Peter Sarnak facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Sarnak
FRS MAE
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| Born |
Peter Clive Sarnak
18 December 1953 Johannesburg, South Africa
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| Nationality | South Africa United States |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand (BSc) Stanford University (PhD) |
| Known for | Systolic geometry Hafner–Sarnak–McCurley constant |
| Awards | George Pólya Prize (1998) Ostrowski Prize (2001) Levi L. Conant Prize (2003) Cole Prize (2005) Wolf Prize (2014) Sylvester Medal (2019) Shaw Prize (2024) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Courant Institute New York University Stanford University Princeton University Institute for Advanced Study |
| Thesis | Prime geodesic theorems (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | Paul Cohen |
| Doctoral students |
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Peter Sarnak, born on December 18, 1953, is a famous mathematician from South Africa and the United States. Since 2007, he has worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, a place where top scientists do research. He is also a professor of mathematics at Princeton University since 2002. He is well-known for his work in a field called analytic number theory. He also helped choose winners for the Shaw Prize in Mathematics.
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Early Life and Education
Peter Sarnak grew up in South Africa. His grandfather was a rabbi in Johannesburg. As a child, he lived in Israel for three years.
He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. There, he earned his first science degrees in 1975 and 1976. Later, he went to Stanford University in the United States. He completed his PhD in 1980. His teacher there was a famous mathematician named Paul Cohen.
Amazing Discoveries in Math
Peter Sarnak is known as one of the best mathematicians of his time. He has made many important discoveries in analysis and number theory. These are two big areas of mathematics.
One of his early works helped to show that an idea by another mathematician, Atle Selberg, was not quite right. He also found strong ways to solve problems related to the Ramanujan–Petersson conjecture. This is a complex idea in number theory.
Sarnak was one of the first to connect ideas from theoretical physics with analytic number theory. He even came up with the term arithmetical quantum chaos. This term describes how numbers can behave in a chaotic, yet predictable, way. His work also links random matrix theory to the zeros of L-functions. These are special functions used in number theory.
His research on Rankin–Selberg L-functions helped solve Hilbert's eleventh problem. This was one of the 23 unsolved math problems listed by David Hilbert in 1900.
Where He Has Worked
Professor Sarnak has taught and researched at several top universities:
- From 1980 to 2005, he worked at the Courant Institute at New York University.
- From 1984 to 1991, he was a professor at Stanford University.
- Since 1991, he has been a professor at Princeton University. He became the Eugene Higgins Professor in 2002.
- Since 2007, he has been a permanent faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Books and Papers
Peter Sarnak has written and edited many important mathematical books. These books share his research and ideas with other mathematicians. Some of his works include:
- Some Applications of Modular Forms (1990)
- Extremal Riemann Surfaces (joint editor, 1997)
- Random Matrices, Frobenius Eigenvalues and Monodromy (joint author, 1998)
- Elementary Number Theory, Group Theory and Ramanujan Graphs (joint author, 2003)
Awards and Honors
Peter Sarnak has received many awards for his amazing contributions to mathematics. These awards show how important his work is.
Some of his major awards include:
- 1988: Pólya Prize
- 2001: Ostrowski Prize
- 2003: Levi L. Conant Prize
- 2005: Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory
- 2014: Wolf Prize in Mathematics
- 2019: Sylvester Medal from the Royal Society
- 2024: Shaw Prize
He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities. These include the University of the Witwatersrand (2014), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010), University of Chicago (2015), and Stockholm University (2023).
Sarnak is a member of many important academic groups. These include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002. In 2019, he became one of the few non-British citizens to receive the prestigious Sylvester Medal.
