Peter Ebenfelt Awarded Bergman Prize from AMS

March 15, 2021 | By Mario Aguilera

Peter Ebenfelt

Peter Ebenfelt, a professor of mathematics and associate dean for research in the UC San Diego Division of Physical Sciences, has been awarded the Stefan Bergman Prize from the American Mathematical Society.

The Bergman Prize recognizes mathematical accomplishments in the theory of the kernel function and its applications in real and complex analysis. The 2020 prize carries a cash award of $24,000, split between Ebenfelt and co-recipient Aline Bonami of the Université d’Orléans in France.

According to the AMS, Ebenfelt was awarded the Bergman Prize for his many important contributions to several complex variables, CR geometry and partial differential equations.

“He is being recognized for his foundational and innovative results on mappings in CR geometry, his study of rigidity problems and new insights into the Bergman kernel function,” said the AMS in its announcement. “Ebenfelt’s pioneering work has had deep influences on the theory of several complex variables, CR geometry and geometric analysis and serves as an inspiration for a generation of junior mathematicians.”

“I am honored and humbled by the award of the 2020 Stefan Bergman Prize,” Ebenfelt noted in accepting the award. “This award renews my enthusiasm for mathematical research and affirms that the ups and downs of research are worth the effort.”

Ebenfelt earned a master’s degree in engineering physics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He completed his PhD at KTH under the supervision of Harold Shapiro in 1994. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Natural Sciences Research Council of Sweden to visit UC San Diego for two years under the mentorship of M. Salah Baouendi and Linda Rothschild. He took a position at KTH in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2001. The following year, he joined the faculty at UC San Diego as a full professor.

“On this occasion, I want to take the opportunity to share the honor of the Bergman Prize with all of my collaborators through the years,” Ebenfelt wrote. “My mathematical journey has not been a solo effort, but rather more like a team sport.”

Ebenfelt is the author of a Princeton University textbook on CR geometry. He received the Wallenberg Prize from the Swedish Mathematical Society in 1996 and was selected for the first five-year research fellowship in mathematics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2000. He is a fellow of the AMS and a foreign member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Arts and Sciences. His research has been continuously supported by the National Science Foundation since he came to the United States in 2001.

According to the AMS, the prize honors the memory of Stefan Bergman, known for his research in several complex variables, as well as the Bergman projection and the Bergman kernel function that bear his name.