Michael J. Larsen
{{short description|American mathematician}}
{{ Infobox scientist
| name = Michael Larsen
| image = Michael J. Larsen.jpg
| nationality = American
| fields = Mathematics
| workplaces = University of Pennsylvania
University of Missouri
Indiana University Bloomington
| alma_mater = Princeton University
Harvard University
| thesis_title = Unitary groups and L-adic representations
| thesis_year = 1988
| doctoral_advisor = Gerd Faltings
| awards = Putnam Fellow (1981, 1983)
}}
Michael Jeffrey Larsen is an American mathematician, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington.{{citation|url=http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=80296|title=IU gives 5 faculty rank of distinguished professor|date=March 6, 2011|first=Kate|last=Dawson|newspaper=Indiana Daily Student}}.[http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/17922.html Michael J. Larsen], IU News Room, March 30, 2011.
Academic biography
In high school, Larsen tied with four other competitors for the top score in the 1977 International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, winning a gold medal.{{citation|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 14, 1977|first=Israel|last=Shenker|title=High School Math Wizards Do It by Numbers and U.S. Is No.1|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C10FD345D167493C6A8178CD85F438785F9}}.[https://www.polyomino.org.uk/mathematics/imo-scores/1977/scores-order.html International Mathematical Olympiad 1977 (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) Individual Scores], Joseph Myers, polyomino.org.uk, retrieved 2012-08-16. As an undergraduate mathematics student at Harvard University, Larsen became a Putnam Fellow in 1981 and 1983.[http://www.maa.org/awards/putnam.html The Mathematical Association of America's William Lowell Putnam Competition], Mathematical Association of America, retrieved 2012-08-16. He graduated from Harvard in 1984,[http://www.indiana.edu/~alldrp/members/larsen.html Member biography], Indiana U. Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors, retrieved 2012-08-16. and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1988, under the supervision of Gerd Faltings.{{mathgenealogy|name=Michael Jeffrey Larsen|id=15019}} After working at the Institute for Advanced Study he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1990, and then moved to the University of Missouri in 1997. He joined the Indiana University faculty in 2001.
His wife Ayelet Lindenstrauss (Elon Lindenstrauss' sister) is also a mathematician and Indiana University professor.{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Brittani |date=February 20, 2017 |title=Indiana 7th grader becomes crossword puzzle creator |url=https://apnews.com/article/90e1ee72b6d1400db1a754b7a27f8370 |access-date= |website=AP News |language=en}} Their son Daniel at age 13 became the youngest person to publish a crossword in the New York Times.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/insider/the-youngest-crossword-constructor-in-new-york-times-history.html|title=The Youngest Crossword Constructor in New York Times History|last=Shortz|first=Will|date=14 Feb 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-03-25|issn=0362-4331}} In 2022, Daniel published a discovery about Carmichael numbers.
Research
Larsen is known for his research in arithmetic algebraic geometry, combinatorial group theory, combinatorics, and number theory. He has written highly cited papers on domino tiling of Aztec diamonds,{{sfnp|Elkies|Kuperberg|Larsen|Propp|1992}} topological quantum computing,{{harvtxt|Freedman|Larsen|Wang|2002a}}; {{harvtxt|Freedman|Kitaev|Larsen|Wang|2003}}.{{citation|title=Knotty calculations: a quantum version of braids could lay the groundwork for tomorrow's computers|newspaper=Science News|last=Klarreich|first=Erica|date=February 22, 2003|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Knotty+calculations%3A+a+quantum+version+of+braids+could+lay+the...-a098977992}}. and on the representation theory of braid groups.{{sfnp|Freedman|Larsen|Wang|2002a}}
Awards and honors
In 2013 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, for "contributions to group theory, number theory, topology, and algebraic geometry".[https://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/new-fellows 2014 Class of the Fellows of the AMS], American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2013-11-04.
He received the E. H. Moore Research Article Prize of the AMS in 2013 (jointly with Richard Pink).
Selected publications
- {{citation
| last1 = Elkies | first1 = Noam | author1-link = Noam Elkies
| last2 = Kuperberg | first2 = Greg | author2-link = Greg Kuperberg
| last3 = Larsen | first3 = Michael
| last4 = Propp | first4 = James | author4-link = Jim Propp
| arxiv = math.CO/9201305
| doi = 10.1023/A:1022420103267
| issue = 2
| journal = Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
| mr = 1226347
| pages = 111–132
| title = Alternating-sign matrices and domino tilings. I
| volume = 1
| year = 1992| s2cid = 41082861 }}.
- {{citation
| last1 = Freedman | first1 = Michael H. | author1-link = Michael Freedman
| last2 = Larsen | first2 = Michael
| last3 = Wang | first3 = Zhenghan
| doi = 10.1007/s002200200645
| issue = 3
| journal = Communications in Mathematical Physics
| mr = 1910833
| pages = 605–622
| title = A modular functor which is universal for quantum computation
| volume = 227
| year = 2002a| bibcode = 2002CMaPh.227..605F| s2cid = 8990600 }}.
- {{citation
| last1 = Freedman | first1 = Michael H. | author1-link = Michael Freedman
| last2 = Larsen | first2 = Michael J.
| last3 = Wang | first3 = Zhenghan
| doi = 10.1007/s002200200636
| issue = 1
| journal = Communications in Mathematical Physics
| mr = 1911253
| pages = 177–199
| title = The two-eigenvalue problem and density of Jones representation of braid groups
| volume = 228
| year = 2002b| arxiv = math/0103200| bibcode = 2002CMaPh.228..177F| s2cid = 8163385 }}.
- {{citation
| last1 = Freedman | first1 = Michael H. | author1-link = Michael Freedman
| last2 = Kitaev | first2 = Alexei | author2-link = Alexei Kitaev
| last3 = Larsen | first3 = Michael J.
| last4 = Wang | first4 = Zhenghan
| arxiv = quant-ph/0101025
| doi = 10.1090/S0273-0979-02-00964-3
| issue = 1
| journal = Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
| mr = 1943131
| pages = 31–38
| title = Topological quantum computation
| volume = 40
| year = 2003}}.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://math.indiana.edu/about/faculty/larsen-michael.html Home page] at Indiana University
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Michael J.}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:21st-century American mathematicians
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:University of Missouri faculty
Category:Indiana University faculty