Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro

Professor of Mathematics

Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro, educated at Moscow University, the Moscow Pedagogical Institute and the Steklov Mathematical Institute: Your resolution in 1959 of a problem posed by Elie Cartan, master geometer of an earlier generation, brought you international renown. You left Russia in 1976 after several years as an unemployed refusenik, when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences urged the USSR Academy of Sciences to intervene on your behalf. In 1977 you came to Yale, at first on a joint appointment with Tel Aviv University, and your work while in New Haven has flourished.

Yours is a mind that kept looking for the big picture. During your career your many penetrating insights have made you a central figure in the program of applying symmetry ideas to number theory. You also have pressed into the service of number theory those functions originally created to solve physical problems of wave motion and heat flow.

Through both the mental obstruction of refusenik status, and the physical restriction of illness, you have continued to pursue your outstanding research. Your many honors, including the prestigious Wolf Prize are testament to your accomplishment. As you retire, Yale and the department of Mathematics thank you for enhancing the international reputation of Yale Mathematics by your tenure.

Tribute Editor: Penelope Laurans