Syracuse University mathematics professor receives international award for excellence in research

Syracuse University mathematics professor receives international award for excellence in researchFebruary 25, 2009Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Tadeusz Iwaniec, the John Raymond French Distinguished Professor of Mathematics in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been chosen to receive the prestigious 2009 Sierpinski Medal. The international award is the highest honor presented by the Polish Mathematical Society and Warsaw University to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the field of mathematics.

In honor of his selection for the medal, Iwaniec will deliver the celebrated 2009 Sierpinski Lecture at Warsaw University on May 21. The medal and annual lecture are presented in memory of Polish mathematician Waclaw Sierpinski (1882-1969), renowned for his work in set theory, the theory of irrational numbers and the theory of numbers.

“Professor Iwaniec’s selection for this international honor recognizes his extraordinary contributions to mathematics,” says College of Arts and Sciences Dean George Langford. “On behalf of the college, I offer our congratulations and deep appreciation to him for moving the field of mathematics forward and for training the next generation of mathematicians.”

Iwaniec is an internationally acclaimed mathematics researcher whose work in the area of nonlinear analysis and geometric function theory has been continuously supported since 1988 by the National Science Foundation, including one of the few NSF Collaborative Grants received at SU. His work has been recognized by several international awards-the 2001 medal and prize of the Henri Poincare Institute of Nonlinear Analysis, Paris, for his paper “Quasiharmonic Fields”; the 1997 Alfred Jurzykowski Award in the Field of Mathematics; and the 1980 Prize of the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In 2005, Iwaniec was elected a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2007, he received an honorary degree (doctor of philosophy honoris causa) from the University of Helsinki. In October 2007, an international conference was held in Ischia, Italy, honoring his work on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

The author of more than 100 papers, Iwaniec has been an invited speaker at mathematics conferences all over the world, including invitations to address the International Congress of Mathematicians and the American Mathematical Society. His reputation as a teacher draws to SU some of the top mathematics graduate students from the United States and abroad. He is the 2002 recipient of SU’s College of Arts and Sciences William Wasserstrom Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and a 2008 recipient of the Chancellor’s Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction.

Iwaniec holds a master of arts with distinction and a Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw. Prior to joining the SU faculty in 1986 as a full professor, Iwaniec served as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, the University of Texas and New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.