David Eisenbud (born 8 April 1947 in

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) is an

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mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

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 ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

and Director of the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif ...

(MSRI); he previously served as Director of MSRI from 1997 to 2007.

Biography

Eisenbud is the son of mathematical physicist

Leonard Eisenbud Leonard Eisenbud (August 3, 1913– November 30, 2004) was an American theoretical physicist. Eisenbud earned his bachelor's degree at Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1935. He spent the year 1940/1941 at the Institute for Advanced S ...

, who was a student and collaborator of the renowned physicist Eugene Wigner. Eisenbud received his Ph.D. in 1970 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he was a student of Saunders Mac Lane and, unofficially, James Christopher Robson. He then taught at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...

from 1970 to 1997, during which time he had visiting positions 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 ...

, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS),

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

, and Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). He joined the staff at MSRI in 1997, and took a position at Berkeley at the same time. From 2003 to 2005 Eisenbud was President 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 ...

. Eisenbud's mathematical interests include commutative and non-commutative algebra,

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

, and computational methods in these fields. He has written over 150 papers and books with over 60 co-authors. Notable contributions include the theory of matrix factorizations for maximal Cohen–Macaulay modules over hypersurface rings, the Eisenbud–Goto conjecture on degrees of generators of syzygy modules, and the Buchsbaum–Eisenbud criterion for exactness of a complex. He also proposed the Eisenbud–Evans conjecture, which was later settled by the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n mathematician Neithalath Mohan Kumar. He has had 31 doctoral students, including Craig Huneke, Mircea Mustaţă,

Irena Peeva Irena Vassileva Peeva is a professor of mathematics at Cornell University, specializing in commutative algebra. She disproved the Eisenbud–Goto regularity conjecture jointly with Jason McCullough. Education and career Peeva did her graduate ...

, and Gregory G. Smith (winner of the Aisenstadt Prize in 2007). Eisenbud's hobbies are juggling (he has written two papers on the mathematics of juggling) and music. He has appeared in Brady Haran's online video channel " Numberphile". Eisenbud was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. He was awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize in 2010. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

Selected publications

Books

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Articles

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References

External links