Mathematics People Ooguri Receives Chunichi Turaev and Virelizier Awarded Cultural Award Balaguer Prize Hirosi Ooguri of the California Vladimir Turaev of Indiana Uni- Institute of Technology has been versity and Alexis Virelizier of honored with the 2016 Chunichi Université Lille 1 have been awarded Cultural Award. The award carries the 2016 Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer a cash prize of 2 million yen (ap- Prize for their monograph Monoidal proximately US$20,000). Categories and Topological Field According to the prize citation, Theory. The monograph introduces Ooguri was honored for the “devel- monoidal categories and Penrose’s opment of innovative methods of graphical calculus; gives an alge- modern mathematics in high energy braic description of the center of Hirosi Ooguri theory.” His work involves “creating monoidal categories based on the Vladimir Turaev new theoretical tools in quantum theory of Hopf monads as devel- field theory and superstring theory.” He is especially oped by Virelizier and coauthors; known for his work on topological string theory, “which explains topological quantum field has had broad applications ranging from black hole phys- theories, including fundamental ics to algebraic geometry and knot theory in mathematics.” earlier work of Reshetihkin-Turaev Ooguri is a past recipient of the AMS Eisenbud Prize and Turaev-Viro; and shows how to (2008), a Humboldt Research Award (2008), the Nishina present ribbon graphs by diagrams Memorial Prize (2009), a Simons Investigator Award on skeletons of 3-manifolds and (2012), and the Kodansha Prize for Science Books of define graph topological quantum Japan (2014) for his popular science book, Introduction to field theories by means of state Superstring Theory. He is a fellow of the AMS and of the sums on such skeletons. Their main Alexis Virelizier American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He also result interprets such graph theo- served as scientific advisor for a 3D movie, The Man from ries as surgery theories, thereby the 9 Dimensions, which tells the story of the quest for proving a conjecture stated by Turaev in 1995. Turaev tells the Notices: “I was born in St. Petersburg, the “theory of everything” and premiered in Tokyo. About Russia, into a family of theatre workers: my father was a the film, he says, “We expect a diverse audience, from first puppeteer and a theatre producer, while my mother gave graders to senior citizens. Some would be hearing about public lectures on literature and theatre. In the age of elementary particles for the first time, and others know eleven years, I entered the Russian system of mathemati- something about physics and want to learn more. I wanted cal circles and olympiads, which fostered my interest in to make sure that everyone can enjoy the movie and learn mathematics. The choice of mathematics as a job was the something from it.” smartest decision I made in my life. Among other clever Founded in 1947 by Japanese newspaper Chunichi things I did was having three kids (I wish I had more), writ- Shimbun to commemorate the enacting of the Japanese ing seven books, collaborating with several extraordinary constitution, the award celebrates individuals or organiza- mathematicians, learning three languages, and visiting a tions who have made significant contributions to the arts, number of wonderful countries.” humanities, and natural or social sciences. Verilizier tells the Notices: “I was born in Carcassonne in the south of France. My father was an engineer and —From a California Institute of Technology news release my mother took care of the family. My passion for 824 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 63, NUMBER 7 Mathematics People mathematics goes back to my childhood, and I had the J. Elisenda Grigsby of Boston chance to make it my job. My wife Chrystelle and I decided College was honored for her work on to name our son Evariste, a name not well known to the the invariants of 3-manifolds. She general public but very famous in the mathematical com- was also honored for her services munity!” to the mathematics community: for The prize carries a cash award of 15,000 euros (ap- running advanced workshops, train- proximately US$16,800). It is awarded for a mathematical ing graduate and undergraduate monograph of an expository nature presenting the latest students; for her contributions to developments in an active area of research in mathematics increasing participation of women in the mathematical sciences; and in which the recipient has made important contributions. for introducing talented middle- J. Elisenda Grisby The winning monograph will be published by Birkhäuser school girls to research mathemat- Verlag in the series Progress in Mathematics. ics. Grigsby is a runner who has done marathons in New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. She hopes to get back —From a Balaguer Foundation announcement into marathoning when her children, now two and five, are older. She also blogs (about math and her children) at elioop.blogspot.com. 2016 Rollo Davidson Prize Daniel Krashen of the Univer- sity of Georgia was honored for his Awarded work on local-to-global principles Omer Angel of the University of British Columbia, and for his service, including orga- nizing conferences and workshops, Jean-Christophe Mourrat of ENS training graduate students, and Lyon, and Hendrik Weber of the serving as a role model for under- University of Warwick have been represented minorities in math- awarded the 2016 Rollo Davidson ematics. Krashen’s main nonmath- Prize. Angel was honored “for his ematical hobby is music. He plays a many contributions to stochastic ge- variety of musical instruments, and Daniel Krashen ometry and in particular to random played bass, flute and keyboards maps and triangulations.” Outside in a funk band during graduate school. He is married to of mathematics, Angel enjoys hiking the algebraic geometer Angela Gibney, and they have two Omer Angel and juggling. Mourrat was recog- daughters, ages eight and ten, who are considering careers nized “for significant new results in in space exploration (this week at least). stochastic homogenization and in Jakita Nicole Owensby Thomas of Spelman College singular stochastic partial differen- was honored for her outstanding research on variations by tial equations and associated scal- which African American middle-school girls develop com- ing limits.” Weber was honored “for putational algorithmic thinking through game design and a series of significant new results increase their awareness of career applications in industry. in the theory of singular stochastic partial differential equations and —From a White House announcement associated scaling limits.” The Rollo Davidson Trust was founded in Jean-Christophe 1975 and awards the annual prize Prizes of the Mathematical Mourrat to young mathematicians working in the field of probability. Society of Japan The Mathematical Society of Japan (MSJ) has awarded —From a Davidson Trust several prizes for 2016. announcement The Spring Prize has been awarded to Hiroshi Iritani of Kyoto University for his outstanding contributions to research on Gromov-Witten invariants and mirror sym- PECASE Awards metry. The Spring Prize is awarded to mathematicians under the age of forty who have obtained outstanding Announced mathematical results. The 2016 Algebra Prize has been awarded to Hidenori Three young researchers, nomi- Hendrik Weber Katsurada of the Muroran Institute of Technology for nated by the National Science Foun- work on L-functions and periods of automorphic forms dation, whose work involves the of several variables; to Kazuhiko Kurano of Meiji Uni- mathematical sciences have received Presidential Early versity for contributions to intersection theory over local Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from rings and its applications to the theory of Cohen-Macaulay President Obama. modules; and to Masa-Hiko Saito of Kobe University for AUGUST 2016 NOTICES OF THE AMS 825 Mathematics People work on moduli spaces of connections and differential Problem Solving Workshops, hosted by the University of equations of Painlevé type. Regina math department, for students in grades seven The Ikushi Prize of the Japan Society for the Promotion through ten who want to improve their math skills. The of Science (JSPS) has been awarded to Kazumasa Fuji- PIMS Education Prize recognizes individuals within the wara of Waseda University for his work on mathematical PIMS community who have played a major role in encour- foundations of semirelativistic nonlinear fields. The Ikushi aging activities that enhance public awareness and appre- Prize was established to encourage young researchers, ciation of mathematics, as well as fostering communica- particularly PhD students. tion among various groups concerned with mathematical The MSJ Prizes for Excellent Young Applied Mathemati- education at all levels. cians for 2015 have been awarded to: Michitaka Furuya, —From a PIMS announcement Tokyo University of Science, for some approaches for com- paring rainbow domination numbers; Hideki Murakawa, Kyushu University, for mathematics of cell-cell adhesion: experiments, modeling, and analysis; Takeshi Gotoda, Hertz Foundation Fellowships Kyoto University, for mathematical analysis of entropy Awarded dissipation via triple collapse of point vortices; and Harunori Monobe, Meiji University, for work on condi- Felipe Hernandez of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- tion for existence of traveling wave solutions, composed nology and Sarah McFann of the University of