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Higson Named Evan Pugh Professor

20 April 2006 —Nigel Higson, distinguished professor of mathematics and head of the Department of Mathematics, has been named Evan Pugh professor, the highest distinction that Penn State can bestow upon a faculty member.

Named after Penn State's first president, this award is given to faculty members whose research publications and creative work or both are of the highest quality over a period of time; are acknowledged national and international leaders in their fields as documented by pioneering research or creative accomplishments; are recipients of prestigious awards; and demonstrate excellent teaching skills with undergraduate and graduate students.

Higson is a specialist in noncommutative geometry, particularly the operator-algebra theory, a subject that has roots in the mathematical foundations of quantum theory and in Fourier analysis and that has powerful consequences in the fields of topology and geometry. His recent work focuses on the Baum-Connes conjecture, a broad program that connects operator-algebra theory to problems in other areas of mathematics. Along with Paul Baum, Evan Pugh professor of mathematics at Penn State, and Alain Connes, their colleague in Paris, Higson is responsible for the current form of the Baum-Connes conjecture.

Higson has received much recognition for his research, including a Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1992, the Andre Aisenstadt Prize of the Center for Mathematical Research in Montreal in 1995, the Israel Halperin Prize of the Canadian Operator Symposium in 1995, and the Coxeter James Prize of the Canadian Mathematical Society in 1996. In addition, he was among the first group to be honored as Fellows of the Clay Mathematics Institute in 1999 and he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada in 2000.

His bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees all came from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From 1986 to 1990, Higson was an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor in 1989 and was promoted to associate professor in 1990 and to professor in 1994. He was named distinguished professor of mathematics in 2000.

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