Allen Ivar Knutson is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Education

Knutson graduated from Stuyvesant High School and completed his undergraduate studies at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

and received a Ph.D. from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1996 under the joint advisorship of

Victor Guillemin Victor William Guillemin (born 1937 in Boston) is an American mathematician. He works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of symplectic geometry, and he has also made contributions to the fields of microlocal analysis, spec ...

and Lisa Jeffrey.

Career

He was on the faculty at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

before moving to the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

in 2005 and then to

in 2009. In 2005, he and

Terence Tao Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician, Fields medalist, and professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the Co ...

won the

Levi L. Conant Prize The Levi L. Conant Prize is a mathematics prize of the American Mathematical Society, which has been awarded since 2001 for outstanding expository papers published in the ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' or the ''Notices of the Ame ...

of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

for their paper "Honeycombs and Sums of Hermitian Matrices". He was an invited speaker at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians. Knutson is also known for his studies of the mathematics of juggling.The mathematics of juggling
one-hour YouTube lecture For five years beginning in 1990, he and fellow Caltech student David Morton held a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

for passing 12 balls..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knutson, Allen Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Jugglers California Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Cornell University faculty Scientists from California Year of birth missing (living people)