Bjorn Poonen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bjorn Poonen
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Poonen at Oberwolfach in 2011
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| Born | July 27, 1968 Boston, Massachusetts
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| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley Harvard University |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | MIT |
| Thesis | The Mordell-Weil theorem, rigidity, and pairings for Drinfeld modules (1994) |
| Doctoral advisor | Kenneth Alan Ribet |
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Bjorn Mikhail Poonen (born July 27, 1968) is a famous mathematician. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Bjorn Poonen is known for winning the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition four times. This is a very difficult math contest for college students. His main research area is arithmetic geometry, which mixes ideas from number theory and geometry. He has also written about probability and computer science.
He helps run the math journal Algebra & Number Theory. He also works on other math publications.
School Days
Bjorn Poonen went to Winchester High School in Winchester, Massachusetts. He finished high school in 1985.
After high school, he went to Harvard University. In 1989, he earned degrees in Mathematics and Physics. He then studied at the University of California, Berkeley. He got his PhD in 1994, working with Kenneth Alan Ribet.
Where He Has Worked
After finishing his studies, Bjorn Poonen worked at several places. These included the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and Princeton University.
From 1997 to 2008, he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Later, he moved to the MIT, where he teaches now. He has also visited other universities to teach and do research, like the Isaac Newton Institute and Université Paris-Sud.
Awards and Achievements
Bjorn Poonen has received many important awards for his work in mathematics:
- He won the Joseph L. Doob Prize in 2023.
- He became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012.
- He was chosen as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.
- In 2011, he won the Chauvenet Prize for an article he wrote called "Undecidability in number theory".
- He received a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship and a Sloan Research Fellowship.
- He won the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition four times: in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988. Only a few other people have won this contest four times.
- He won a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1985.
- In 1985, he was the only person out of 380,000 to get a perfect score on the American High School Mathematics Examination.
Fun Fact
- Bjorn Poonen wrote a paper with someone else called "How to spread rumors fast".
