Trailblazing mathematician Jacob Lurie will join the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study

Jacob Lurie, who has made transformative contributions to mathematics through his work on derived algebraic geometry and infinity categories, will join the faculty of Institute for Advanced Study in July.

Lurie’s ideas in modern algebra, geometry, and topology provide novel frameworks that guide current research, unite seemingly disparate fields, and expand upon the foundations of mathematics. His perspective is shaping a new generation of mathematics. Currently a professor of mathematics at Harvard University, Lurie has also held an associate professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“As both an architect and synthesizer of ideas, Jacob’s impact is twofold: constructing the foundations for important areas in mathematics and building bridges between fields,” said Robbert Dijkgraaf, director of the Institute for Advanced Study. “The Institute has been home to some of the greatest minds in modern algebra, homotopy theory and algebraic geometry, including Michael Atiyah, Vladimir Voevodsky, and André Weil—a tradition that will surely be further enhanced by Jacob’s work at the institute.”

Lurie’s celebrated proof of the Baez-Dolan cobordism hypothesis changed the field drastically. His ideas have touched a diverse range of fields from topology to number theory.

“His foundational work changed the way that mathematicians describe and work with derived phenomena,” said Akshay Venkatesh, a professor in the school of mathematics at IAS. “It has had a remarkably broad influence on modern mathematics.”

Lurie earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard University, pursued graduate studies at Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley, and received a doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has written two major books, “Higher Topos Theory” and “Higher Algebra,” and is currently at work on a third book, “Spectral Algebraic Geometry.” These volumes, along with papers about derived algebraic geometry, have redefined the foundations of some theories of algebraic geometry. In 2016, he was awarded the London Mathematical Society Hardy Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field. He was a recipient of the inaugural 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship for creating a novel conceptual foundation for derived algebraic geometry and rewriting large swathes of mathematics from a new point of view.

“I’m truly honored to be afforded this opportunity and thrilled to become a part of the long tradition of mathematics at the IAS,” Lurie said.