James G. Arthur Elected President-Elect of the AMS

November 26, 2003

PROVIDENCE, RI--James G. Arthur of the University of Toronto has been elected as President-Elect of the American Mathematical Society. He will officially assume this office on February 1, 2004. One year after that, he will succeed AMS President David Eisenbud of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the University of California, Berkeley.

"The American Mathematical Society is the largest and most ambitious mathematical organization in the world," Professor Arthur said. "These are exciting and challenging times for mathematics. I am very honored to be elected and I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve."

Professor Arthur is an internationally recognized mathematician who works in the theory of automorphic forms. This theory is a cornerstone of the Langlands Program, which suggests deep connections between analysis, number theory, and representation theory. Arthur is probably best known for his development of the so-called Arthur-Selberg trace formula, a key analytic tool in the Langlands program.

James Arthur received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1970 and has been at the University of Toronto since 1979; he became a University Professor in 1987. He has received several prizes, including the Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canada Gold Medal of the National Science and Engineering Research Council. In December 2003, he will be awarded the G. de B. Robinson Prize of the Canadian Mathematical Society. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Arthur was twice an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (Warsaw, 1983, and Berlin, 1998). He also spoke at the AMS meeting, "Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century," at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2000.

Professor Arthur has a substantial record of service with the AMS. He has been on several Society committees and served as a Member at Large of the Council (1986-88) and as Vice President (1999-2001).

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