Biosketch
David Vogan is Professor of Mathematics at MIT and President of the American Mathematical Society (2013-15). His research interests include group representations and Lie algebras. He received the B.A. and S.M. degrees from the University of Chicago in 1974, and the Ph.D. from MIT in 1976 under the direction of Bertram Kostant. He was an Instructor at MIT, and Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, before joining the MIT mathematics faculty in 1979.
Research Interests
Vogan's central interest is in the structure and classification of unitary group representations. (In the language of quantum mechanics, the question is "what quantum systems can admit a specified group of symmetries?") Together with Jeffrey Adams, Peter Trapa, and Marc van Leeuwen, he has recently found an algorithm for solving this problem in the case of real reductive Lie groups. He is a member of the research group "Atlas of Lie groups and representations," which is creating computer software implementing these abstract ideas, and using that software for further mathematical investigations.
Membership Type
Member
Election Year
2013
Primary Section
Section 11: Mathematics