Joel Smoller Receives 2009 AMS-SIAM Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics
January 6, 2009
Providence, RI---Joel Smoller of the University of Michigan is receiving the 2009 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics. Sponsored by the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, this prize is awarded every three years for an outstanding contribution to applied mathematics in the highest and broadest sense. The prize will be awarded on Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC.
According to the prize citation, Smoller is receiving the Birkhoff Prize "for his leadership, originality, depth, and breadth of work in dynamical systems, differential equations, mathematical biology, shock wave theory, and general relativity... Overall, his powerful intuition for innovative new directions and his forcefulness in cementing powerful collaborations have been emblematic of a career worthy of emulation." The full citation for this prize and additional information can be found in the Prize Booklet.
Citation
Joel Smoller
The 2009 George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Joel Smoller for his leadership, originality, depth, and breadth of work in dynamical systems, differential equations, mathematical biology, shock wave theory, and general relativity. His classic text on shock waves has had far-reaching impact on the field. His work with Charles Conley led to many results on reaction-diffusion equations, with diverse applications to biology, physiology, and chemistry. His work with Arthur Wasserman on bifurcation theory, which introduced an equivariant version of the Conley index, was a tour de force of original methods, providing a rigorous analysis and characterization of radial stationary solutions of the Einstein Yang–Mills equations. He and Blake Temple developed a theory of shock wave propogation in general relativity and gave the first exact solution of the Einstein equations. Overall, his powerful intuition for innovative new directions and his forcefulness in cementing powerful collaborations have been emblematic of a career worthy of emulation.
Biographical Note
Joel Smoller was born in New York City and was an undergraduate at Brooklyn College. He obtained his PhD at Purdue University in 1963, writing a thesis in abstract functional analysis. He has spent his entire academic career at the University of Michigan and was promoted to full professor in 1969. Shortly after arriving at Michigan, his research interests changed to Partial Differential Equations. He has supervised 27 PhD students, including Tai-Ping Liu (Stanford), David Hoff (Indiana), Robert Gardner (UMass.), Blake Temple (UC, Davis), and Zhouping Xin (Chinese University of Hong Kong). Smoller has held the Lamberto Cesari Chair of Mathematics at The University of Michigan since 1998. His awards include a senior Humboldt Fellowship, 2005–2008; Morningside Lecturer, International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians, 2001 and 2004; Rothschild Professor and Rothschild Lecture, University of Cambridge (UK), 2003; Patton Lecturer, Indiana University, 2001; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Purdue University, 2000; Excellence in Research Award, University of Michigan, 1996; Plenary Address at Marcel Grossman Conference in Physics (Stanford University), 1994; joint Harvard, MIT, Brandeis lecture, 1994; Margaret and Herman Sokol Award, University of Michigan, 1992; Ordway Lecturer, University of Minnesota, 1985; Guggenheim Fellowship, 1980–1981. Three issues of the journal Methods and Applications of Analysis, 12, nos. 2,3,4, displaying his picture on the covers, were dedicated to him in 2005. Smoller has been the editor for five journals, Michigan Mathematics Journal, Applicable Analysis, Journal of Hyperbolic Differential Equations, Nonlinearity, and he was the PDE editor for the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 1982–1986. National meetings were dedicated to his 60th and 70th birthdates at UC, Davis and Stanford University, respectively.
Response from Joel Smoller
It is a great honor to be chosen as the recipient of the 2009 George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics. I am appreciative of the American Mathematical Society and to the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for their recognition of my research accomplishments. Above all, I would like to thank my many collaborators for their generosity, their encouragement, and for patiently introducing me to a wealth of new ideas. Special thanks are due to Blake Temple, who has been a long time collaborator and has shared many of his beautiful new ideas with me.
Many outstanding mathematicians have influenced me and affected the trajectory of my research career. In particular, I owe many thanks to Edward Conway, who taught me the mathematics of shock waves, and to Charles Conley, who was my friend, mentor, and collaborator for many years. Both Conway and Conley passed away unexpectedly more than 20 years ago, but I still miss them. James Glimm, Peter Lax, and Shing-Tung Yau, have always supported and encouraged me, and for this I owe them many thanks. My younger collaborator Felix Finster, has greatly influenced my work by taking me into new and exciting directions. Finally, my many excellent students, including Blake Temple, David Hoff, Tai- Ping Liu, Zhouping Xin, andRobert Gardner, have had an impact on my career by being both my teachers and collaborators.
I have always been attracted to special problems whose analysis uncovers new phenomena in physical settings. I have tended to start in new directions, rather than work on more technical problems that finish up fields. Like most, I learn best through collaboration, and I have been extremely lucky to find brilliant colleagues who have led me into so many rewarding experiences.