David Kazhdan
Encyclopedia
David Kazhdan or Každan, Kazhdan, formerly named Dmitry Aleksandrovich Kazhdan (until he left Soviet Union; ), is a Soviet and Israel
i mathematician
known for work in representation theory
.
, USSR. His father is Alexander Kazhdan
. He earned a doctorate under Alexandre Kirillov
in 1969 and was a leading member of Israel Gelfand
's school of mathematics. He is Jewish, and emigrated from the Soviet Union to take a position at Harvard University
in 1975. He changed his name from Dmitri Aleksandrovich to David and became an Orthodox Jew around that time.
In 2005 he immigrated to Israel and is now a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
as well as a professor emeritus at Harvard.
Kazhdan has four children. His son, Eli Kazhdan, was general director of Natan Sharansky
's Yisrael BaAliyah political party (now merged with Likud
).
, Victor Kac
, George Lusztig (on an influential Kazhdan–Lusztig conjecture on Verma module
s), with Grigory Margulis
(Kazhdan–Margulis theorem), with Yuval Flicker
and S. J. Patterson on the representations of metaplectic group
s. Kazhdan's property (T)
is now a much-studied aspect of representation theory.
Kazhdan held a MacArthur Fellowship from 1990 to 1995. One of his students was Vladimir Voevodsky
, a recipient of the Fields Medal
, a prize for young mathematicians of outstanding reputation. Since 2006, Kazhdan has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences
. In 2008 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
known for work in representation theory
Representation theory
Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by representing their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studiesmodules over these abstract algebraic structures...
.
Life
Kazhdan was born on 20 June 1946 in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, USSR. His father is Alexander Kazhdan
Alexander Kazhdan
- Soviet :Born in Moscow, Kazhdan was educated at the Pedagogical Institute of Ufa and the University of Moscow, where he studied with the historian of medieval England, Evgenii Kosminskii...
. He earned a doctorate under Alexandre Kirillov
Alexandre Kirillov
Alexandre Aleksandrovich Kirillov is a Soviet and Russian mathematician, renowned for his works in the fields of representation theory, topological groups and Lie groups. In particular he introduced the orbit method into representation theory....
in 1969 and was a leading member of Israel Gelfand
Israel Gelfand
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand was a Soviet mathematician who made major contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis...
's school of mathematics. He is Jewish, and emigrated from the Soviet Union to take a position at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1975. He changed his name from Dmitri Aleksandrovich to David and became an Orthodox Jew around that time.
In 2005 he immigrated to Israel and is now a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
as well as a professor emeritus at Harvard.
Kazhdan has four children. His son, Eli Kazhdan, was general director of Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against...
's Yisrael BaAliyah political party (now merged with Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
).
Research
He is known for many collaborations: with Israel GelfandIsrael Gelfand
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand was a Soviet mathematician who made major contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis...
, Victor Kac
Victor Kac
Victor G. Kac is a Soviet and American mathematician at MIT, known for his work in representation theory. He discovered Kac–Moody algebras, and used the Weyl–Kac character formula for them to reprove the Macdonald identities...
, George Lusztig (on an influential Kazhdan–Lusztig conjecture on Verma module
Verma module
Verma modules, named after Daya-Nand Verma, are objects in the representation theory of Lie algebras, a branch of mathematics.The definition of a Verma module looks complicated, but Verma modules are very natural objects, with useful properties...
s), with Grigory Margulis
Grigory Margulis
Gregori Aleksandrovich Margulis is a Russian mathematician known for his far-reaching work on lattices in Lie groups, and the introduction of methods from ergodic theory into diophantine approximation. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1978 and a Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 2005, becoming the...
(Kazhdan–Margulis theorem), with Yuval Flicker
Yuval Flicker
Yuval Zvi Flicker is an American mathematician. His primary research interests include automorphic representations.He received his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in 1978...
and S. J. Patterson on the representations of metaplectic group
Metaplectic group
In mathematics, the metaplectic group Mp2n is a double cover of the symplectic group Sp2n. It can be defined over either real or p-adic numbers...
s. Kazhdan's property (T)
Kazhdan's property (T)
In mathematics, a locally compact topological group G has property if the trivial representation is an isolated point in its unitary dual equipped with the Fell topology. Informally, this means that if G acts unitarily on a Hilbert space and has "almost invariant vectors", then it has a nonzero...
is now a much-studied aspect of representation theory.
Kazhdan held a MacArthur Fellowship from 1990 to 1995. One of his students was Vladimir Voevodsky
Vladimir Voevodsky
Vladimir Voevodsky is a Russian American mathematician. His work in developing a homotopy theory for algebraic varieties and formulating motivic cohomology led to the award of a Fields Medal in 2002.- Biography :...
, a recipient of the Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
, a prize for young mathematicians of outstanding reputation. Since 2006, Kazhdan has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was set up in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between scholars from the sciences and humanities in Israel, to advise the government on research projects of national importance, and to promote excellence. It comprises...
. In 2008 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
.