Solving the Abhyankar conjecture earned David Harbater the 1995 Cole Prize in Algebra, a significant achievement that brought international recognition to his work in arithmetic and algebraic geometry. Born in New York City in 1952, Harbater established a career focused on the intricate connections between Galois theory and the fundamental groups of algebraic curves.
Academic Formation
Harbater attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City, where he participated on the mathematics team. He graduated in 1970 and enrolled at Harvard University, completing his undergraduate studies summa cum laude in 1974. Following his time at Harvard, he pursued graduate work at Brandeis University to earn a master's degree. He concluded his formal training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1978. His doctoral dissertation, titled Deformation Theory and the Fundamental Group in Algebraic Geometry, was supervised by Michael Artin.
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The core of Harbater's research investigates the inverse Galois problem over Qp(t). His technical contributions include the development of patching methods over fields, a technique he has utilized in collaboration with researchers such as Julia Hartmann and Daniel Krashen. This work has generated broad implications for local-global principles, central simple algebras, and quadratic forms. His primary research interests are situated within the disciplines of group theory, arithmetic geometry, and algebraic geometry.
Career and Professional Recognition
Based primarily at the University of Pennsylvania, Harbater has served as a university teacher and researcher throughout his professional life. His contributions to the field were formally acknowledged by the American Mathematical Society, which awarded him the Cole Prize in 1995 for his proof of the Abhyankar conjecture alongside Michel Raynaud. He became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2013.
Fast facts
- Born: 1952, New York City
- Undergraduate Degree: Harvard University, 1974
- Ph.D.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978
- Fields of Work: Algebra, Group Theory
- Employer: University of Pennsylvania
- 1995 Award: Cole Prize in Algebra
- 2013 Honor: Fellow of the American Mathematical Society
Questions readers ask
What is the subject of David Harbater's doctoral dissertation?
His 1978 thesis, written at MIT under Michael Artin, was titled Deformation Theory and the Fundamental Group in Algebraic Geometry.
Which major conjecture did Harbater help resolve?
In 1995, he and Michel Raynaud successfully proved the Abhyankar conjecture, a long-standing problem in algebraic geometry.
Achievements
- Cole Prize in Algebra — 1995
- Held posts at University of Pennsylvania
- Fields: group theory
