Allen Ivar Knutson is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Education

Knutson completed his undergraduate studies at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and received a Ph.D. from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1996 under the joint advisorship of

Victor Guillemin Victor William Guillemin (born 1937 in Boston) is an American mathematician working in the field of symplectic geometry, who has also made contributions to the fields of microlocal analysis, spectral theory, and mathematical physics. He is a te ...

and Lisa Jeffrey.

Career

He was on the faculty at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

before moving to the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

in 2005 and then to

in 2009. In 2005, he and Terence Tao won the Levi L. Conant Prize of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

for their paper "Honeycombs and Sums of Hermitian Matrices". Knutson is also known for his studies of the mathematics of juggling.The mathematics of juggling
one-hour YouTube lecture For five years beginning in 1990, he and fellow Caltech student David Morton held a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for passing 12 balls..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knutson, Allen Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Jugglers California Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Cornell University faculty Scientists from California Year of birth missing (living people)