Robert Langlands facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Robert Langlands CC FRS FRSC
Born	(1936-10-06) October 6, 1936 (age 88) New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian/American
Alma mater	University of British Columbia (BSc, MSc) Yale University (PhD)
Known for	Langlands program
Awards	Jeffery–Williams Prize (1980) Cole Prize (1982) Wolf Prize (1995–96) Steele Prize (2005) Nemmers Prize (2006) Shaw Prize (2007) Abel Prize (2018) Order of Canada (2019)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Princeton University Middle East Technical University University of California, Berkeley Yale University Institute for Advanced Study
Thesis	Semi-Groups and Representations of Lie Groups (1960)
Doctoral advisor	Cassius Ionescu-Tulcea
Doctoral students	James Arthur Thomas Callister Hales Diana Shelstad

Robert Phelan Langlands is a Canadian mathematician born on October 6, 1936. He is famous for creating the Langlands program. This is a big idea that connects different areas of mathematics, like number theory and representation theory. For his amazing work, he received the 2018 Abel Prize, which is like the Nobel Prize for mathematics. He used to be a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he even worked in Albert Einstein's old office!

Early Life and Education

Robert Langlands was born in 1936 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. His parents were Robert and Kathleen Langlands. He has two younger sisters. In 1945, his family moved to White Rock, a town close to the US border. There, his parents ran a business that supplied building materials and did construction.

Robert was a very bright student. He finished Semiahmoo Secondary School and started attending the University of British Columbia when he was only 16 years old. He earned his first degree in mathematics in 1957. He continued his studies there and received a master's degree in 1958. After that, he went to Yale University in the United States, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1960.

Career and Research

After finishing his studies, Langlands began his teaching career at Princeton University in 1960. He worked there as an associate professor until 1967. He also spent a year in Turkey at METU from 1967 to 1968. He was a professor at Yale University from 1967 to 1972.

In 1972, he became a special professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. He retired from this position in 2007.

The Langlands Program

Robert Langlands' most important work is the Langlands program. This program is a set of ideas and predictions that connect different parts of mathematics. It links representation theory (which studies how mathematical objects can be "represented" by simpler ones) and automorphic forms (special functions with many symmetries) to Galois groups in number theory (the study of numbers).

Imagine different branches of math as separate islands. The Langlands program is like building bridges between these islands. It suggests that there are deep connections and hidden patterns that link these areas together.

One of the big ideas in his program is called "functoriality." This suggests that if you have a connection between two mathematical objects, you might find a similar connection between other related objects.

Impact on Mathematics

The Langlands program has had a huge impact on modern mathematics. It has guided research for many years. One famous example of its influence is in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. A special part of the Langlands program helped Andrew Wiles prove this famous theorem.

In the mid-1980s, Langlands also looked into physics, studying things like how materials flow and how shapes stay the same when they are stretched. He has also worked to make his writings available online for other mathematicians to study.

Awards and Recognition

Robert Langlands has received many important awards for his contributions to mathematics:

• Jeffery–Williams Prize (1980)
• Wolf Prize (1996)
• Steele Prize (2005)
• Nemmers Prize (2006)
• Shaw Prize (2007)
• Abel Prize (2018) – This is one of the highest honors in mathematics.

He is also a member of many important academic groups, including the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society in the UK. In 2019, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, which is one of Canada's highest honors.

In 2020, his old high school, Semiahmoo Secondary School, honored him with a special mural to celebrate his achievements.

Personal Life

Robert Langlands married Charlotte Lorraine Cheverie in 1957. They have four children, two daughters and two sons. He is a citizen of both Canada and the United States.

Besides his work in mathematics, Langlands enjoys learning foreign languages. He speaks English, French, Turkish, and German. He can also read Russian, which helps him understand mathematical papers from different countries.

See also

In Spanish: Robert Langlands para niños