Gaven John Martin FRSNZ FASL FAMS (born 8 October 1958) is a New Zealand mathematician.. He is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

, the head of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study,Curriculum vitae
Retrieved 20 January 2015. the former president of the New Zealand Mathematical Society (from 2005 to 2007), and former editor-in-chief of the ''New Zealand Journal of Mathematics''. He is a former Vice-President of the Royal Society of New Zealand athematical, Physical Sciences Engineering and Technology. His research concerns quasiconformal mappings, regularity theory for partial differential equations, and connections between the theory of discrete groups and low-dimensional topology.

Education and career

Martin is originally from Rotorua, New Zealand. His family moved to Henderson when he was 11 years old, and he attended Henderson High School and the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

(as the first of his extended family to go to university), earning a BSc with first-class honours in 1980 and an MSc with distinction in 1981. He then went to the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

on a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

, completing his doctorate in 1985 under the supervision of Frederick Gehring and earning the Sumner Byron Myers Prize for the best mathematics dissertation in his year and an A.P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship spent in T.U.B. Berlin and The University of Helsinki. After short-term positions at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and as a Gibbs Instructor at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, Martin became a lecturer at the University of Auckland in 1989, but left after a year to research at the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Sweden and the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics (also with a small theoretical biology g ...

in France. Soon after his return, he was given a personal chair at Auckland; when he took it, he became (at age 32) the youngest full professor in New Zealand. For the next several years, he split his time between Auckland and

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, but by 1996, he gave up the Australian appointment and remained solely at Auckland. He moved to Massey as a distinguished professor in 2005, and in 2016–2020 served as elected as the academic staff representative on the Massey University Council, the University's topmost governing body. He currently is the Director of the NZ Mathematics Research Institute https://www.nzmri.org and a long serving board member of the Rotary Science Trust.

Awards and honours

Martin became a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1997. In 2001, he won the James Cook Fellowship of the RSNZ; he also won the

Hector Memorial Medal The Hector Medal, formerly known as the Hector Memorial Medal, is a science award given by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in memory of Sir James Hector to researchers working in New Zealand. It is awarded annually in rotation for different scienc ...

of the RSNZ in 2008. He was an invited speaker at the 2010

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 2012, he became one of the inaugural

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

s 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, ...

. He was made a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2016. He gave the Taft Memorial Lectures in 2010 and the Maclaurin Lectures of the American Mathematical Society in 2016. He is a Fellow of the New Zealand Mathematical Society, won their Research Prize (1994) and the inaugural Kalman Prize (2016). Recent awards include Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowships (https://www.ssrc.org/programs/japan-society-for-the-promotion-of-science-jsps-fellowship/ two times) and the Humbolt Research Prize (2022). In 2024, Martin was awarded the Jones Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand for "his groundbreaking work in a broad range of fields including geometry, analysis, topology, and group theory".

Mathematics Education

In 2021 Martin Chaired the Royal Society of New Zealand's Expert Advice Panel for the Ministry of Education on the NZ Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum. The report The independent report on improving maths and stats learning found investment and changes needed at virtually all levels of the education system. He was subsequently appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Group

Selected publications

* * * *
book details at American Mathematical Society Bookstore

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Gaven 1958 births Living people University of Auckland alumni University of Michigan alumni Academic staff of the University of Auckland Academic staff of Massey University Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Sloan Research Fellows 20th-century New Zealand mathematicians 21st-century New Zealand mathematicians People educated at Henderson High School, Auckland Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand James Cook Research Fellows