Page 58 - 8th European Congress of Mathematics. 20-26 June 2021. Presentation of Plenary, Invited, Public, Abel and Prize Speakers at the 8ECM.
P. 58
European Congress of Mathematics
Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones
Vanderbilt University
In memoriam (1952–2020)
A Fields medallist, Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones was to
deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress
of Mathematics.
Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones was a New Zealand-born mathematician based in
the USA, renowned worldwide for his remarkable work on von Neumann
algebras and knot polynomials.
He was awarded a Fields medal in 1990 for his discoveries in the
mathematical study of knots – including an improvement on the Alexander
polynomial (now called the Jones polynomial) – working from an
unexpected direction with origins in the theory of von Neumann algebras,
an area of analysis already much developed by Alain Connes. These
discoveries led to the solution of a number of classical problems in knot
theory, and to increased interest in low-dimensional topology.
His work on polynomial invariants of knots also had remarkable
implications in the field of molecular biology, where new insight was gained
into how DNA can remove the tangles that result when replication and
cell division firstly duplicates the DNA and subsequently has to pull the
chromosomal mass into different cells. The result represents a landmark in
modern mathematics whose ramifications still remain to be fully explored.
Prof. Jones was Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley,
where he was on the faculty from 1985, as well as Stevenson Distinguished
Professor of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University (from 2011). He was also
a Distinguished Alumni Professor at the University of Auckland.
54
Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones
Vanderbilt University
In memoriam (1952–2020)
A Fields medallist, Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones was to
deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress
of Mathematics.
Sir Vaughan F. R. Jones was a New Zealand-born mathematician based in
the USA, renowned worldwide for his remarkable work on von Neumann
algebras and knot polynomials.
He was awarded a Fields medal in 1990 for his discoveries in the
mathematical study of knots – including an improvement on the Alexander
polynomial (now called the Jones polynomial) – working from an
unexpected direction with origins in the theory of von Neumann algebras,
an area of analysis already much developed by Alain Connes. These
discoveries led to the solution of a number of classical problems in knot
theory, and to increased interest in low-dimensional topology.
His work on polynomial invariants of knots also had remarkable
implications in the field of molecular biology, where new insight was gained
into how DNA can remove the tangles that result when replication and
cell division firstly duplicates the DNA and subsequently has to pull the
chromosomal mass into different cells. The result represents a landmark in
modern mathematics whose ramifications still remain to be fully explored.
Prof. Jones was Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley,
where he was on the faculty from 1985, as well as Stevenson Distinguished
Professor of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University (from 2011). He was also
a Distinguished Alumni Professor at the University of Auckland.
54
