Robert MacPherson (mathematician)
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{short description|American mathematician}}
{{Other people|Robert Macpherson (or MacPherson)|Robert Macpherson (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Robert MacPherson
| image = Macpherson.jpeg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = MacPherson at Oberwolfach in 2008
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|05|25}}
| birth_place = Lakewood, Ohio
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| fields = Mathematics
| workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brown University
Princeton University
| alma_mater = Swarthmore College
Harvard University
| doctoral_advisor = Raoul Bott
| doctoral_students = Mark Goresky
David Nadler
Julianna Tymoczko
Kari Vilonen
Zhiwei Yun
| known_for = Intersection homology
| awards = NAS Award in Mathematics (1992)
Leroy P. Steele Prize (2002)
Heinz Hopf Prize (2009)
}}
Robert Duncan MacPherson (born May 25, 1944) is an American mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Early life and education
Robert Duncan MacPherson was born in Lakewood, Ohio on May 25, 1944.
He received his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in 1966. MacPherson received his PhD from Harvard in 1970 with a thesis, written under the direction of Raoul Bott, entitled Singularities of Maps and Characteristic Classes.{{MathGenealogy|id=11546|title=Robert MacPherson}}
Career
MacPherson was at Brown University as a J. D. Tamarkin Instructor from 1970 to 1972, an assistant professor from 1972 to 1974, an associate professor from 1974 to 1977, and then a professor from 1977 to 1987. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1987 to 1994. He became a professor of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994, later becoming named a Hermann Weyl Professor. He retired and became a professor emeritus 2018.{{cite web |url=https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/math/rdm/BriefCVMacP.html |website=Robert D. MacPherson |title=Curriculum Vitae |access-date=May 14, 2024}}
His notable doctoral students include Mark Goresky, David Nadler, Julianna Tymoczko, Kari Vilonen, and Zhiwei Yun.
Research
MacPherson and Goresky introduced intersection homology.{{Cite web |title=Robert D. MacPherson |url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2012/05/30/robert-d-macpherson/ |website=Simons Foundation}} He also worked on arithmetic groups, in particular on Siegel modular threefolds with Mark McConnell and on compactifications of symmetric spaces with Lizhen Ji.{{cite journal |first=Paul E. |last=Gunnells |journal=Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly |volume=2 |year=2006 |issue=4 |title=Robert MacPherson and Arithmetic Groups |pages=1015–1052 |doi=10.4310/PAMQ.2006.v2.n4.a5|arxiv=math/0603385 }}
Honors and awards
In 1983, MacPherson gave a plenary address at the International Congress of Mathematicians.
In 1992, MacPherson was awarded the NAS Award in Mathematics from the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=NAS Award in Mathematics|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_mathematics|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|accessdate=February 13, 2011}} In 2002, he and Goresky were awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research by the American Mathematical Society.{{cite web|url=https://www.ams.org/notices/200204/comm-steeleprz.pdf|title=Notices of the AMS 2002 p. 466|website=ams.org}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ams.org/profession/prizes-awards/pabrowse?purl=steele-prize?SCR|title=List of Steele Prizes Seminal Contribution to Research|website=www.ams.org}} In 2009 he received the Heinz Hopf Prize from ETH Zurich.
In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[https://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society], retrieved February 2, 2013. He is also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Lille in 1993 and Brown University in 1994.
Personal
MacPherson's PhD advisee, Mark Goresky, later became his life partner.{{Cite web |title=Robert D. MacPherson |url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2012/05/30/robert-d-macpherson/ |website=Simons Foundation}} After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were instrumental in channeling aid to Russian mathematicians, especially many who had to hide their sexuality.
Selected publications
- Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, La dualité de Poincaré pour les espaces singuliers, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. A-B 284 (1977), no. 24, A1549–A1551. {{MathSciNet|id=0440533}}
- Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, Intersection homology theory, Topology 19 (1980), no. 2, 135–162. {{doi|10.1016/0040-9383(80)90003-8}} {{MathSciNet|id=0572580}}
- Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, Intersection homology. II, Inventiones Mathematicae 72 (1983), no. 1, 77–129. {{doi|10.1007/BF01389130}} {{MathSciNet|id=0696691}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Robert MacPherson (mathematician)}}
- [http://www.math.ias.edu/people/faculty/rdm IAS page, including links to publications and CV]
- [http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/macpherson/talk.pdf The work of Robert MacPherson]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macpherson, Robert}}
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:21st-century American mathematicians
Category:Swarthmore College alumni
Category:Institute for Advanced Study faculty
Category:Brown University faculty
Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:People from Lakewood, Ohio
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
Category:Mathematicians from Ohio
{{US-mathematician-stub}}