| Jacob Lurie | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 December 1977 Washington, D.C. |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard College |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael J. Hopkins |
| Notable awards | Morgan Prize (2000) |
Jacob Alexander Lurie (born 7 December 1977) is an American mathematician, who is currently a professor at Harvard University.[1]
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While in school, Lurie took part in the International Mathematical Olympiad, where he won a gold medal with a perfect score in 1994. In 1996 he took first place in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and was featured in a front-page story in Washington Times.[2] He graduated from the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School. Lurie earned his Bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard College in 2000 and was awarded in the same year the Morgan Prize for his undergraduate thesis on Lie algebras.[3] He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under supervision of Michael J. Hopkins in 2004 with a thesis on derived algebraic geometry. In 2007, he became associate professor at MIT, and in 2009 he became professor at Harvard.
Lurie's research interests started with logic and the theory of surreal numbers, while he was still in school.
He is especially known for his work, starting with his thesis, on infinity-categories and derived algebraic geometry. Derived algebraic geometry is a way of infusion of homotopical methods into algebraic geometry both to get deeper insight into algebraic geometry (e.g. into intersection theory) and to use methods of algebraic geometry in stable homotopy theory. The latter is the topic of Lurie's work on elliptic cohomology. Infinity categories (in the form of Joyal's quasi-categories) are a convenient framework to do homotopy theory in abstract settings. They are the main topic of his book Higher Topos Theory.
Another part of Lurie's work, which aroused much interest in the mathematical community, is his article on topological field theories, where he sketches a classification of extended field theories using the language of infinity-categories.