Brown mathematician David Mumford wins prestigious Wolf Prize

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University mathematician David Mumford has won the 2008 Wolf Foundation Prize in Mathematics for groundbreaking theoretical work in algebraic geometry. The Wolf Prize is one of the most prestigious honors in mathematics.

“David Mumford is a highly original thinker, a very distinguished member of the Brown faculty, and an extremely influential member of the scientific community worldwide,” said Brown Provost David Kertzer. “This award is testament to his wide-ranging intelligence and the tremendous impact of his work.”

The Wolf Foundation of Israel is a private nonprofit that awards prizes each year to outstanding scientists and artists in six fields: agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts. Prizes come with a diploma and $100,000. Scholars will receive their awards from Israeli President Shimon Peres in a Jerusalem ceremony on May 25, 2008.

Mumford, professor emeritus in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Brown, shares the 2008 mathematics prize with Pierre Deligne and Phillip Griffiths of Princeton University. According to the Wolf Foundation, Mumford is being recognized for his “work on algebraic surfaces; on geometric invariant theory; and for laying the foundations of the modern algebraic theory of moduli of curves and theta functions.”

Mumford’s contributions to mathematics fundamentally changed algebraic geometry and were the grounds for winning the Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics, in 1974. He is perhaps best known for inventing geometric invariant theory, a concrete theory in algebraic geometry that forms the heart of moduli theory, the study of how geometric structures vary. His studies of curves laid the foundation for string theory in physics.