János Kollár Receives 2006 AMS Cole Prize in Algebra

January 13, 2006

Providence, RI:

János Kollár of Princeton University is receiving the 2006 AMS Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra. Presented every three years by the American Mathematical Society, the Cole Prize is one of the highest distinctions in mathematics. The prize is being awarded today at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, Texas.

Kollár is being honored "for his outstanding achievements in the theory of rationally connected varieties and for his illuminating work on a conjecture of Nash."

Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1956, János Kollár received his doctorate at Brandeis University. He was on the faculty of Harvard University and the University of Utah before taking his present position as a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. He was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1995 and to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2005.

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

# # # # #

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.