Peter D. Lax
Wolf Prize Laureate in Mathematics 1987
Peter D. Lax
Affiliation at the time of the award:
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, USA
Award citation:
“for his outstanding contributions to many areas of analysis and applied mathematics”.
Prize share:
Peter D. Lax
Kiyoshi Ito
Professor Peter D. Lax, a graduate of the Courant Institute, embodies the best traditions of D. Hilbert as continued by R. Courant. Among his many contributions are the solution of the Cauchy problem with oscillatory data, the clarification of the role of stability of a numerical scheme, the comprehensive development of scattering theory, the theory of non-linear conservation laws and a deep insight into the Korteweg-de Vries equation. Prof. Lax’s influence has been profound and decisive in both pure and applied mathematic