Andrew J. Wiles

Mathematics Class of 1997
location icon Location
Princeton, New Jersey
age iconAge
44 at time of award

About Andrew's Work

Andrew Wiles is a mathematician whose work in modern number theory and algebraic geometry has advanced the discipline.

His accomplishments include proof of the Iwasawa Main conjecture and results on Galois representations.  This early work places him in a small group of mathematicians who have made significant contributions to algebraic number theory in the past 150 years.  Wiles's 1994 proof of the Shimura-Taniyama conjecture on elliptic curves included a proof of "Fermat's Last Theorem," which had eluded number theorists for 350 years.  This work draws from both modern number theory and algebraic geometry and represents a significant milestone in the discipline of mathematics.

Biography

Wiles is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, where he began teaching mathematics in 1982.  From 1988-1990 he was the Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford.  He was a Junior Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge (1977-1980), and the Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professor at Harvard University (1977-1980).

Wiles received a B.A. (1974) from Merton College, University of Oxford and a Ph.D. (1978) from Clare College, University of Cambridge.

Last updated January 1, 2005

Published on July 1, 1997

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