for his fundamental contributions to algebra, algebraic geometry, and representation theory, and for weaving these subjects together to solve old problems and reveal beautiful new connections.
The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences for 2014 is awarded to George Luzstig, Abdun-Nur Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his fundamental contributions to algebra, algebraic geometry, and representation theory, and for weaving these subjects together to solve old problems and reveal beautiful new connections.
For more than two hundred years, symmetry groups have been at the centre of mathematics and its applications: in Fourier’s work on the heat equation in the early 1800s; in Weyl’s work on quantum mechanics in the early 1900s; and in the approach to number theory created by Artin and Chevalley. These classical works show that answers to almost any question involving a symmetry group lie in understanding its realizations as a group of matrices; that is in terms of its representations.
For more than two hundred years, symmetry groups have been at the centre of mathematics and its applications: in Fourier’s work on the heat equation in the early 1800s; in the work of Weyl and Wigner on quantum mechanics in the early 1900s; and in the approach to number theory created by Artin and Chevalley. These classical works show that answers to almost any question involving a symmetry group lie in understanding its realizations as a group of linear transformations, that is, in terms of its representations.
Lusztig’s work has completely transformed our understanding of representation theory, providing complete and precise answers to fundamental questions that were understood before only in very special cases. What he has done has advanced all of the mathematics where symmetry groups play a role: from Langlands’ programme for understanding automorphic forms in number theory, to classical problems of harmonic analysis on real Lie groups.
George Lusztig was born in 1946 in Timisoara, Romania and is currently Abdun-Nur Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated from the University of Bucharest, Romania, in 1968, and received both the MA and PhD in Mathematics from Princeton University in 1971. From 1971 to 1977, he was at the University of Warwick, UK and became a professor in 1974. Since 1978, he has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was named Honorary Member of the Mathematics Institute of the Romanian Academy in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, UK and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
