Antony Wassermann

Antony John Wassermann (born 13 February 1957) is a British mathematician, working in operator algebras. He is known for his works on conformal field theory (providing several series of subfactors), on the actions of compact groups on von Neumann algebras, and his proof of the Baum–Connes conjecture for connected reductive linear Lie groups.

Antony Wassermann at Berkeley in 1989

He attended Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne from 1968 to 1974,[1] and received his Ph.D at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, under the supervision of Jonathan Rosenberg (Automorphic actions of compact groups on operator algebras).[2][3]

He was Directeur de Recherches CNRS at Aix-Marseille University (France) from 1999 to 2013.[4]

He is the son of the quantum physicist Gerhard Dietrich Wassermann and the brother of the mathematician Alexander Simon Wassermann.[5]

Honours

• Bronze medal, International Mathematical Olympiad, 1974.[6]
• Miller Research Fellowship recipient in 1986–88.[7]
• Winner of the Whitehead Prize in 1990.[8]
• Invited speaker, International Congresses of Mathematicians, 1994, Zürich.[9]

Selected bibliography

• Operator algebras and conformal field theory. III. Fusion of positive energy representations of LSU(N) using bounded operators. Invent. Math. 133, no. 3, 467–538, 1998.
• Operator algebras and conformal field theory. Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. 1, 2 (Zürich, 1994), 966–979, Birkhäuser, Basel, 1995.
• Ergodic actions of compact groups on operator algebras. I. General theory. Ann. of Math. (2) 130, no. 2, 273–319, 1989.
• Ergodic actions of compact groups on operator algebras. III. Classification for SU(2). Invent. Math. 93, no. 2, 309–354, 1988.
• Une démonstration de la conjecture de Connes–Kasparov pour les groupes de Lie linéaires connexes réductifs [A proof of the Connes–Kasparov conjecture for connected reductive linear Lie groups], C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I Math. 304, no. 18, 559–562, 1987.

References

1. Old Novocastrians’ Association Magazine, Issue 96, Spring 2016, page 17
2. Antony John Wassermann at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1981
4. Activity report, Institut de Mathématiques de Luminy, page 152
5. Webpage of Simon Wassermann
6. International Mathematical Olympiad
7. List of Miller Research Fellows
8. Winners of the Whitehead Prize
9. Invited speakers, International Congresses of Mathematicians