Peter Sarnak

Peter Sarnak is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, as well as a Professor at the School of Mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Born in 1953 in Johannesburg, South Africa, he studied at the University of Witwatersrand, obtaining a BSc in 1974 and a postgraduate BSc (Hons) in 1975. He obtained his PhD from Stanford University in 1980 under the direction of Paul Cohen. Sarnak is known for his groundbreaking contributions to number theory and problems of mathematical analysis motivated by number theory. The techniques he employs in his research, as well as his interests, are surprisingly wide-ranging, from zeta functions and automorphic forms to mathematical physics and quantum computation.

Throughout his career, he has received several prestigious awards, including the Pólya Prize (1998), the Ostrowski Prize (2001), the Levi L. Conant Prize (2003), the Cole Prize (2005) and the Wolf Prize (2014), and has been awarded with honorary doctorates from several universities. He has also been elected as a member of several important academies and societies, including as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK). Peter Sarnak has also supervised more than 50 PhD students!