Wyoming Mathematics Professor Receives Fellowship at Princeton

Chris Hall, an associate professor in the University of Wyoming Department of Mathematics, has been selected for the prestigious von Neumann Fellowship at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study.

Up to eight of these fellowships are available each year. According to a news release, Hall’s primary research area is arithmetic geometry. Math topics of interest include elliptic curves, abelian varieties, big monodromy and compatible systems.

John von Neumann, for whom the fellowship is named, was a Hungarian-born American mathematician (1903-1957) who made major contributions to a vast range of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, continuous geometry, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics of explosions and statistics. He was a principal member of the Manhattan Project and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

To conduct his fellowship, Hall will take a leave of absence from UW starting this September through June 2015. During his fellowship, Hall will participate in a yearlong mathematical theme, attend weekly lectures, give occasional talks, finish some of his current research and write papers, and begin new work. During his stay, he will receive housing and a stipend.

Hall said while at Princeton, he also plans to attempt to solve one of six mathematical problems referred to as “millennium prize problems."