Steven Mark Zucker (12 September 1949 – 13 September 2019) was an American

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who introduced the

Zucker conjecture Zucker is a German word meaning "sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound su ...

, proved in different ways by

Eduard Looijenga Eduard Jacob Neven Looijenga (born 30 September 1948, Zaandam) is a Dutch mathematician who works in algebraic geometry and the theory of algebraic groups.

(1988) and by Leslie Saper and Mark Stern (1990). Zucker completed his

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 a ...

in 1974 at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

under the supervision of

Spencer Bloch Spencer Janney Bloch (born May 22, 1944; New York City) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic ''K''-theory. Bloch is a R. M. Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Depart ...

. His work with

David A. Cox David Archibald Cox (born September 23, 1948 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American mathematician, working in algebraic geometry. Cox graduated from Rice University with a bachelor's degree in 1970 and his Ph.D. in 1975 at Princeton Universi ...

led to the creation of the

Cox–Zucker machine In arithmetic geometry, the Cox–Zucker machine is an algorithm created by David A. Cox and Steven Zucker. This algorithm determines whether a given set of sections provides a basis (up to torsion) for the Mordell–Weil group of an elliptic s ...

, an algorithm for determining if a given set of sections provides a basis (up to torsion) for the

Mordell–Weil group In arithmetic geometry, the Mordell–Weil group is an abelian group associated to any abelian variety A defined over a number field K, it is an arithmetic invariant of the Abelian variety. It is simply the group of K-points of A, so A(K) is the Mor ...

of an elliptic surface

E \to S

, where

S

is isomorphic to the

projective line In mathematics, a projective line is, roughly speaking, the extension of a usual line by a point called a ''point at infinity''. The statement and the proof of many theorems of geometry are simplified by the resultant elimination of special cases; ...

. He was part of the mathematics faculty at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

. In 2012, he became a fellow of the

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 ...

Bibliography

* * *Saper, Leslie; Stern, Mark ''L₂-cohomology of arithmetic varieties'',

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as t ...

(2) 132 (1990), no. 1, 1–69. * * * *

References

External links

* * 1949 births 2019 deaths Algebraic geometers Princeton University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Mathematicians from Maryland Scientists from Baltimore {{US-mathematician-stub