Burt Totaro facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Burt Totaro
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Burt James Totaro
1967 (age 57–58) |
| Alma mater | Princeton University University of California, Berkeley |
| Awards | Whitehead Prize (2000) Prix Franco-Britannique (2001) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of California, Los Angeles University of Cambridge University of Chicago |
| Thesis | K-Theory and Algebraic Cycles (1989) |
| Doctoral advisor | Shoshichi Kobayashi |
Burt James Totaro, born in 1967, is an American mathematician. He is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He studies special areas of math called algebraic geometry and algebraic topology.
Early Life and Education
Burt Totaro was a very talented math student from a young age. He was part of a special program for mathematically gifted youth.
When he was just 13 years old, in 1980, he started college at Princeton University. He was the youngest student ever to begin there! Before that, at age 12, he took a big test called the SAT-I. He got a perfect score on the math part and a very high score on the reading part.
He finished college in 1984. Then, he went to the University of California, Berkeley, for more studies. He earned his Ph.D. (a very high degree in his field) in 1989.
Career and Research
Since 2009, Burt Totaro has helped lead a math journal called Compositio Mathematica. He also works on the editorial boards for other important math journals. In 2012, he became a full professor in the Mathematics Department at UCLA.
Professor Totaro's work is inspired by a big math problem called the Hodge conjecture. He looks at how topology (the study of shapes and spaces) connects with algebraic geometry (the study of shapes using algebra). His research helps in many different parts of mathematics. This includes representation theory, Lie theory, and group cohomology.
Awards and Recognition
In 2000, Burt Totaro was chosen as the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at the University of Cambridge in England. In the same year, he received the Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society. This award recognizes excellent mathematicians.
In 2009, Professor Totaro was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom. In 2019, he was also named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This was for his important work in algebraic geometry, Lie theory, and cohomology, and for helping the math community.
