- 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
Intro
Mathematician with British, Italian and US nationalities. Distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Utah and Presidential Endowed Chair. He received the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics for “transformational contributions to birational algebraic geometry, especially to the minimal model program in all dimensions.”
Education and Work Experience
1998, Ph.D. in Mathematics, UCLA
2002-2010, Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor and full Professor, University of Utah
2010-Present, Distinguished Professor, University of Utah
2018-Present, McMinn Presidential Endowed Chair, University of Utah
Honors and Awards
2007, Clay Research Award
2009, Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra
2011, Antonio Feltrinelli Prize in Mathematics, Mechanics, and Applications
2018, Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
Major Academic Achievements
Christopher Hacon is a mathematician who specializes in the field of algebraic geometry which, loosely speaking, is a branch of mathematics that studies the geometric properties of sets defined by polynomial equations. Together with his co-authors, Hacon has proved many foundational results on the geometry of higher dimensional algebraic varieties including the celebrated result on the finite generation of canonical rings. Because algebraic geometry is closely connected to other fields within and beyond mathematics, Hacon’s work has had broad impact.