Pavel Etingof

Pavel Etingof is Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Chief Research Advisor of the MIT PRIMES program.

Etingof's research interests focus on the intersection between representation theory and mathematical physics. He has co-authored over 220 journal articles and  8 books, and has collaborated with over 100 researchers across multiple disciplines of pure mathematics. He serves as chief editor of the Journal of the AMS and of Selecta Math. Awards include the Clay Mathematics Institute Prize fellowship, the Robert E. Collins Distinguished Scholar in the Mathematics Department, Frank E. Perkins Award for excellence in graduate advising. He is a Fellow of the AMS and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Etingof received the M.S. in applied mathematics from the Moscow Oil & Gas Institute in 1989, and the Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University in 1994, advised by Igor Frenkel. He went to Harvard as a Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor in 1994, and joined the MIT mathematics faculty as assistant professor in 1998. He has been a professor at MIT since 2005.

In 2010, Etingof launched the Math Department's MIT PRIMES program with Dr. Slava Gerovitch. This is a free outreach program for high school students with a particular focus on increasing the representation of women and under-served minorities in mathematics research. In 2020, the AMS announced that the MIT Mathematics Department had been selected for the Award for Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department for its PRIMES Program.

Fun Fact: Pavel Etingof has a soft spot for mushrooms.

Notes for the Meet & Greet with Pavel Etingof on June 10, 2022