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Professor Peter Shor PhD ’85 received the 2025 Claude E. Shannon award from the IEEE Information Theory Society “for consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory," in particular, for quantum error-correcting codes, for fault-tolerating quantum computing, and for questions of channel capacity for quantum channels.

Peter will deliver the Claude Shannon lecture at ISIT in 2025. Known as the “father of Information Theory,” Claude Shannon PhD ’40 and Shor did much of their research on information theory while at Bell Labs.

Congratulations, Peter!

Professor Scott Sheffield received the 2024 Henri Poincaré prize at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics, which is held every three years.

Scott, who was among four who received this year’s prize, gave an overview of random surfaces theory at the event. The prize was created in 1997 to “recognize outstanding contributions in mathematical physics, and contributions which lay the groundwork for novel developments in this broad field.” Professor Alexei Borodin received this award in 2015.

Congratulations, Scott!

The Department welcomes three assistant professors as of July 1: Shaoyun Bai, Jacopo Borga, and Christoph Kehle.

Shaoyun specializes in symplectic topology and is interested in problems interacting with neighboring fields. After receiving his PhD from Princeton University under the supervision of John Pardon, Shaoyun held short-term visiting positions at MSRI (now SLMath) and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics. Most recently he was the Ritt Assistant Professor at Columbia University.

Previously the Szegö Assistant Professor at Stanford, Jacopo is interested in probability theory and its connections to combinatorics and mathematical physics. Jacopo received his PhD in Mathematics from the Institut für Mathematik of the Universität Zürich, under the supervision of Valentin Feŕay and Mathilde Bouvel. In 2022, he received the Bernoulli Society New Researcher Award, and in 2023, the Bruno de Finetti Award.

Christoph is interested in analysis, partial differential equations, and general relativity, with recent research focused on the formation and dynamics of black holes. After receiving his PhD in 2020 from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Mihalis Dafermos, Christoph was a member of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study and a junior fellow at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Theoretical Studies.

Please welcome Christoph, Jacopo, and Shaoyun!

Rupert Li ’24 was among 10 MIT-affiliated students who received the prestigious Hertz Foundation fellowship, which provides funding for doctoral studies.

Rupert received degrees at MIT in mathematics as well as computer science, data science, and economics, with a minor in business analytics. He was named a 2024 Marshall Scholar and will study abroad for a year at Cambridge University before matriculating at Stanford University for a mathematics doctorate.

As an undergraduate, Li authored 12 math research articles in combinatorics, discrete geometry, probability, and harmonic analysis.

Congratulations, Rupert!

Abdun-Nur Professor of Mathematics George Lusztig received a gold medal from the West University of Timișoara in Romania. George was born and raised in Timișoara. This Honorary Distinction for Excellence is given to international personalities for excellence in various fields.

Felicitări, George!