| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Benedict H. Gross | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2017 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 104. Mathematics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1950 | | | | | | |
Benedict Gross has contributed decisively to number theory, algebraic geometry, modular forms and group representations. Gross and Don Zagier solved the class number problem which had been formulated by APS member Karl Friedrich Gauss in 1798. This problem was to give an algorithm to list all discrete rings embedded in the complex numbers with a given class number. The class number is a measure of the failure of unique factorization in the ring. (The analogous problem for the real numbers was already solved by the ancient Greeks. There is only one discrete ring embedded in the real numbers, namely the integers. Euclid in 300 BC proved that unique factorization holds in the integers, hence its class number is 1, the minimum possible value.) The theorem of Gross and Zagier was one of the major achievements in number theory of the 20th century. Gross is an expert on analytic number theory, which exploits the striking relationships between analysis, in the sense of calculus, and arithmetic in the sense of counting. He has made many many diverse discoveries. Most recently, he has explored the role of exceptional Lie groups in number theory. His development of arithmetic invariant theory with Manjul Bhargava promises to generate a whole new field of future research. Together with Joe Harris, he developed a mathematics course for non-mathematicians at Harvard. This led to his popular book, The Magic of Numbers, co-authored with J. Harris, which provides a readable introduction to the patterns that emerge in number behavior and the often surprising applications of these patterns. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Stuart H. Orkin | | | Institution: | Harvard University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2017 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
Stuart Orkin has made pioneering achievements in defining the molecular basis of blood disorders and fundamental regulatory mechanisms governing the development of blood stem cells and blood lineages. His research is unmatched for its combined impact on our understanding of the genetic basis of blood diseases, the control of hematopoiesis, and the basis of the human fetal (HbF) to adult hemoglobin switch. He provided the first comprehensive molecular dissection of an inherited disorder, the thalassemia syndromes, and isolated the first regulator of blood cell development (GATA1). He identified the first disease gene (X-linked chronic granulomatous disease) through positional cloning. In the past decade, he defined how HbF is silenced in adult red cells starting with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) through to gene editing, work that forms the basis for therapeutic trials to reactivate HbF in thalassemia and sickle cell disease patients. His research is a paradigm for the application of molecular genetics to medicine. In 2018 he was the recipient of the Mecthild Esser Nemmers Prize in Medical Science, in 2020 he was awarded the King Faisal Prize in Medicine, and in 2021 he was awarded the 2021 Gruber Genetics Prize. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Jan Ziolkowski | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2017 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402b | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1956 | | | | | | |
Jan Ziolkowski (A.B. Princeton University, Ph.D. University of Cambridge) has focused his research and teaching on the literature of the Latin Middle Ages. Within medieval literature his special interests have included such areas as the classical tradition, the grammatical and rhetorical tradition, the appropriation of folktales into Latin, and Germanic epic in Latin language. More comparatively, he has developed broad interests in medieval revivalism down to the present day. At Harvard he has chaired the Department of Comparative Literature and the Committee on Medieval Studies, in addition to (fleetingly) the Department of the Classics. He founded the Medieval Studies Seminar, which continues to hold regular meetings in the Barker Center that are open to the public. In his teaching he offers courses mainly in Classics (Medieval Latin) and in Medieval Studies. Currently he also directs Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, a Harvard center in Washington, D.C., with programs in Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian studies, and Garden and Landscape studies. Author: The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity (2018) published in six volumes. Jan Ziolkowski was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2017. | |
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