Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in

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 ...

Education and career

Vakil attended high school at

Martingrove Collegiate Institute Martingrove Collegiate Institute (MCI), also referred to as Martingrove, is a semestered public secondary school in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened in 1966 and is currently overseen by the Toronto District School Board. Academics ...

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...

, Ontario, where he won several mathematical contests and olympiads. After earning a BSc and MSc from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1992, he completed a PhD in mathematics 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 higher le ...

in 1997 under Joe Harris. He has since been an instructor at both

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

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 ...

. Since the fall of 2001, he has taught at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, becoming a full professor in 2007.

Contributions

Vakil is an algebraic geometer and his research work spans over

enumerative geometry In mathematics, enumerative geometry is the branch of algebraic geometry concerned with counting numbers of solutions to geometric questions, mainly by means of intersection theory. History The problem of Apollonius is one of the earliest examp ...

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

, Gromov–Witten theory, and classical algebraic geometry. He has solved several old problems in

Schubert calculus In mathematics, Schubert calculus is a branch of algebraic geometry introduced in the nineteenth century by Hermann Schubert, in order to solve various counting problems of projective geometry (part of enumerative geometry). It was a precursor of ...

. Among other results, he proved that all Schubert problems are enumerative over the

real number In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real ...

s, a result that resolves an issue mathematicians have worked on for at least two decades.

Awards and honors

Vakil has received many awards, including an

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

CAREER Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, an

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, ...

Centennial Fellowship, a G. de B. Robinson prize for the best paper published (2000) in the

Canadian Journal of Mathematics The ''Canadian Journal of Mathematics'' (french: Journal canadien de mathématiques) is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Canadian Mathematical Society. It was established in 1949 by H. S. M. Coxeter and G. de B. Robinson. The cur ...

and the

Canadian Mathematical Bulletin The ''Canadian Mathematical Bulletin'' (french: Bulletin Canadien de Mathématiques) is a mathematics journal, established in 1958 and published quarterly by the Canadian Mathematical Society. The current editors-in-chief of the journal are Antoni ...

, and the André-Aisenstadt Prize from the

Centre de Recherches Mathématiques The Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) is the first mathematical research institute in Canada, located at the Université de Montréal. The CRM has ten research laboratories, one in each of: mathematical analysis, number theory and symbol ...

at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

(2005), and the

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 ...

(2014).. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

Mathematics contests

He was a member of the Canadian team in three

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 ...

s, winning silver, gold (perfect score), and gold in 1986, 1987, and 1988 respectively. He was also the fourth person to be a four-time Putnam Fellow in the history of the contest. Also, he has been the coordinator of weekly Putnam preparation seminars at Stanford.

References

External links

Ravi Vakil's Home Page
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vakil, Ravi 1970 births University of Toronto alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Stanford University faculty Algebraic geometers 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Canadian mathematicians People from Etobicoke Putnam Fellows Living people Canadian people of Indian descent Fellows of the American Mathematical Society International Mathematical Olympiad participants