Robert V. Kohn (born in 1953) is an American

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 ...

working on

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...

calculus of variations The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in Function (mathematics), functions and functional (mathematics), functionals, to find maxima and minima of f ...

, mathematical

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

, and

mathematical finance Mathematical finance, also known as quantitative finance and financial mathematics, is a field of applied mathematics, concerned with mathematical modeling in the financial field. In general, there exist two separate branches of finance that req ...

. He is a professor at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Biography

Kohn studied mathematics 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 ...

, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1974. He obtained his Ph.D. 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 ...

in 1979, as a student of Frederick Almgren.

Work

Kohn is best known for his work on non-linear partial differential equations, including work with

Louis Nirenberg Louis Nirenberg (February 28, 1925 – January 26, 2020) was a Canadian-American mathematician, considered one of the most outstanding Mathematical analysis, mathematicians of the 20th century. Nearly all of his work was in the field of par ...

and

Luis Caffarelli Luis Ángel Caffarelli (; born December 8, 1948) is an Argentine-American mathematician. He studies partial differential equations and their applications. Caffarelli is a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, and the win ...

in which they obtained partial results about the regularity of weak solutions of the

Navier–Stokes equations The Navier–Stokes equations ( ) are partial differential equations which describe the motion of viscous fluid substances. They were named after French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and the Irish physicist and mathematician Georg ...

Honors

He received a

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

in 1984. In 2006, he was a plenary speaker at 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 Madrid (''Energy driven pattern formation''). He is 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, ...

. He is an elected member of

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

Selected publications

*with L. Caffarelli and L. Nirenberg: "Partial regularity of suitable weak solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations", ''

Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics ''Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal which is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. It covers research originating from or solicited ...

'', n. 35 i. 6, pp. 771–831. *with L. Caffarelli and L. Nirenberg, "First order interpolation inequalities with weights", ''

Compositio Mathematica ''Compositio Mathematica'' is a monthly peer-reviewed mathematics journal established by L.E.J. Brouwer in 1935. It is owned by the Foundation Compositio Mathematica, and since 2004 it has been published on behalf of the Foundation by the London ...

'' n. 53 i. 3, pp. 259–275. *with

Gilbert Strang William Gilbert Strang (born November 27, 1934) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to Finite elements, finite element theory, the calculus of variations, wavelet analysis and linear algebra. He has made many contributions ...

, "Optimal design and relaxation of variational problems, I", ''Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics'', n. 39 i. 1, pp. 113–137.

References

External links

Robert V. Kohn website
20th-century American mathematicians 1953 births Sloan Research Fellows Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Harvard University alumni Princeton University alumni Living people Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty {{mathematician-stub