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March 4, 2005|Volume 33, Number 21


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Gregory A. Margulis



Margulis wins Wolf Prize in Mathematics

Gregory A. Margulis, the Erastus L. DeForest Professor of Mathematics, has won the 2005 Wolf Prize in Mathematics for his exceptional contributions to algebra and his creative synthesis of ideas and methods from different areas of mathematics.

The prize is presented by the Wolf Foundation, which was established in 1976 by inventor, diplomat and philanthropist Ricardo Wolf and his wife, Francisca Subirana-Wolf, "to promote science and art for the benefit of mankind." Each year, five or six prizes, consisting of a diploma and $100,000, are awarded to outstanding living scientists and artists. The science awards are presented in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, medicine, mathematics and physics. Prize winners are selected by international committees of three renowned experts in each field.

Margulis will share this year's Wolf mathematics award with Sergei P. Novikov at the University of Maryland. The awards will be presented by the president of the State of Israel on May 22 at the Knesset Building, in Jerusalem.

The Yale mathematician is cited for "monumental contributions to algebra, in particular to the theory of lattices in semi-simple Lie groups, and striking applications of this to ergodic theory, representation theory, number theory, combinatorics and measure theory."

Noting that Margulis has also received the Fields Medal of the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1978, Provost Andrew D. Hamilton said, "Gregory is one of very few to be honored with both the Wolf Prize and the Fields Medal for mathematics. His accomplishments in advancing the field of algebra have been remarkable."

Born and educated in Russia, Margulis began his career at his alma mater Moscow State University. He was appointed professor in the Department of Mathematics at Yale in 1991 and recently completed his term as chair of that department. Among the other prestigious international honors Margulis has received are the Medal of the College de France, the Alexander von Humboldt Prize and the Lobachevsky International Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Yale also boasts two previous Wolf Prize recipients: professors emeritus of mathematics Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro and Benoit Mandelbrot.


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