Across all its campuses, IU now has 15 AMS fellows.
“The Department of Mathematics is pleased that AMS has recognized our stellar faculty’s contributions to mathematics, and that Valery and Vladimir have joined the ranks of IU faculty honored as AMS Fellows,” Elizabeth Housworth, professor and chair in the Department of Mathematics at IU-Bloomington said in the release.
Lunts is a Russian mathematician known for a seminar he conducts annually outside Moscow, which is often attended by leaders in the field. He has advanced study in a range of subjects, including algebraic geometry, category theory, non-commutative geometry and mathematical physics.
Lunts began teaching at IU in 1991. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Valery’s work is characterized by its elegance and natural quality,” said Michael Larsen, distinguished professor in mathematics at IU-Bloomington.
Larsen wrote Lunts’ nomination letter for the AMS fellowship.
“He makes mathematics look easy as well as beautiful,” Larsen said in the release.
Larsen also said Lunts has stimulated collaborations between mathematicians around the world and succeeded in bringing international figures in the field to Bloomington and the U.S., according to the release.
Touraev specializes in low-dimensional topology, the study of two-, three- and four-dimensional structures such as knots, braids and surfaces. Topology is closely linked to string theory, which is a complex analysis of how strands of energy called strings interact with one another.
“The breadth of Vladimir’s interest and influence is reflected in the list of his co-authors, which contain a remarkable variety of people,” Kevin Zumbrun, distinguished professor in mathematics at IU-Bloomington, said in the release.
Zumbrun wrote Touraev’s nomination letter. “He has done joint work with many young researchers and also some of the world’s leading topologists and algebraists,” Zumbrun said.
In 1989, Touraev and his colleagues laid the foundation for a new field known as “topological quantum field theory.” He was also named the leader of a scientific mathematics center in Chelyabinsk, Russia, which was established with a grant of more than $2.7 million from the Russian federal government in 2014.
Touraev joined the IU faculty in 2006 after working as research director with the French National Center of Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France, for 17 years. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from St. Petersburg State University.
Other AMS fellows at IU-Bloomington include Hari Bercovici, Michael J. Larsen, Eric Bedford, David Fisher, Robert Glassey, Russell Lyons, Michael Mandell, Peter Sternberg, Roger M. Temam, Shouhong Wang and Kevin Zumbrun.
Taylor Telford
