Mathematics People

Alon, Shamir Share 2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics

The 2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics was awarded jointly to Noga Alon of Princeton University and Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Alon was recognized for “his fundamental contributions to combinatorics and theoretical computer science,” according to the prize announcement. “His seminal contributions include the development of ingenious techniques in combinatorics, graph theory, and theoretical computer science, and the solution of long-standing problems in these fields as well as in analytical number theory, combinatorial geometry, and information theory.” Alon is a professor of mathematics at Princeton University and a Baumritter Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science at Tel Aviv University.

Shamir was recognized for “his fundamental contributions to mathematical cryptography,” which includes co-invention of the RSA public-key cryptography algorithm. A professor in the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute, Shamir “is one of the most senior computer scientists globally,” according to a press release. “He is a top expert in the fields of information encryption and decryption.”

The 2024 Wolf Prize was awarded to laureates in the fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, agriculture, and music. Presented annually by the Wolf Foundation, the prize consists of a certificate and a monetary award of US$100,000.

—AMS Communications

Hou Wins 2024 William Benter Prize

The 2024 William Benter Prize in Applied Mathematics was awarded to Thomas Yizhao Hou, Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics, California Institute of Technology. The prize was presented at the International Conference on Applied Mathematics 2024 (ICAM 2024), held at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).

According to a press release, Hou’s “innovative small-scale decomposition method has found applications in diverse fields, from fluid dynamics to materials science and biology. His multiscale finite element method has made a significant impact in both the applied math and engineering communities. Recently, Professor Hou made another significant breakthrough by discovering a new class of potentially singular solutions of the axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations.”

Established by the Liu Bie Ju Centre for Mathematical Sciences (LBJ), the Benter Prize recognizes outstanding mathematical contributions that have had a direct and fundamental impact on scientific, business, finance, and engineering applications. The cash prize of US$100,000 is awarded biennially.

—City University of Hong Kong

Smit Vega Garcia Named 2024 Karen EDGE Fellow

Mariana Smit Vega Garcia (Western Washington University) was named the 2024 Karen EDGE Fellow, announced the Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes EDGE Foundation.

“The Karen EDGE Fellowship will allow Dr. Smit Vega Garcia to enhance her research program by allowing her to travel to meet collaborators and travel to conferences to present her work, while maintaining her commitment to her students and to building a supportive mathematical community,” according to a press release. Smit Vega Garcia’s main research interests lie at the interface between geometry and partial differential equations, particularly free boundary problems; she also studies combinatorial problems.

Smit Vega Garcia earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and her PhD in mathematics from Purdue University in 2014. After postdocs in Germany and at the University of Washington, she joined WWU in 2018, where she received the Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award. NSF funding enabled Smit Vega Garcia to found Jumpstart 2023, a conference focused on first-generation undergraduates interested in mathematics.

The Karen EDGE Fellowship Program was established with a gift from mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck on the occasion of her 2019 Abel Prize. The fellowship is designed to support and enhance the research programs and collaborations of midcareer mathematicians who are members of an underrepresented minority group.

—AMS Communications

Buchmann, Ryu Awarded Mary Beth Ruskai Research Grants

Amy Buchmann (University of San Diego) and Hwayeon Ryu (Elon University) are the inaugural grant recipients of the Mary Beth Ruskai Research Fund for Women, announced the Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes EDGE Foundation.

Establishing the fund with a bequest from mathematician Ruskai’s estate, the EDGE Foundation will award two grants of $5,000 annually for women in the mathematical sciences to advance their research careers through travel, collaboration, or other activities.

Buchmann, associate professor at USD, received her PhD from the Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Notre Dame in 2015. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Center for Computational Science at Tulane University. Her research is in the field of computational fluid dynamics.

Ryu, associate professor of mathematics at Elon, received her PhD in mathematics from Duke University in 2014. Her research interests include mathematical modeling and analysis of dynamical systems arising from disciplines such as systems biology, neuroscience, and immunology. Ryu “has a great passion for the development of a bridge curriculum and program between mathematics and biology, and strong commitment to increasing the access to higher education in STEM fields for women and historically underrepresented minorities,” according to a press release.

—AMS Communications

Galatius Awarded First Fred R. Cohen Prize

The Association for Mathematical Research (AMR) awarded the inaugural Fred R. Cohen Prize to Søren Galatius of the University of Copenhagen.

“Galatius is one of the outstanding mathematicians of his generation, and has contributed greatly to the development of algebraic topology,” according to the prize announcement. “This includes new proofs of the Mumford conjecture on the cohomology of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces; a proof of the Hatcher-Vogtmann conjecture on the cohomology of the automorphism groups of free groups; and most significantly, his breakthrough work with Oscar Randal-Williams on our understanding of high dimensional manifolds and their automorphisms, that constitute[s] some of the most outstanding contributions to the area over the last 30 years and open[s] up a whole new approach to the algebraic topology of manifolds.”

Awarded on July 1 and consisting of US$4,500, the biennial prize recognizes outstanding contributions in the area of algebraic topology from the last 10 years.

—Association for Mathematical Research

Boileau Wins 2024 Adrien Pouliot Award

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to mathematics education, André Boileau is the recipient of the 2024 Adrien Pouliot Award, announced the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). The award will be presented at the 2024 CMS Winter Meeting in November–December in Vancouver.

Boileau obtained his PhD in mathematics with a specialization in mathematical logic from the Université de Montréal in 1977. He subsequently joined the Department of Mathematics at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he contributed to the didactic section. As a full professor, he designed and taught nearly 50 different courses in mathematics teacher training programs before retiring in 2013.

“Today, Dr. Boileau remains deeply committed to exploring the possibilities offered by computers in mathematics education,” according to a press release. “He continues to design and develop powerful tools that he shares on his website, such as the P5Visuel interface he created.”

—Canadian Mathematical Society

Frenkel, Vergne Receive 2024 Weyl-Wigner Award

The 2024 Weyl-Wigner Award was awarded at the 33rd/35th International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (ICGTMP, Group33/35) in Cotonou, Benin, in July.

Igor Frenkel (Yale University) received the award “for his fundamental contributions to representation theory of infinite dimensional Lie algebras, their applications in theoretical physics and for seminal contributions to vertex operator algebras and the categorification program.”

Michèle Vergne (Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu) received the award “for her fundamental contributions to algebra, representation theory and geometry; her contributions were instrumental in developing modern tools in mathematical physics.”

—International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics