Joseph Daniel Harris (born August 17, 1951) is a

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

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 ...

working in the field of algebraic geometry. After earning an AB from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, he continued at Harvard to study for a PhD under

Phillip Griffiths Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He was a major developer in particula ...

Work

During the 1980s, he was on the faculty of Brown University, moving to Harvard around 1988. He served as chair of the department at Harvard from 2002 to 2005. His work is characterized by its classical geometric flavor: he has claimed that nothing he thinks about could not have been imagined by the

Italian geometers In relation to the history of mathematics, the Italian school of algebraic geometry refers to mathematicians and their work in birational geometry, particularly on algebraic surfaces, centered around Rome roughly from 1885 to 1935. There were ...

of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that if he has had greater success than them, it is because he has access to better tools. Harris is well known for several of his books on algebraic geometry, notable for their informal presentations: * ''Principles of Algebraic Geometry'' , with Phillip Griffiths * ''Geometry of Algebraic Curves, Vol. 1'' , with

Enrico Arbarello Enrico Arbarello is an Italian mathematician who is a leading expert in algebraic geometry. He earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York in 1973. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1993-94. He is now a M ...

Maurizio Cornalba Maurizio Cornalba (born 17 January 1947) is an Italian mathematician, specializing in algebraic geometry. Cornalba completed his undergraduate studies at University of Pisa in 1969 und his graduate studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa ...

, and Phillip Griffiths * , with William Fulton * * , with

David Eisenbud David Eisenbud (born 8 April 1947 in New York City) is an American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI); he previously se ...

* * ''Moduli of Curves'' , with Ian Morrison. * '' Fat Chance: Probability from 0 to 1'', with

Benedict Gross Benedict Hyman Gross is an American mathematician who is a professor at the University of California San Diego, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College.Emily Riehl Emily Riehl is an American mathematician who has contributed to higher category theory and homotopy theory. Much of her work, including her PhD thesis, concerns model structures and more recently the foundations of infinity-categories. She is th ...

, 2019 As of 2018, Harris has supervised 50 PhD students, including

Brendan Hassett Brendan Edward Hassett is an American mathematician who works as a professor of mathematics at Brown University.C ...

James McKernan James McKernan (born 1964) is a mathematician, and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego. He was a professor at MIT from 2007 until 2013. Education McKernan was educated at the Campion School, Hornchurch, and T ...

Rahul Pandharipande Rahul Pandharipande (born 1969) is a mathematician who is currently a professor of mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH) working in algebraic geometry. His particular interests concern moduli spaces, enumerative ...

Zvezdelina Stankova Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova ( bg, Звезделина Енчева Станкова; born 15 September 1969) is a professor of mathematics at Mills College and a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the founder of the Be ...

, and

Ravi Vakil Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in algebraic geometry. Education and career Vakil attended high school at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he won several mathemati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Joseph Daniel 1951 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Algebraic geometers Brown University faculty Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Harvard College alumni Harvard University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni