Notebook • Volume XX VI • 2018
Hacon Receives McMinn Presidential Endowed Chair of Mathematics Christopher Hacon, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the U, has been interested in math for as long as he can
Chair of Mathematics has been awarded to Professor Hacon. He
remember. As a child, he would spend hours on a calculator
is an internationally-recognized mathematical scientist of the
trying to count and figure out things—such as how much all the
highest caliber, whose work will motivate and deeply affect the
books in his house cost, or the number of seconds in a year or in
next several generations of brilliant algebraic geometers,”
a lifetime. He particularly enjoyed finding patterns and seeing
says Khoshnevisan.
relationships between numbers. Today, Hacon has established himself as one of the world’s top mathematicians and has been recognized with numerous awards for his outstanding teaching and research. In January, Hacon was selected as the first recipient of the
Hacon studies birational algebraic geometry. He is particularly interested in two topics: TOPIC ONE The classification of higher-dimensional “complex projective varieties.” These are geometric objects that are described
McMinn Presidential Endowed Chair of Mathematics at the U.
by one or more polynomial equations in many variables, and
This is a 5-year endowed chair that will provide Hacon with
that typically exist in more than three dimensions. For compar-
additional research support.
ison, consider that a simple geometric object like a sphere can
“The McMinn Endowed Chair allows us to further sup-
be described by just one polynomial equation in three variables,
port and promote some of the world-class, groundbreaking
and therefore exists in three-dimensional space.
mathematics research that is currently being undertaken in our
TOPIC TWO
department,” says Davar Khoshnevisan, a professor and chair of the Math Department.
20
“It is befitting that the first McMinn Presidential Endowed
Questions arising from the “minimal model program.” This is a large-scale effort by a large number of preeminent
