Phillip Griffiths
Quick Facts
Biography
Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He was a major developer in particular of the theory of variation of Hodge structure in Hodge theory and moduli theory.
Professional career
He received his B.S. from Wake Forest College in 1959 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1962 working under Donald Spencer. Since then, he has held positions at Berkeley (1962–1967), Princeton (1967–1972), Harvard University (1972–1983), and Duke University (1983–1991). From 1991 to 2003 he was the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. He has published on algebraic geometry, differential geometry, geometric function theory, and the geometry of partial differential equations.
Griffiths serves as the Chair of the Science Initiative Group. He is co-author, with Joe Harris, of Principles of Algebraic Geometry, a well-regarded textbook on complex algebraic geometry.
Awards and honors
In 2008 he was awarded the Wolf Prize (jointly with Deligne and Mumford) and the Brouwer Medal. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Moreover, in 2014 Griffiths was awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the American Mathematical Society. Also in 2014, Griffiths was awarded the Chern Medal for lifetime devotion to mathematics and outstanding achievements.
Selected publications
Articles
- with Joe Harris:
- with S. S. Chern:
Books
- Introduction to Algebraic Curves, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1989, ISBN 0821845306
- Differential Systems and Isometric Embeddings, with Gary R. Jensen, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1987, ISBN 0-691-08429-7
- Topics in Transcendental Algebraic Geometry, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1984, ISBN 0691083355
- Exterior Differential Systems and the Calculus of Variations, Birkhäuser, Boston, 1983, ISBN 3764331038
- Rational Homotopy Theory and Differential Forms, with John W Morgan, Birkhäuser, Boston, 1981, ISBN 3764330414
- Principles of Algebraic Geometry, with Joe Harris, Wiley, New York, 1978, ISBN 0471327921
- Entire Holomorphic Mappings in One and Several Complex Variables, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1976, ISBN 0691081719