Joseph Daniel Harris (born August 17, 1951) is a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

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 ...

working in the field of

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 ...

. After earning an AB from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

, he continued at Harvard to study for a PhD under

Phillip Griffiths Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He was a major developer in particul ...

Work

During the 1980s, he was on the faculty of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, moving to Harvard around 1988. He served as chair of the department at Harvard from 2002 to 2005. His work is characterized by its classical geometric flavor: he has claimed that nothing he thinks about could not have been imagined by the Italian geometers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that if he has had greater success than them, it is because he has access to better tools. Harris is well known for several of his books on algebraic geometry, notable for their informal presentations: * ''Principles of Algebraic Geometry'' , with Phillip Griffiths * ''Geometry of Algebraic Curves, Vol. 1'' , with

Enrico Arbarello Enrico Arbarello is an Italian mathematician who is a leading expert in algebraic geometry. He earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York in 1973. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1993-94. He is now a M ...

, Maurizio Cornalba, and Phillip Griffiths * , with William Fulton * * , with David Eisenbud * * ''Moduli of Curves'' , with Ian Morrison. * '' Fat Chance: Probability from 0 to 1'', with Benedict Gross and Emily Riehl, 2019 As of 2018, Harris has supervised 50 PhD students, including

Brendan Hassett Brendan Edward Hassett is an American mathematician who works as a professor of mathematics at Brown University.C ...

James McKernan James McKernan (born 1964) is a mathematician, and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego. He was a professor at MIT from 2007 until 2013. Education McKernan was educated at the Campion School, Hornchurch, and Tr ...

Rahul Pandharipande Rahul Pandharipande (born 1969) is a mathematician who is currently a professor of mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH) working in algebraic geometry. His particular interests concern moduli spaces, enumerativ ...

Zvezdelina Stankova Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova ( bg, Звезделина Енчева Станкова; born 15 September 1969) is a professor of mathematics at Mills College and a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the founder of the Be ...

, and

Ravi Vakil Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in algebraic geometry. Education and career Vakil attended high school at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he won several mathemati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Joseph Daniel 1951 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Algebraic geometers Brown University faculty Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Harvard College alumni Harvard University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni