Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
University of Washington, Seattle
Research Interests:
Differential geometry, the Yamabe problem, existence of Einstein metrics, the constraint equations in general relativity, geometry and analysis on CR manifolds.
Education:
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dissertation: Higher asymptotics of the complex Monge-Ampère equation and geometry of CR manifolds, advised by Richard B. Melrose |
Ph.D. | 1978-1982 |
| Tufts University | 1977-1978 | |
| Princeton University | A.B. | 1968-1972 |
Employment:
| University of Washington | Professor Emeritus | 2021-present |
| Professor | 1996-2021 | |
| Associate Professor | 1989-1996 | |
| Assistant Professor | 1987-1989 | |
| Harvard University | Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor | 1982-1987 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Teaching Assistant, Programmer | 1978-1982 |
| Wooster School, Danbury, Connecticut | Math/Physics Teacher | 1975-1977 |
| Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, Princeton | Systems Programmer | 1974-1975 |
| Texas Instruments | Systems Programmer | 1972-1974 |
Visiting positions:
| Mathematical Sciences Research Institute | 4/30/01-5/18/01 |
| Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia | 6/22/97-7/5/97 |
| MIT | 8/1/94-8/31/94 |
| Mathematical Sciences Research Institute | 9/20/93-9/24/93 |
| Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan | 7/13/88-7/28/88 |
| Mathematical Sciences Research Institute | 3/14/88-3/28/88 |
| Mittag-Leffler Institute | 5/11/86-5/25/86 |
| Mathematical Sciences Research Institute | 7/6/84-7/11/84 |
Honors & Awards:
| Upper Dublin High School Alumni Hall of Fame | 2021 |
| 3rd Taiwan International Conference on Differential Geometry (Special day dedicated to the celebration of my 65th birthday) |
2016 |
| Lee & Weizenbaum Award for outstanding service to the Robinson Center for Young Scholars (My wife and I were inaugural winners of this award named after us) |
2016 |
| UW-AAUP Excellence in Shared Governance Award (“for strong and collegial leadership as Faculty Senate chair”) |
2016 |
| American Mathematical Society Bergman Prize (joint with David Jerison) (“for their pioneering works on the CR Yamabe problem”) |
2016 |
| American Mathematical Society Centennial Research Fellowship | 1989 |
| Joseph R. Levenson Prize for excellence in teaching, Harvard College | 1986 |
| Harvard University Mathematics Department Teaching Award | 1986 |
| NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship | 1982 |
Graduate students supervised:
| Chris Kunkel | PhD, 2008 |
| Eric Bahuaud | PhD, 2007 |
| Robert Hladky | PhD, 2004 |
| Peter Garfield | PhD, 2001 |
| John Roth | PhD, 1999 |
| Tracey Marsh | MS, 2004 |
| Dale Skinner | MS, 2000 |
| Brent Smith | MS, 1996 |
| Gregory Leibon | MS, 1996 |
| Phillippe Konstantinovic | MS, 1993 |
| Gerd Breitenbach | MS, 1991 |
University Service::
| UW Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs, Chair | 2018-2021 |
| Faculty Senate Discipline and Dispute Resolution Task Force | 2017-2021 |
| UW Senate Committee on Planning & Budgeting, Chair | 2014-2015 |
| UW Faculty Senate Chair |
2013-2014 |
| UW Faculty Senate Vice-Chair |
2012-2013 |
| UW President's Joint Salary Policy Working Group |
2012-2015 (cochair, 2013-2015) |
| UW Faculty Senate member |
1996-2000, 2006-2010, 2011-2012 |
| Halbert & Nancy Robinson Center Advisory Board | 2011-2020 |
| AAUP-UW Executive Board Member |
2010-2016 |
| College of Arts & Sciences Writing Council |
2004-2006 |
| College of Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee | 1989-1993 (chair, 1991-1993) |
Outside Professional Service:
| AMS Pure & Applied Undergraduate Texts Editorial Committee | 2023-present |
| AMS Committee on Publications | 2015-2018 |
| Cambridge Mathematical Textbooks Advisory Board | 2014–2024 |
| AMS Arnold Ross Lecture Series Committee | 2010-2014 (chair, 2014) |
| Associate Editor, Journal of Geometric Analysis | 1990-2013 |
| Coordinator, Pacific Northwest Geometry Seminar | 1990-2003 |
| Reviewer for National Science Foundation | 1986-2006 |
| Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews | 1988-2001 |
| Referee for numerous mathematics research journals and book publishers | 1988-present |
Software Developed:
Ricci: a Mathematica Package for Doing Tensor Calculations in Differential
Geometry, 1992. An original software package consisting of 7000
lines of Mathematica code; distributed via Internet, and chosen for inclusion
in Wolfram Research's MathSource library of Mathematica packages.
Publications:
| Riemannian Manifolds: An Introduction to Curvature | Springer | 1997 |
| Introduction to Topological Manifolds | Springer | 2000 |
| Introduction to Topological Manifolds, 2nd Ed. | Springer | 2011 |
| Introduction to Smooth Manifolds | Springer | 2002 |
| Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, 2nd Ed. | Springer | 2012 |
| Axiomatic Geometry | AMS | 2013 |
| Introduction to Riemannian Manifolds, 2nd Ed. | Springer | 2019 |
| Numerous research articles in refereed journals |