Jerrold Bates Tunnell (September 16, 1950 – April 1, 2022) was a mathematician known for his work in number theory. He was an associate professor of mathematics at Rutgers University.
Jerrold B. Tunnell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jerrold Bates Tunnell September 16, 1950 |
| Died | April 1, 2022 (aged 71) Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvey Mudd College Harvard University |
| Known for | Langlands–Tunnell theorem Tunnell's theorem |
| Awards | Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Rutgers University |
| Thesis | On the Local Langlands Conjecture for GL(2) (1977) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Tate |
Early life and education
editTunnell was born on September 16, 1950, in Dallas, Texas.[1]
He graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 1972.[2][3] He received his PhD in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1977.[4][5][3] His thesis, On the Local Langlands Conjecture for GL(2), was advised by John Tate.[5]
Career
editAfter graduation, Tunnell taught at Princeton University and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1982 to 1983.[4][3] He joined the mathematics faculty at Rutgers University in 1983,[3] eventually becoming an associate professor of mathematics.[6] He advised 7 PhD students.[3]
Research
editIn 1981, Tunnell generalized Langlands' work on the Artin conjecture, establishing a special case known as the Langlands–Tunnell theorem that later became a key component in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.[7][8]
He proved Tunnell's theorem in 1983, which gives a partial unconditional solution to the congruent number problem and a complete solution conditional on the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.[9]
Awards and honors
editIn 2013, Tunnell was elected in the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.[10]
Personal life
editStarting in 2004, Tunnell made cross-country cycling trips from Highland Park, New Jersey, to Syracuse, New York, in every U.S. election cycle.[11]
Tunnell died on April 1, 2022, in rural Texas.[1][3] He was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle from St. Augustine, Florida, to his 50th class reunion at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b "Jerrold Tunnell". Neal Funeral Home. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ "Benjamin, Pippenger, Klawe and alumni named to first class of AMS Fellows" (PDF). mudd/math. Vol. 7, no. 1. Harvey Mudd College. 2013. pp. 4–5. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Jerrold Bates Tunnell". Rio Grande Sun. April 15, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "Jerrold B. Tunnell". Institute for Advanced Study. December 9, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ a b Jerrold B. Tunnell at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ "Jerrold Tunnell". Rutgers University. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ Tunnell, Jerrold (1981). "Artin's conjecture for representations of octahedral type". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. N. S. 5 (2): 173–175. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1981-14936-3.
- ^ Prasad, Dipendra; Yogananda, C. S. (2000). "A Report on Artin's Holomorphy Conjecture". In Bambah, R. P.; Dumir, V. C.; Hans-Gill, R. J. (eds.). Number Theory (PDF). Birkhäuser Basel. pp. 301–314. doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-7023-8_16. ISBN 978-3-0348-7023-8.
- ^ Tunnell, Jerrold B. (1983). "A classical Diophantine problem and modular forms of weight 3/2". Inventiones Mathematicae. 72 (2): 323–334. Bibcode:1983InMat..72..323T. doi:10.1007/BF01389327. hdl:10338.dmlcz/137483. S2CID 121099824.
- ^ "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
- ^ "Alumni news" (PDF). mudd/math. Vol. 7, no. 1. Harvey Mudd College. 2013. pp. 24–30. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
External links
edit- Tunnell's webpage
- Rutgers profile
- Buhler, Joe; Kontorovich, Alex; Miller, Stephen D. (July 2023). "Jerry Tunnell (1950–2022)" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 70 (6): 945–952. doi:10.1090/noti2705.