Robert William Hamilton Jr.

Robert William Hamilton Jr.‏‎ (born 1930) is an American mathematician and educator known for his significant contributions to the field of differential geometry. He is best known for the development of the Ricci flow, a mathematical process used to deform the metric of a Riemannian manifold. This process played a crucial role in Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture.

Early life and education

Hamilton was born in 1930 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He showed an early interest in mathematics and pursued his undergraduate studies at Yale University, where he graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics in 1952. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1957, under the supervision of John Nash.

Career

After completing his Ph.D., Hamilton joined the faculty of UCLA as an assistant professor. In 1964, he moved to Cornell University, where he served as a professor of mathematics until 1989. During his tenure at Cornell, Hamilton developed the concept of Ricci flow, which has since become a fundamental tool in the study of Riemannian manifolds.

In 1989, Hamilton was appointed as the Davies Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University, a position he held until his retirement in 2013. During his time at Columbia, Hamilton continued his research on Ricci flow and its applications in geometry and topology.

Contributions to mathematics

Hamilton's most significant contribution to mathematics is the development of Ricci flow, a process that deforms the metric of a Riemannian manifold in a way that smooths out irregularities. This concept played a crucial role in Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems.

In addition to Ricci flow, Hamilton has made significant contributions to the study of heat equation, harmonic map, and geometric analysis.

Awards and honors

Hamilton has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to mathematics. He was awarded the Veblen Prize in 1996 and the Clay Research Award in 2003. In 2011, he was awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for his work on Ricci flow.

See also

• List of American mathematicians
• List of Columbia University people
• List of Princeton University people