Fifteen Mathematicians Join Honor Rolls of Two National Science Academies

May 9, 2007

This year, fifteen mathematicians were elected members of either the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington D.C., or the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Cambridge, Mass.

The National Academy of Sciences, established by Congress when Abraham Lincoln was President, this year elected 72 new members and 18 foreign associates. Seven are mathematicians. Robert L. Bryant (Duke University), who concentrates on the geometry of partial differential equations, and Harold M. Stark (University of California, San Diego), who specializes in number theory, are members of the MAA.

Five other mathematicians were elected to the NAS in 2007: Richard Durrett (Cornell University), David Gottlieb (Brown University), Curtis T. McMullen (Harvard University), Pierre Deligne (Institute for Advanced Study), and John Kingman (University of Cambridge).

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, established in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, this year elected 203 new fellows and 24 new honorary members. Of the eight mathematicians, Michael E. Taylor (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), who specializes in partial differential equations, is an MAA member.

Its seven other newly elected mathematicians are F. Michael Christ (University of California, Berkeley), Robert L. Griess, Jr. (University of Michigan), Ehud Hrushovski (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), Victor Kac (MIT), Peter Wai-Kwong Li(University of California, Irvine), Tomasz Mrowka (MIT), and Robert J. Zimmer (University of Chicago).

Sources: National Academy of Sciences; American Academy of Arts and Sciences