Kevin Mark Buzzard (born 21 September 1968) is a British

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 ...

and currently a professor of pure mathematics at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. He specialises 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 varieties. ...

and the

Langlands program In representation theory and algebraic number theory, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by , it seeks to relate Galois groups in algebraic num ...

Biography

While attending the

Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe , established = , closed = , type = Selective Grammar SchoolAcademy , head_label = Headmaster , head = Philip Wayne , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder ...

he competed in the

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 ...

, where he won a bronze medal in 1986 and a gold medal with a perfect score in 1987. He obtained a

B.A. 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 ...

degree ( Parts I & II) in Mathematics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he was

Senior Wrangler The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who a ...

(achiever of the highest mark), and went on to complete the C.A.S.M. He then completed his dissertation, entitled ''The levels of modular representations'', under the supervision of Richard Taylor, for which he was awarded a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree. He took a lectureship at

in 1998, a readership in 2002, and was appointed to a professorship in 2004. From October to December 2002 he held a visiting professorship at

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 high ...

, having previously worked at the

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

(1995), 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 univ ...

(1996-7), and the Institute Henri Poincaré in Paris (2000). He was awarded a Whitehead Prize by the London Mathematical Society in 2002 for "his distinguished work in number theory", and the

Senior Berwick Prize The Berwick Prize and Senior Berwick Prize are two prizes of the London Mathematical Society awarded in alternating years in memory of William Edward Hodgson Berwick, a previous Vice-President of the LMS. Berwick left some money to be given to the ...

in 2008. In 2017, he launched an ongoing formalization project and blog involving the Lean theorem prover and has since promoted the use of computer

proof assistants In computer science and mathematical logic, a proof assistant or interactive theorem prover is a software tool to assist with the development of formal proofs by human-machine collaboration. This involves some sort of interactive proof editor ...

in future mathematics research. He gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2022. He was the PhD supervisor to musician

Dan Snaith Daniel Victor Snaith (born March 29, 1978) is a Canadian composer, musician, and recording artist who has performed under the stage names Caribou, Manitoba, and Daphni. Career Snaith originally recorded under the stage name Manitoba, but afte ...

, also known as Caribou, who received a PhD in mathematics from

for his work on '' Overconvergent Siegel Modular Symbols''.

References

External links

Kevin Buzzard's professional webpage

Kevin Buzzard's personal webpage

Kevin Buzzard's blog (Xena Project)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buzzard, Kevin 1968 births 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Living people Number theorists Harvard University staff Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of Imperial College London People educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Whitehead Prize winners International Mathematical Olympiad participants