Christopher Hacon and Bryna Kra Receive 2006-2007 AMS Centennial Fellowships

March 1, 2006

Providence, RI:

Christopher Hacon of the University of Utah and Bryna Kra of Northwestern University have been awarded the prestigious AMS Centennial Fellowships for the 2006-2007 academic year. These fellowships are presented annually to outstanding mathematicians who have held the doctoral degree for between three and twelve years. The primary selection criterion is excellence in research achievement. The stipend for the 2006-2007 Centennial Fellowship is US$64,000, plus an expense allowance of US$3,250. Fellows also receive a complimentary one-year AMS membership.

Christopher Hacon received his PhD in 1998 from the University of California at Los Angeles under the direction of Robert Lazarsfeld. He was a Wylie Assistant Professor at the University of Utah from 1998 to 2000, was an assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside from 2000 to 2002, and has been an assistant/associate professor at the University of Utah since 2002. Hacon's research is in the field of algebraic geometry. In particular he is interested in the classification of higher dimensional complex projective varieties and in questions arising from the minimal model program. He plans to use the fellowship to visit James McKernan at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Sándor Kovács at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Bryna Kra works in dynamical systems and ergodic theory, focusing on problems at the intersection of ergodic theory, additive combinatorics, and number theory. She received her PhD from Stanford University in 1995 under the direction of Yitzhak Katznelson and held postdoctoral positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Michigan, the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, and Ohio State University. She was an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University from 2000 to 2004 and subsequently has been an associate professor at Northwestern University. Kra plans to use her fellowship at Northwestern University and at the Université de Marne-la-Vallée to continue her collaboration with Bernard Host on multiple ergodic averages.

Find out more about AMS and AMS-affiliated prizes at http://www.ams.org/prizes-awards.

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Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.