Lawrence David Guth (; born 1977) is a professor of mathematics at 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 ...

Education and career

Guth graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 2000 with a BS in mathematics. In 2005, he received his PhD in mathematics from the

(MIT), where he studied geometry of objects with random shapes under the supervision of Tomasz Mrowka. After MIT, Guth went to

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

as a postdoc and later to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

as an assistant professor on a tenure track In 2011,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

hired Guth as a professor, listing his areas of interest as "

metric geometry In mathematics, a metric space is a Set (mathematics), set together with a notion of ''distance'' between its Element (mathematics), elements, usually called point (geometry), points. The distance is measured by a function (mathematics), functi ...

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...

, and geometric combinatorics." In 2012, Guth moved to MIT, where he is Claude Shannon Professor of Mathematics.

Research

In his research, Guth has strengthened Gromov's systolic inequality for essential manifolds and, along with Nets Katz, found a solution to the Erdős distinct distances problem. His interests include the Kakeya conjecture and the systolic inequality.

Recognition

Guth won an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2010. He was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

in India in 2010, where he spoke about

systolic geometry In mathematics, systolic geometry is the study of systolic invariants of manifolds and polyhedra, as initially conceived by Charles Loewner and developed by Mikhail Gromov, Michael Freedman, Peter Sarnak, Mikhail Katz, Larry Guth, and ...

. In 2013, 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, ...

awarded Guth its annual Salem Prize, citing his "major contributions to geometry and combinatorics." In 2014 he received a Simons Investigator Award. In 2015, he received the Clay Research Award. He was included in the 2019 class of fellows of the

"for contributions to harmonic analysis, combinatorics and geometry, and for exposition of high level mathematics". On February 20, 2020, the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

announced that Guth is the first winner of their new $20,000

Maryam Mirzakhani Maryam Mirzakhani (, ; 12 May 1977 – 14 July 2017) was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmüller space, Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic the ...

Prize in Mathematics for mid-career mathematicians. The citation states that his award is "for developing surprising, original, and deep connections between geometry, analysis, topology, and combinatorics, which have led to the solution of, or major advances on, many outstanding problems in these fields." He was one of three recipients of the 2020

Bôcher Memorial Prize The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). It is awarded every three years (formerly every five yea ...

.. In 2021, he was elected member of the US

Personal

He is the son of Alan Guth, a

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

known for the theory of

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

in cosmology.

Work

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guth, Larry Living people 20th-century American mathematicians Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto American geometers Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty 1977 births Simons Investigator Place of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Yale College alumni 21st-century American mathematicians Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences