Joseph L. Doob Prize Explained

The Joseph L. Doob Prize of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) awards $5,000 (U.S.) every three years for "a single, relatively recent, outstanding research book that makes a seminal contribution to the research literature, reflects the highest standards of research exposition, and promises to have a deep and long-term impact in its area."^[1] The prize, endowed in 2005 by Paul and Virginia Halmos, is named in honor of AMS President Joseph L. Doob,^[1] who was Paul Halmos's doctoral advisor in the department of mathematics at the University of Illinois. According to Paul Halmos, "Doob was the first well-informed modern mathematician in the department".^[2] In order for a mathematical research book to be eligible for the prize, it must have been published within the past 6 calendar years of the year of its nomination.^[1] The prize was originally named the AMS Book Prize,^[3] but after the first award was renamed the Doob Prize.^[4]

Recipients

• 2005 —William P. Thurston for Three-dimensional Geometry and Topology (Princeton University Press 1997)
• 2008 — Enrico Bombieri and Walter Gubler for Heights in Diophantine Geometry (Cambridge University Press 2006)
• 2011 — Peter Kronheimer and Tomasz Mrowka for Monopoles and Three Manifolds (Cambridge University Press 2007)
• 2014 — Cédric Villani for Optimal Transport: Old and New (Springer Verlag 2009)
• 2017 — John Friedlander and Henryk Iwaniec for Opera de Cribro (AMS, 2010)
• 2020 — René Carmona and François Delarue for Probabilistic Theory of Mean Field Games with Applications (Springer, 2018)
• 2023 — Bjorn Poonen for "Rational Points on Varieties" (American Mathematical Society, 2017)

References

1. Web site: Joseph L. Doob Prize. American Mathematical Society.
2. Book: Halmos, Paul. 2020. 51. I Want to Be a Mathematician. Mathematical Association of America. 978-0-88385-445-7.

   1st edition 1985, Springer-Verlag

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3. Web site: William P. Thurston Receives 2005 AMS Book Prize. American Mathematical Society. January 6, 2005.
4. 2008 Doob Prize. Notices of the AMS. April 2008. 55. 4. 503–504.