Percy Alec Deift (born September 10, 1945) is a mathematician known for his work on

spectral theory In mathematics, spectral theory is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix to a much broader theory of the structure of operators in a variety of mathematical spaces. It is a result ...

integrable system In mathematics, integrability is a property of certain dynamical systems. While there are several distinct formal definitions, informally speaking, an integrable system is a dynamical system with sufficiently many conserved quantities, or first ...

random matrix theory In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

and

Riemann–Hilbert problem In mathematics, Riemann–Hilbert problems, named after Bernhard Riemann and David Hilbert, are a class of problems that arise in the study of differential equations in the complex plane. Several existence theorems for Riemann–Hilbert problems h ...

Life

Deift was born in Durban,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, where he obtained degrees in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and received a Ph.D. in

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developm ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1977. He is a Silver Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Honors and awards

Deift is a fellow 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, meeting ...

(elected 2012), a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(elected 2003), and of the

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Natio ...

(elected 2009). He is a co-winner of the 1998 Pólya Prize, and was named a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1999. He gave an

invited address at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

in Berlin in 1998 and plenary addresses in 2006 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 Nevanlinna Prize (to be rena ...

in Madrid and at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics in Rio de Janeiro. Deift gave the Gibbs Lecture at the Joint Meeting of the

in 2009. Along with Michael Aizenman and Giovanni Gallavotti, he won the

Henri Poincare Prize Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Mon ...

in 2018.

Selected works

* with

Eugene Trubowitz Eugene Trubowitz is an American mathematician who studies analysis and mathematical physics. He is a Global Professor of Mathematics at New York University Abu Dhabi. Life and work Trubowitz, who was born in 1951, received his doctorate in 1977 ...

: ''Inverse scattering on the line'', Communications in pure and applied Mathematics, vol. 32, 1979, pp. 121–251 * with Fernando Lund, E. Trubowitz: * with Richard Beals, Carlos Tomei
''Direct and inverse scattering on the line''
AMS, 1988 * with Luen-Chau Li, C. Tomei

AMS, 1992 * with K. T-R McLaughlin: ttps://books.google.com/books/about/A_Continuum_Limit_of_the_Toda_Lattice.html?id=QIy03qAiMbcC ''A continuum limit of the Toda lattice'' AMS, 1998
''Orthogonal polynomials and random matrices: a Riemann-Hilbert approach''
AMS (American Mathematical Society), 2000 (and Courant Institute, 1999) * with Dmitri Gioev

AMS, 2009 * with Jinho Baik and Toufic Suidan

References

External links

Percy Deift personal webpage
Courant Institute,

Percy Alec Deift

Mathematics Genealogy Project The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. By 31 December 2021, it contained information on 274,575 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a ty ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deift, Percy 1945 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians South African mathematicians Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Princeton University alumni Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Living people Fellows of the American Mathematical Society

Life

Honors and awards

Selected works

See also

References

External links