Publish Date: 17.02.2020
Category: News from the University
The 2019 Bergman Prizes have been awarded to Franc Forstnerič of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Mei-Chi Shaw of the University of Notre Dame. Established in 1988, the prize recognizes mathematical accomplishments in the areas of research in which Stefan Bergman worked.
Franc Forstnerič is awarded the Bergman Prize for his many contributions to several complex variables (SCV), as well as complex geometry and geometric analysis. He is being recognized for his foundational work on mapping problems for domains in complex spaces and more general complex manifolds, approximation theory in SCV, the development of the Oka principle, and complex analysis methods in the theory of minimal surfaces. This constitutes a broad and wide-ranging body of work that contributes deeply to our understanding of the theory of SCV, complex geometry, and geometric analysis. Forstnerič’s early work included investigations into the regularity and structure of holomorphic maps between domains in complex spaces, work that has had a major influence on subsequent work in this direction. His seminal works on approximation theory and its relation to the Oka principle, as well as the development of the Oka principle in greater generality, and his work on the existence of noncritical holomorphic mappings on Stein manifolds are also a major factor in this award. Moreover, his more recent work on the application of complex analysis in the theory of minimal surfaces has significantly advanced this subject.
Forstnerič’s work has had a deep impact on the theory of several complex variables, complex geometry, and geometric analysis and has generated, and continues to generate, a great deal of interest in these general communities.