Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He was a major developer in particular of the theory of variation of Hodge structure in Hodge theory and

moduli theory In mathematics, in particular algebraic geometry, a moduli space is a geometric space (usually a scheme (mathematics), scheme or an algebraic stack) whose points represent algebro-geometric objects of some fixed kind, or isomorphism classes of suc ...

. He also worked on partial differential equations, coauthored with

Shiing-Shen Chern Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geome ...

, Robert Bryant and Robert Gardner on Exterior Differential Systems.

Professional career

He received his BS from

Wake Forest College Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the u ...

in 1959 and his PhD 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 1962 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "On certain homogeneous complex manifolds", under the supervision of Donald Spencer. Afterwards, he held positions at

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 u ...

(1962–1967) and Princeton University (1967–1972). Griffiths was a professor of mathematics 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 high ...

from 1972 to 1983. He was then a Provost and James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University from 1983 to 1991. From 1991 to 2003, he was the Director of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

(IAS) in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. He remained as part of the Faculty of Mathematics at the IAS until June 2009, after which he has been emeritus at the IAS. He has published on algebraic geometry, differential geometry,

geometric function theory Geometric function theory is the study of geometric properties of analytic functions. A fundamental result in the theory is the Riemann mapping theorem. Topics in geometric function theory The following are some of the most important topics in ge ...

, and the geometry of

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...

. Griffiths serves as the Chair of the Science Initiative Group. He is co-author, with Joe Harris, of ''Principles of Algebraic Geometry'', a well-regarded textbook on

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

algebraic geometry.

Awards and honors

Griffiths was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1979 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1992. In 2008 he was awarded the

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...

(jointly with

Deligne Pierre René, Viscount Deligne (; born 3 October 1944) is a Belgian mathematician. He is best known for work on the Weil conjectures, leading to a complete proof in 1973. He is the winner of the 2013 Abel Prize, 2008 Wolf Prize, 1988 Crafoord Pr ...

and Mumford) and the

Brouwer Medal The Brouwer Medal is a triennial award presented by the Royal Dutch Mathematical Society and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The Brouwer Metal gets its name from Dutch mathematician L. E. J. Brouwer and is the Netherlands’ most presti ...

. In 2012 he became 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, meetings, ...

. Moreover, in 2014 Griffiths was awarded the

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

for Lifetime Achievement by the American Mathematical Society. Also in 2014, Griffiths was awarded the

Chern Medal The Chern Medal is an international award recognizing outstanding lifelong achievement of the highest level in the field of mathematics. The prize is given at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which is held every four years. ...

for lifetime devotion to mathematics and outstanding achievements.

Selected publications

Articles

* * * * * * * * * *with Joe Harris: *with S. S. Chern: * *

Books

* ''Mumford–Tate groups and domains: their geometry and arithmetic'', with Mark Green and Matt Kerr, Princeton University Press, 2012, * in pbk: * ''Exterior differential systems and Euler-Lagrange partial differential equations'', with Robert Bryant and Daniel Grossman, University of Chicago Press, 2003, cloth;
''Introduction to Algebraic Curves''
American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1989, * ''Differential Systems and Isometric Embeddings'', with Gary R. Jensen, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1987, * ''Topics in Transcendental Algebraic Geometry'', Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1984, * ''Exterior Differential Systems and the Calculus of Variations'', Birkhäuser, Boston, 1983, * ''Rational Homotopy Theory and Differential Forms'', with John W. Morgan, Birkhäuser, Boston, 1981, * ''Principles of Algebraic Geometry'', with Joe Harris, Wiley, New York, 1978, * ''Entire Holomorphic Mappings in One and Several Complex Variables'',

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, Princeton, NJ, 1976,

References

External links

*
Science Initiative Group page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Phillip 1938 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Algebraic geometers Differential geometers Institute for Advanced Study faculty Directors of the Institute for Advanced Study Princeton University alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Princeton University faculty Harvard University faculty Duke University faculty Brouwer Medalists Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Wolf Prize in Mathematics laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mathematicians from North Carolina People from Raleigh, North Carolina Woodward Academy alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society