Xinwen Zhu (Chinese: 朱歆文; born 1982 in Sichuan) is a Chinese mathematician and professor at Stanford University. His work deals primarily with geometric representation theory and in particular the Langlands program, tying number theory to algebraic geometry and quantum physics.[1][2]

Zhu in 2015

Biography

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Zhu obtained his A.B. in mathematics from Peking University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009 under the direction of Edward Frenkel.[1] He taught at Harvard University as a Benjamin Peirce Lecturer and at Northwestern University as an assistant professor before joining the Caltech faculty in 2014. According to the American Mathematical Society, "[Zhu] studies the geometry and topology of flag varieties of loop groups and applies techniques from the geometric Langlands program to arithmetic geometry."[3]

The awards Zhu has received include an AMS Centennial Fellowship in 2013 and a Sloan Fellowship in 2015.[4] His research has been published in Annals of Mathematics and Inventiones mathematicae, among other mathematics journals. Zhu, Wei Zhang, Xinyi Yuan and Zhiwei Yun are frequent collaborators.[5] In 2019 he received the Morningside Medal jointly with Zhiwei Yun.[6] Zhu won the 2020 New Horizons in Mathematics Breakthrough Prize "For work in arithmetic algebraic geometry including applications to the theory of Shimura varieties and the Riemann-Hilbert problem for p-adic varieties."

Publications (selected)

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Prime Numbers, Quantum Fields, and Donuts: An Interview with Xinwen Zhu", Caltech. Retrieved on 3 December 2016.
  2. ^ 北大数学校友创新合作: 统一数论与几何 [New collaboration among Peking University mathematics alumni: unifying number theory and geometry]. Peking University. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  3. ^ "Mathematics People", Notices of the AMS. Retrieved on 3 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Caltech Professors Awarded 2015 Sloan Fellowships", Caltech. Retrieved on 3 December 2016.
  5. ^ "Math Quartet Joins Forces on Unified Theory", Quanta Magazine. Retrieved on 3 December 2016.
  6. ^ Morningside Medal 2019