computer combinatorics, Professor Alon's science, many of whom are now world-leading faculty contributions include solutions members at various institutions. He has received many to longstanding questions on honors and awards, including the Erdös prize (1989), the universal graphs, epsilon-nets, Feher prize (1991), tho Pólya Prize (2000), the Bruno and the structure of large graphs and property-testing, Memorial Award (2001), the Landau Prize (2005), the among many others. Gödel Prize (2005), the Israel Prize (2008), the EMET Prize (2011) and the Dijkstra Prize (2016). from the Chair ...continued from page 1 all gave beautiful and stimulating lectures. With uniformly acclaimed results, Fine Hall went through its Professors Igor Rodnianski and Allan Sly were named 2017 first major refurbishment since opening in 1969. Our Common Simons Investigators in Mathematics, while professor Amit Room and every office received essentially all new furniture Singer was named an Investigator in Math+X, a program and carpeting, though some of the beautiful and solid furni- designed to encourage novel collaborations between math- ture from the old Fine Hall is still in use. Our administrative ematics and other fields. We are pleased that Andrea Bertozz area was remodeled providing a brighter and more welcoming ’87 *91 was the other Math+X winner. Professor János Kol- reception area. This project required everyone and their lár won the Shaw Prize, John Pardon won a Packard Fellow- possessions to move out and back during a three month ship, and Assaf Naor won the Nemmers Prize. Seven of our period. Thanks are due to Professor Igor Rodnianski for Princeton faculty and researchers were named invited speakers spearheading this effort. Detailed oversight, constant for the upcoming International Congress of Mathematicians in attention to big and little things and lots of hand holding by Rio. the staff made this all very bearable. Instructor Hansheng Diao and graduate student Kathleen I close by thanking the Fernholz Foundation and the Class of Emerson received the Excellence in Teaching Awards by the 1971 Endowment for their ongoing support of the Department Undergraduate and Graduate Engineering Student Coun- and thanking the Advisory Council for their valuable advice cils—this is the third year in a row for Hansheng! Hansheng and encouragement. and assistant professor Ana Menezes received this year’s departmental junior faculty teaching award and our graduate I hope that all of those reading this newsletter think back on student teaching awards went to Charles Stibitz and Anibal their time in Fine Hall as one of discovery and growth. I am Velozo. This is the fifth year the Department has awarded always happy to hear from alumni and former members of the these prizes highlighting and encouraging excellence in under- Department, so please do not hesitate to get in touch. graduate instruction. David Gabai *77 *80 Our undergraduate Putnam Competition team had another [email protected] outstanding year, with our team of Murilo Zanarella, Zhuo Qun (Alex) Song, and Xiaoyu Xu coming in third place overall. Page 2 Faculty Appointments Tristan J. Buckmaster for three years before arriving to Mathematics from Tours University, Assistant Professor France and her BS in Mathematics Analysis Princeton. He completed his PhD and Computer Science at the Uni- Tristan J. Buck- in 2014 at Columbia University and versity of Science, Vietnam. She is master joins the his MA Mathematics in 2010 and the recipient of the James D. Skinner Department after his BS in Mathematics and Physics graduate fellowship. three years at the in 2009. Courant Institute Yueh-Ju Lin Yunqing Tang of Mathematical Instructor Instructor Sciences, New Geometric Arithmetic York University, where he was an Analysis, Geometry and Instructor and Visiting Assistant Differential Geometry, Number Professor. He completed his PhD and PDEs Theory at the University of Leipzig/Max Yueh-Ju Lin Yunqing Tang Planck Institute for Mathematics joined Princ- received her in the Sciences, Leipzig, Saxony, eton after three PhD in Math- Germany in 2014. He is a recipient years as a Postdoctoral Assistant ematics from Harvard University in of the Leipzig Promotionspreis (PhD Professor, Department of Math- 2016 and holds a BS with honors in Prize) by the Research Academy ematics, University of Michigan. Mathematics from Peking University. Leipzig. She also served as a Postdoctoral She was awarded the AWM Dis- sertation Prize, given for outstanding Gabriele Di Cerbo Fellow at the Mathematical Sci- Assistant ences Research Institute, Berkeley PhD dissertations by female students Professor and as a Research Assistant at the in the US, in 2016. Additionally, Algebraic Institute of Mathematics, Academia she received the New World Math- Geometry Sinica, Taiwan. She received her ematics Award, Gold Medal for her Gabriele Di Cerbo PhD and MS in Mathematics from PhD thesis, awarded for outstanding joins the Depart- University of Notre Dame and her Chinese mathematics students world- ment after serv- BS in Mathematics from National wide, 2016. She received a Merit ing as the Ritt Assistant Professor, Taiwan University. She received the Research Fellowship at the Graduate Department of Mathematics, Colum- Striving for Excellence in Teach- School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard bia University, for four years. He ing Certificate, Kaneb Center for University (2015-2016). earned his PhD in Mathematics from Teaching and Learning, University Princeton University in 2013 and has Joseph Allen Waldron of Notre Dame. a Bachelor of Science degree, 2008, Instructor Birational and Master in Mathematics degree, Oanh Nguyen Geometry Instructor 2009, from the University of Rome, Joseph Allen La Sapienza, Italy. Analysis, Combinator- Waldron was Jonathan Hanselman ics, and Prob- a Postdoctoral Assistant ability Researcher at Professor Oanh Nguyen Ecole Polytech- Low- was previously nique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), dimensional an Instructor Topology Switzerland, 2016-2017. He received at Yale Univer- Jonathan Han- his PhD, Mathematics, July 2016 at sity, where she selman was an Queens' College, University of Cam- received her PhD in mathematics. RTG Instructor bridge, UK. She received her MS in Applied at the University of Texas at Austin Page 3 Faculty Retirements Professor Emeritus ELLIOTT LIEB By Michael Aizenman Elliott H. Lieb was born in Boston in lifelong friends and collaborators, but moved to Princeton on leave of absence. 1932, and at the age of five moved to the in 1966 Elliott moved to Northeastern He officially came on board in 1975. Bronx where he was educated in the New University in Boston. It was there that he York City school system, graduating from and F.Y. Wu wrote one of the most cited In Princeton, Elliott addressed important the Bronx High School of Science.