Robert MacPherson

Robert MacPherson, Hermann Weyl Professor in the School of Mathematics, joined the Institute Faculty in 1994. His work has introduced new approaches to the topology of singular spaces and promoted investigations across a great spectrum of mathematics. He works in several fields of geometry-topology, algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and singularity theory, and he is especially interested in aspects of geometry that interact with other areas of mathematics, such as the geometry of spaces of lattices, which interacts with modular forms, and the geometry of toric varieties, which interacts with combinatorics.

Mathematics

The Fundamental Lemma

Kelly Devine Thomas
The Institute Letter Summer 2010

The fundamental lemma has been described as a gross understatement. Says Andrew Wiles, a Visitor in the School of Mathematics and an Institute Trustee, “At first, it was thought to be a minor irritant, but it subsequently became clear that it was not a lemma but rather a central problem in the field.”