March 26, 2009
Jesse Peterson Receives Sloan Fellowship
One of Vanderbilt’s newest mathematics faculty, Jesse Peterson, has been named among a select group of 118 young scientists, economists and mathematicians as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Peterson will receive a $50,000 research grant from the Sloan Foundation.
Working under the supervision of Sorin Popa, a recognized leader in the field of operator algebras, Peterson received his PhD in Mathematics in 2006 from UCLA. Following that he was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley until 2008, under the mentorship of Fields Medalist Vaughan Jones. He joined Vanderbilt as Assistant Professor in Fall 2008.
Peterson’s research area is the theory of von Neumann algebras. A von Neumann algebra can be viewed as an algebra of symmetries of a quantum mechanical system. The field was introduced by the legendary John von Neumann in the late 1920s and was studied extensively by von Neumann and his collaborators.
A relatively new technique for studying von Neumann algebras, known as deformation/rigidity theory, was introduced in the early 2000’s by Peterson’s advisor, Sorin Popa at UCLA. Peterson has now advanced the field by introducing a new notion of rigidity for operator algebras, called L2-rigidity. His paper “L2-rigidity in von Neumann algebras” appeared recently in the leading mathematics journal?Inventiones Mathematicae.
“Jesse Peterson is a young star in von Neumann algebras, and despite his young age he is already a leader in deformation/rigidity theory of von Neumann algebras,” said Department of Mathematics Chair Dietmar Bisch, who both hired Peterson in 2007 and submitted his name for the nomination-only Sloan Fellowship. “His work on L2-rigidity has had a deep impact, and I expect many more exciting results from this line of research.”
“I’m honored to have received a Sloan Fellowship,” Peterson said. “This is a terrific opportunity for me to use the resources and support that accompany the fellowship in order to further my research in von Neumann algebras. I am grateful to the Sloan Foundation for considering my work and to the Vanderbilt Mathematics Department for nominating me for this award.”