Larry Guth to receive the 2020 Maryam Mirzakhani prize in mathematics from the NAS

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences will award the newly named Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics to Larry Guth, professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is receiving the $20,000 prize “for developing surprising, original, and deep connections between geometry, analysis, topology, and combinatorics, which have led to the solution of, or major advances on, many outstanding problems in these fields.” The Mirzakhani Prize recognizes exceptional contributions to the mathematical sciences by a mid-career mathematician.

Guth has made spectacular contributions to many areas of mathematics, including systolic geometry, analysis, and combinatorics. His accomplishments include the introduction of a new cell decomposition of Euclidian space, writing an authoritative book on the polynomial method, and creating a new induction-on-scales algorithm known as the Bourgain-Guth method.

The prize was established originally in 1987 as the NAS Award in Mathematics in honor of the American Mathematical Society’s centennial. The prize was renamed to honor the late Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), a highly accomplished and talented mathematician and the first (and only) woman to receive the highly prestigious Fields Medal. Made possible through generous gifts from the Simons Foundation and other benefactors, the Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics will be presented to Guth on April 26 during the Academy’s 157th annual meeting.

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Molly Galvin

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

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