Aise Johan de Jong (born 30 January 1966) is a Dutch mathematician and professor of mathematics at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. His research interests include

arithmetic geometry In mathematics, arithmetic geometry is roughly the application of techniques from algebraic geometry to problems in number theory. Arithmetic geometry is centered around Diophantine geometry, the study of rational points of algebraic varieties. ...

and

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which uses abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, to solve geometry, geometrical problems. Classically, it studies zero of a function, zeros of multivariate polynomials; th ...

. He maintains the

Stacks Project The Stacks Project is an open source collaborative mathematics textbook writing project with the aim to cover "algebraic stacks and the algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which uses abstract algebraic techniques, ...

Early life and education

De Jong was born in

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

, Belgium on 30 January 1966. He attended the Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, Netherlands. He obtained his master's degree at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in 1987, under the supervision of Antonius Van de Ven. He earned his Ph.D. ''cum laude'' at the

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public university, public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistentl ...

in 1992, under the supervision of

Frans Oort Frans Oort (born 17 July 1935) is a Dutch mathematician who specializes in algebraic geometry. Career Oort studied from 1952 to 1958 at Leiden University, where he graduated with a thesis on elliptic curves. He received his doctorate in 1961 in ...

and Joseph H. M. Steenbrink.

Career

De Jong spent 1 year as a visitor at the

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (, MPIM) is a research institute located in Bonn, Germany. It is named in honor of the German physicist Max Planck and forms part of the Max Planck Society (''Max-Planck-Gesellschaft''), an association o ...

, 3 months as a visitor at

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University () is a public university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the e ...

, and then 3 years as a fellow at the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

stationed at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

. He was a Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1995 to 1996. He was a professor of mathematics at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

from 1996 to 1998 and then worked 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 ...

from 1998 to 2005. He moved to

as a professor of mathematics in 2005.

Work

In 1996, de Jong developed his theory of alterations which was used by Fedor Bogomolov and Tony Pantev (1996) and

Dan Abramovich Dan Abramovich (; born March 12, 1963) is an Israeli-American mathematician working in the fields of algebraic geometry and arithmetic geometry. As of 2019, he holds the title of L. Herbert Ballou University Professor at Brown University, and h ...

and de Jong (1997) to prove

resolution of singularities In algebraic geometry, the problem of resolution of singularities asks whether every algebraic variety ''V'' has a resolution, which is a non-singular variety ''W'' with a Proper morphism, proper birational map ''W''→''V''. For varieties ov ...

in characteristic 0 and to prove a weaker result for varieties of all dimensions in characteristic ''p'' which is strong enough to act as a substitute for resolution for many purposes. In 2005, de Jong started the

, "an open source textbook and reference work on

algebraic stack In mathematics, an algebraic stack is a vast generalization of algebraic spaces, or schemes, which are foundational for studying moduli theory. Many moduli spaces are constructed using techniques specific to algebraic stacks, such as Artin's re ...

s and the

needed to define them." The book that the project has generated currently runs to more than 7500 pages as of July 2022.

Awards and honors

In 1998 he was an Invited Speaker of 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 Berlin. He won the

Cole Prize The Frank Nelson Cole Prize, or Cole Prize for short, is one of twenty-two prizes awarded to mathematicians by the American Mathematical Society, one for an outstanding contribution to algebra, and the other for an outstanding contribution to numbe ...

in 2000 for his theory of alterations. In the same year, De Jong became a correspondent of the

. In 2022 he received the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition.

Personal life

De Jong lives in New York City with his wife, Cathy O'Neil, and their three sons.

Selected works

* *The

References

External links

*
Website at Columbia UniversityThe Stacks Project
1966 births Living people 20th-century Dutch mathematicians 21st-century Dutch mathematicians Leiden University alumni Radboud University Nijmegen alumni De Jong, Aise Johan Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences De Jong, Aise Johan De Jong, Aise Johan Arithmetic geometers Princeton University faculty {{Netherlands-scientist-stub