Joseph B. Keller
Wolf Prize Laureate in Mathematics 1996/7
Joseph B. Keller
Affiliation at the time of the award:
Stanford University, USA
Award citation:
“for his profound and innovative contributions, in particular to electromagnetic, optical, acoustic wave propagation and to fluid, solid, quantum and statistical mechanics”.
Prize share:
Joseph B. Keller
Yakov G. Sinai
Professor Joseph B. Keller is a preeminent applied mathematician in the classical tradition. He has brought a deep understanding of physics and a superb skill at asymptotics to an astonishing range of problems; these include reflection, scattering and diffraction of waves, whether acoustic, electro-magnetic, elastic or fluid. His outstanding contributions cover problems in mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermo-dynamics, statistical mechanics, and include the so-called Keller-Maslov index, the Keller-Rubinov formula for forward scattering and pioneering work on random media. He is really the model of what a mathematician interested in a wide variety of physical phenomena can and should be.