Arthur Michael Jaffe (; born December 22, 1937) is an American mathematical physicist at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, where in 1985 he succeeded

George Mackey George Whitelaw Mackey (February 1, 1916 – March 15, 2006) was an American mathematician known for his contributions to quantum logic, representation theory, and noncommutative geometry. Career Mackey earned his bachelor of arts at Rice Un ...

as the Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science.

Education and career

After graduating from

Pelham Memorial High School The Pelham Memorial High School is the only high school within the town of Pelham, New York, United States. It is part of the Pelham Union Free School District. A small portion of land that is between Pelham and Pelham Bay Park, with a total ...

in 1955, Jaffe attended

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 ...

as an undergraduate obtaining a degree in chemistry in 1959, and later

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

, as a

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious ...

, obtaining a degree in mathematics in 1961. He then returned to Princeton, obtaining a doctorate in physics in 1966 with

Arthur Wightman Arthur Strong Wightman (March 30, 1922 – January 13, 2013) was an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the founders of the axiomatic approach to quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms. With his rigorous treatm ...

. His whole career has been spent teaching mathematical physics and pursuing research at

. His 26 doctoral students include

Joel Feldman Joel Shalom Feldman (born 14 June 1949, in Ottawa) is a Canadian mathematical physicist and mathematician. Feldman studied mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto with bachelor's degree in 1970 and at Harvard University with master' ...

, Ezra Getzler, and

Clifford Taubes Clifford Henry Taubes (born February 21, 1954) is the William Petschek Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University and works in gauge field theory, differential geometry, and low-dimensional topology. His brother is the journalist Gary Taub ...

. He has had many post-doctoral collaborators, including ,

Konrad Osterwalder Konrad Osterwalder (born June 3, 1942) is a Swiss mathematician and physicist, former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, former Rector of the United Nations University (UNU), and Rector Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Techn ...

, Juerg Froehlich, , Thomas Spencer, and

Antti Kupiainen Antti Kupiainen (born 23 June 1954, Varkaus, Finland) is a Finnish mathematical physicist. Education and career Kupiainen completed his undergraduate education in 1976 at the Technical University of Helsinki and received his Ph.D. in 1979 from Pri ...

. For several years Jaffe was president of the

International Association of Mathematical Physics The International Association of Mathematical Physics (IAMP) was founded in 1976 to promote research in mathematical physics. It brings together research mathematicians and theoretical physicists, including students. The association's ordinary me ...

, and later 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 ...

. He chaired the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. He presently serves as chair of the board of the

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) ( ga, Institiúid Ard-Léinn Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a statutory independent research institute in Ireland. It was established in 1940 on the initiative of the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, in Dub ...

, School of Theoretical Physics. Jaffe conceived the idea of the

Clay Mathematics Institute The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) is a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. Formerly based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the corporate address is now in Denver, Colorado. CMI's sc ...

and its programs, including the employment of research fellows and the Millennium Prizes in mathematics. He served as a founding member, a founding member of the board, and the founding president of that organization. Arthur Jaffe began as chief editor of ''

Communications in Mathematical Physics ''Communications in Mathematical Physics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer. The journal publishes papers in all fields of mathematical physics, but focuses particularly in analysis related to condensed matter physics, s ...

'' in 1979 and served for 21 years until 2001. He is a distinguished visiting professor at th
Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science
of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

Contributions

With

James Glimm James Gilbert Glimm (born March 24, 1934) is an American mathematician, former president of the American Mathematical Society, and distinguished professor at Stony Brook University. He has made many contributions in the areas of pure and applie ...

, he founded the subject called

constructive quantum field theory In mathematical physics, constructive quantum field theory is the field devoted to showing that quantum field theory can be defined in terms of precise mathematical structures. This demonstration requires new mathematics, in a sense analogous to ...

. They established existence theorems for two- and three-dimensional examples of non-linear, relativistic quantum fields.

Awards and honors

Awarded the

Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics is an award given each year since 1959 jointly by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics. It is established by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman. As of 20 ...

in 1980. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-01-26.

Personal life

Jaffe was married from 1971 to 1992 to Nora Frances Crow and they had one daughter, Margaret Collins, born in 1986. Jaffe was married to artist Sarah Robbins Warren from 1992 to 2002.

References

External links

Jaffe's website

Mathematical Picture Language Project at Harvard University
*
Dublin Institute for Advanced Study: Governing Boards
* (lecture by Arthur Jaffe, 18 May 2016, Trinity College Dublin) * *
List of Past AMS Presidents (Jaffe is the 54th.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Arthur 20th-century American mathematicians 1937 births Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American mathematicians Quantum physicists Harvard University faculty Princeton University alumni Marshall Scholars Living people Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Members of the Royal Irish Academy Presidents of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Mathematical physicists American physicists Santa Fe Institute people Fellows of the American Physical Society Presidents of the International Association of Mathematical Physics Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies