Dr. Nam Le, of the Department of Mathematics in Indiana University Bloomington’s College of Arts and Sciences, is a recipient of the 2024 Frontiers of Science Award, given for best-in-world recent research contributions in mathematics, physics, and computer science.
The award, sponsored by the International Congress for Basic Science (ICBS) in Beijing, China, honors outstanding research achievements of the last few years. To qualify for this award, the research must:
- Have been published in the last 10 years
- Be of the highest scientific value and originality, as well as having made an important impact on its area
- Must be evaluated and accepted by scholars in its area
According to ICBS, “The goal of this award is to encourage young scholars to look to the frontiers of basic science, set goals to obtain breakthrough results as early as possible, and contribute wisdom and energy to humankind’s study of the mysteries of the natural world.”
Dr. Le, with co-author Dr. Ovidiu Savin of Columbia University, was given the Frontiers of Science award based on the publication, “Schauder estimates for degenerate Monge–Ampère equations and smoothness of the eigenfunctions,” that appeared in Inventiones Mathematicae, one of the most prestigious math journals in the field, in 2017.
In the paper, said Dr. Le, “…we resolved the global smoothness issue of the Monge–Ampère eigenfunctions in all dimensions, which has been open for more than 30 years. Oversimplifying, one can think of these eigenfunctions as very complicated, vibrating, violin strings with many wildly annoying facets, but we managed to say something really nice about [the Monge–Ampère eigenfunctions].”
The award ceremony was held at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China.
“The math recipients are a ‘who’s-who’ in mathematics,” said Christopher Connell, a professor in and the chair of the College’s Department of Mathematics, “and this is a great honor for a member [of the faculty] at IU to have received this award.”
This is the second consecutive year that a Department of Mathematics faculty member has been honored with this award. Dylan Thurston won this prestigious award in 2023.
“As a mathematician,” said Dr. Le, “I’m glad that we were able to answer some concrete basic questions in the paper, but getting an award for it is sort of unexpected and also surprising. It is always gratifying to see some recognition of our work.”
About the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington
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