Jeffrey Brock appointed the Zhao and Ji Professor of Mathematics

Jeffrey Brock, newly named as the Zhao and Ji Professor of Mathematics, focuses his research on low-dimensional geometry and topology, particularly hyperbolic geometry.

Brock currently serves as dean of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, and dean of science for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

An internationally recognized mathematician and academic leader, Brock has collaborated in substantial research partnerships with computer scientists and engineers. His work on pioneering mathematician William Thurston’s program to understand hyperbolic 3-manifolds led to their geometric classification in joint research with Richard Canary and Yair Minsky. More recently, he has worked to study the notion of renormalized volume and its gradient flow on deformation spaces. He is also interested in geometric and topological methods in analysis of large, complex data sets.

A 1992 graduate of Yale College, Brock earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California-Berkeley with Fields medal winner Curtis McMullen. He began his academic career as a Szegö Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University. After serving as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, Brock joined the faculty at Brown University, where he was a professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, and the founding director of Brown’s Data Science Initiative. He came to Yale in 2018 as a professor of mathematics.

Brock’s research has been supported by numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, and has been widely published in professional journals. He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2008 and is an elected fellow of the American Mathematical Society.