Christopher Derek Hacon (born 14 February 1970) is a mathematician with British, Italian and US nationalities. He is currently distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Utah where he holds a Presidential Endowed Chair. His research interests include

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

. Hacon was born in Manchester, but grew up in Italy where he studied at the

Scuola Normale Superiore The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

and received a degree in mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1992. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998, under supervision of

Robert Lazarsfeld Robert Kendall Lazarsfeld (born April 15, 1953) is an American mathematician, currently a professor at Stony Brook University. He was previously the Raymond L. Wilder Collegiate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan. He is the ...

Awards and honors

In 2007, he was awarded a Clay Research Award for his work, joint with James McKernan, on "the birational geometry of algebraic varieties in dimension greater than three, in particular, for ninductive proof of the existence of flips." In 2009, he was awarded the

Cole Prize The Frank Nelson Cole Prize, or Cole Prize for short, is one of twenty-two prizes awarded to mathematicians by the American Mathematical Society, one for an outstanding contribution to algebra, and the other for an outstanding contribution to number ...

for outstanding contribution to algebra, along with McKernan. He was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

2010 in Hyderabad, on the topic of "''Algebraic Geometry.''" In 2011, he was awarded the

Antonio Feltrinelli Prize The Feltrinelli Prize (from the Italian "Premio Feltrinelli", also known as "International Feltrinelli Prize" or "Antonio Feltrinelli Prize") is an award for achievement in the arts, music, literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and physical a ...

in Mathematics, Mechanics and Applications by Italy's prestigious

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In 2012, he became a

Simons Investigator The Simons Foundation is a private foundation established in 1994 by Marilyn and Jim Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the US with assets of over $5 billion in 2022, the foundation's mission ...

. In 2015, he won the American Mathematical Society Moore Prize. In 2017, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, he won the 2018

Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics is an annual award of the Breakthrough Prize series announced in 2013. It is funded by Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg and others. The annual award comes with a cash gift of $3 million. The Breakthrough Prize ...

(with James McKernan). In 2018, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. In 2019, he was elected to the Royal Society.

References

External links

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Website of University of Utah
1970 births Living people Algebraic geometers 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians 20th-century Italian mathematicians 21st-century Italian mathematicians University of Utah faculty Clay Research Award recipients Fellows of the American Mathematical Society University of Pisa alumni Simons Investigator University of California, Los Angeles alumni Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences {{mathematician-stub