![Gunther Uhlmann](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Gunther_Uhlmann.jpg)
Gunther Alberto Uhlmann Arancibia (9 February 1952,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
) is a mathematician whose research focuses on
inverse problem
An inverse problem in science is the process of calculating from a set of observations the causal factors that produced them: for example, calculating an image in X-ray computed tomography, source reconstruction in acoustics, or calculating the ...
s and
imaging
Imaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's form; especially a visual representation (i.e., the formation of an image).
Imaging technology is the application of materials and methods to create, preserve, or duplicate images.
...
,
microlocal analysis
In mathematical analysis, microlocal analysis comprises techniques developed from the 1950s onwards based on Fourier transforms related to the study of variable-coefficients-linear and nonlinear partial differential equations. This includes genera ...
,
partial differential equations
In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function.
The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...
and
invisibility
Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology.
Since objects can be seen by light in ...
.
Education and career
Uhlmann studied mathematics as an undergraduate at the
Universidad de Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. in Santiago, gaining his
Licenciatura
A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels.
It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin Ame ...
degree in 1973. He continued his studies at
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 ...
where he received a PhD in 1976. He held postdoctoral positions at
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 ...
,
Harvard
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 ...
and
NYU
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
, including a Courant Instructorship at the
Courant Institute
The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...
in 1977–1978. In 1980, he became Assistant Professor at MIT and then moved in 1985 to the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
. He has been the Walker Family Professor at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
since 2006. During 2010-2012 he was on leave at the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
, as the Excellence in Teaching Endowed Chair. Uhlmann was Finnish Distinguished Professor 2012–2017. He is currently also the Si-Yuan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a public research university in Clear Water Bay Peninsula, New Territories, Hong Kong. Founded in 1991 by the British Hong Kong Government, it was the territory's third institution ...
since 2014.
Awards and honors
Uhlmann has received several honors for his research including a
Sloan 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.
...
in 1984 and a
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 2001. In 2001 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application.
It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
since 2004. He was elected to the
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 ...
in 2009 and a SIAM Fellow in 2010. He was an Invited Speaker at ICM in Berlin in 1998 and a Plenary Speaker at
International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics in Zurich in 2007. He was named a Clay Senior Scholar at the
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 ...
(MSRI) at Berkeley in the Fall of 2010. In Fall 2010 he held the Chancellor Professorship at UC Berkeley. He was named a Highly Cited Researcher by ISI in 2004. He was awarded the
Bôcher Memorial Prize
The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). It is awarded every three years (formerly every five year ...
in 2011 and the Kleinman Prize also in 2011. In Fall 2011 he was a Rothschild Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK. Uhlmann delivered the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Einstein Lecture in 2012. He was awarded the Fondation Math'ematiques de Paris Research Chair for 2012–2013. He was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2012 and is also an AMS Fellow since 2012. He was awarded a Simons Fellowship for 2013–2014. In 2013, he was elected Foreign Member of the
Finnish Academy of Science and Letters
The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Fi ...
. He gave a Plenary Lecture at the
International Congress on Mathematical Physics
The International Congress on Mathematical Physics (ICMP) is the largest research congress in mathematical physics. It is held every three years, on behalf of the International Association of Mathematical Physics (IAMP).
Prizes
The Henri Poin ...
in 2015 and a Plenary Lecture at the V Congreso Latinamericano de Matemáticos (CLAM) in 2016. In 2017 he was awarded the Solomon Lefschetz Medal by the Mathematical Council of the Americas. In the Fall of 2019, Uhlmann was a Clay Senior Scholar at MSRI, Berkeley. In 2021 he was awarded by AMS and SIAM the
George David Birkhoff Prize
The George David Birkhoff Prize in applied mathematics is awarded – jointly by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) – in honour of George David Birkhoff (1884–1944). It is curre ...
. In 2021, he also received a Simons Fellowship. In 2022 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Helsinki.
Research
The earlier work of Uhlmann was in microlocal analysis and propagation of singularities for equations with multiple characteristics, in particular in understanding the phenomenon of conical refraction. He and
Richard Burt Melrose
Richard Burt Melrose is an Australian mathematician and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who works on geometric analysis, partial differential equations, and differential geometry.
Education
Melrose received in 1974 his P ...
pioneered the study of paired Lagrangian distributions. A striking application of this theory was given in the article with
Allan Greenleaf
Allan may refer to:
People
* Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name
* Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker
* Allan (footballer, born 1989) ( ...
on restricted
X-ray transform
In mathematics, the X-ray transform (also called ray transform or John transform) is an integral transform introduced by Fritz John in 1938 that is one of the cornerstones of modern integral geometry. It is very closely related to the Radon transfo ...
. He and John Sylvester made a major breakthrough in
Calderón
Calderón () is a Spanish and Sefardi occupational surname. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin "''caldaria''" ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker.
Calderón, or Calderon, may refer to:
* Alberto Calderón, Argentine mathematician ...
's
inverse problem
An inverse problem in science is the process of calculating from a set of observations the causal factors that produced them: for example, calculating an image in X-ray computed tomography, source reconstruction in acoustics, or calculating the ...
that has led to many other developments including the case of partial data. Applications of this problem include
Electrical resistivity tomography
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) or electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) is a geophysical technique for imaging sub-surface structures from electrical resistivity measurements made at the surface, or by electrodes in one or more borehole ...
in geophysics and
Electrical impedance tomography
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a noninvasive type of medical imaging in which the electrical conductivity, permittivity, and impedance of a part of the body is inferred from surface electrode measurements and used to form a tomographic ...
in medical imaging. Another major breakthrough was the solution of the
boundary rigidity problem in two dimensions with Leonid Pestov. and in higher dimensions with Plamen Stefanov and
András Vasy.
Uhlmann has also been interested in cloaking and invisibility. Uhlmann postulates the first mathematical equations to create invisible materials.
[Alonso, N]
Un genio invisible
Revista Qué Pasa, 21 March 2013. He and coauthors pioneered the idea of
transformation optics
Transformation optics is a branch of optics which applies metamaterials to produce spatial variations, derived from coordinate transformations, which can direct chosen bandwidths of electromagnetic radiation. This can allow for the construction ...
for the case of electrostatics. Surveys of results by Uhlmann and coauthors on cloaking can be found in.
"Inverse problems and invisibility"
Bulletin of the AMS 46 (2009), 55–97
References
External links
*
Home page at the University of Washington
* List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2001
List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2001.
US and Canadian Fellows
* Geneive Abdo, Independent Scholar, Washington, D. C.; Senior Research Associate, Middle East Institute, Columbia University: Faith, power, and the new Iran.
* Jeremy A ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uhlmann, Gunther
Living people
20th-century Chilean mathematicians
1952 births
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
University of Washington faculty
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Chilean people of Swedish descent
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty
21st-century Chilean mathematicians