Bjorn Mikhail Poonen (born 27 July 1968 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts) is a mathematician, four-time

Putnam Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

winner, and a Distinguished Professor in Science in the Department of Mathematics at 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 ...

. His research is primarily in

arithmetic geometry In mathematics, arithmetic geometry is roughly the application of techniques from algebraic geometry to problems in number theory. Arithmetic geometry is centered around Diophantine geometry, the study of rational points of algebraic variety, alg ...

, but he has occasionally published in other subjects such as

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. He has edited two books, and his research articles have been cited by approximately 1,000 distinct authors. He is the founding managing editor of the journal ''

Algebra & Number Theory ''Algebra & Number Theory'' is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published by the nonprofit organization Mathematical Sciences Publishers. It was launched on January 17, 2007, with the goal of "providing an alternative to the current range of com ...

'', and serves also on the editorial boards of '' Involve'' and the ''

A K Peters A K Peters, Ltd. was a publisher of scientific and technical books, specializing in mathematics and in computer graphics, robotics, and other fields of computer science. They published the journals ''Experimental Mathematics'' and the '' Journal ...

Research Notes in Mathematics'' book series.Curriculum vitae
retrieved 2015-01-28.

Education

Poonen is a 1985 alumnus of Winchester High School in

Winchester, Massachusetts Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the List of Massachusetts locations by per capita income, wealt ...

. In 1989, Poonen graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in Mathematics and Physics, summa cum laude. He then studied under

Kenneth Alan Ribet Kenneth Alan Ribet (; born June 28, 1948) is an American mathematician working in algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. He is known for the Herbrand–Ribet theorem and Ribet's theorem, which were key ingredients in the proof of Fermat ...

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 ...

, completing a PhD there in 1994.

Academic positions

Poonen held postdoctoral positions at

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and served on the faculty of the

from 1997 to 2008, before moving to

MIT 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 m ...

. He has also held visiting positions at the

Isaac Newton Institute The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its many applications at the University of Cambridge. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathema ...

(1998 and 2005), the

Université Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

(2001), Harvard (2007), and MIT (2007).

Major honors and awards

* Fellow 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, ...

, 2012. *

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

: elected in 2012 *

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is the highest award for mathematical expository writing. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate, and is awarded yearly by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article ...

: the 2011 winner, for his article "Undecidability in number theory" *

Miller A miller is a person who operates a Gristmill, mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Mill (grinding), Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surname ...

Research Professorship – University of California Berkeley. * David and Lucile Packard Fellowship *

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual list of mathematics competitions, mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in th ...

: winner in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988 (the only other four-time winners since 1938 are

Don Coppersmith Don Coppersmith (born 1950) is a cryptographer and mathematician. He was involved in the design of the Data Encryption Standard block cipher at IBM, particularly the design of the S-boxes, strengthening them against differential cryptanalysis ...

Arthur Rubin Arthur Leonard Rubin (born 1956) is an American mathematician and aerospace engineer. He was named a Putnam Fellow on four consecutive occasions from 1970 to 1973. Life and career Rubin's mother was Jean E. Rubin, a professor of mathematics at ...

, Ravi D. Vakil,

Gabriel Carroll Gabriel Drew Carroll (born December 24, 1982) is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. He was born to tech industry worker parents in Oakland. He graduated from Harvard University with B.A. in mathematics and linguist ...

, Reid W. Barton, Daniel Kane and Brian R. Lawrence). *

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...

: silver medalist in 1985. *

American High School Mathematics Examination The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics that determine the United States team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The selection process takes place over t ...

: only participant (out of 380,000) to receive a perfect score in 1985.

Trivia

* He co-authored a paper entitled "How to spread rumors fast".C. Kenneth Fan, Bjorn Poonen, and George Poonen, "How to spread rumors fast", ''Mathematics Magazine'' 70 (1997), 40–46.

References

External links

Personal webpage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poonen, Bjorn 1968 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Paris-Sud 11 University faculty Putnam Fellows People from Winchester, Massachusetts Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Mathematical Society International Mathematical Olympiad participants Sloan Research Fellows Simons Investigator Winchester High School (Massachusetts) alumni Number theorists Arithmetic geometers American people of Ojibwe descent