Martin Robert Bridson is a Manx mathematician. He is the Whitehead Professor of Pure Mathematics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and President of the Clay Mathematics Institute. He was previously Head of Oxford's Mathematical Institute. He is a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The col ...

. Specializing in

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

and

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

, Bridson is best known for his work in

geometric group theory Geometric group theory is an area in mathematics devoted to the study of finitely generated groups via exploring the connections between algebraic properties of such group (mathematics), groups and topology, topological and geometry, geometric pro ...

Education and early life

Bridson is a native of the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. He was educated at St Ninian's High School, Douglas, then

, and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, receiving a Master of Arts degree from Oxford in 1986, and a Master of Science degree in 1988 followed by a PhD in 1991 from Cornell. His PhD thesis was supervised by

Karen Vogtmann Karen Vogtmann (born July 13, 1949 in Pittsburg, California''Biographies of Candidates 200 ...

, and was entitled ''Geodesics and Curvature in Metric Simplicial Complexes''.

Career and research

He was an assistant professor 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 ...

until 1996, was twice a visiting professor at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

(1992 and 2006), and was Professor of 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 ...

from 2002 to 2007. From 1993 to 2002 he was a Tutorial Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Reader (1996) then Professor of Topology (2000) in the University of Oxford. He remains a Supernumerary Fellow of Pembroke College. In 2016, Bridson became only the second Manxman to ever be elected to the Royal Society, after

Edward Forbes Edward Forbes FRS, FGS (12 February 1815 – 18 November 1854) was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainlan ...

. In 2020, he was elected to

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

. With

André Haefliger André Haefliger (born 22 May 1929 in Nyon, Switzerland) is a Swiss mathematician who works primarily on topology. Education and career Haefliger went to school in Nyon and then attended his final years at Collège Calvin in Geneva. He studied ...

, he won the 2020 Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition for the highly influential book ''Metric Spaces of Non-positive Curvature'', published by Springer-Verlag in 1999.

Honours and awards

Bridson was an invited lecturer at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2006. * 2016 Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. * 2014 Elected a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

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, ...

. * 1999

Whitehead Prize The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to multiple mathematicians working in the United Kingdom who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C. Whiteh ...

* 2012

Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020. It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provide ...

* 2020 Elected Member of Academia Europaea * 2020 Steele Prize of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridson, Martin 1964 births Living people People educated at St Ninian's High School, Douglas Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Whitehead Prize winners Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Royal Society People from Douglas, Isle of Man Members of Academia Europaea