2006 Nemmers Prize in Mathematics Recipient

Robert P. Langlands

For his fundamental vision connecting representation theory, automorphic forms and number theory

Official press release

Robert P. Langlands is Hermann Weyl Professor of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. The selection committee for the mathematics prize recognized Langlands for his "fundamental vision connecting representation theory, automorphic forms and number theory."

Langlands is best known for the fundamental research program that bears his name. "This program postulates a deep relationship between two different areas of mathematics, number theory and automorphic forms, via a study of their symmetries," said Kari Vilonen, professor of mathematics at Northwestern.

"Since its initiation about 40 years ago, the Langlands program has served as a unifying principle in mathematics and has guided research in number theory, automorphic forms and representation theory," he said. "Recently, it also had entered mathematical physics. It remains a research program for the future in all these areas."

Langlands' numerous distinguished awards include the La Grande Medaille d'or de l'Academie (2000), the Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1995-96), the National Academy of Sciences Medal (1993) and the Cole Prize (1982). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Langlands is the author or co-author of numerous articles and the editor, with D. Ramakrishnan, of "The Zeta Functions of Picard Modular Surfaces," Les Publications CRM, Montreal (1992).