Phillip A. Griffiths - Algebraic Geometry

American researcher, Professor Phillip Anthony Griffiths has made invaluable contributions to science through his reserach in the introduction of techniques of differential geometry into algebraic geometry.

Speech given in honour of Professor Phillip A. Griffiths on October 2, 1980

"It is challenging to provide a comprehensive overview of your extensive body of work, which has been published in leading international journals over the course of a distinguished career spanning two decades.

Mathematics has often advanced as a result of the exceptional contributions of a select few great mathematicians who have brought together seemingly disparate fields in unexpected ways. Your name, Professor GRIFFITHS, will forever be associated with the fruitful introduction of techniques of differential geometry into algebraic geometry. You have made an invaluable contribution to the latter discipline, which I shall attempt to summarize.

Photograph of Phillip Griffiths, undated. Photographer, Cliff Moore. Courtesy of the Shelby White & Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)In 1965, you initiated a generalisation of Kodaira's results to fibres of any rank, distinguishing between different notions of positivity and obtaining the corresponding cancellation theorems. This research, which had been undertaken by many mathematicians, has had a considerable impact.

A few years later, you published a significant contribution to the field, namely the construction of the period variability of RIEMANN matrices and the study of the period morphism for a family of algebraic varieties. This powerful tool enables the resolution of long-standing open problems in the field of Italian geometry, such as Torelli's problem, which is solved in the case of the cubic volume of P4 in collaboration with C.H. Clemens.

These major works have led you into a wide range of research areas, resulting in the development of a theory of the distribution of values for equidimensional holomorphic applications, the introduction of cohomology, and so on. Cohomology for affine algebraic varieties, deformations of complex structures and the representation of real LIE groups were also areas of interest.

In the thousand pages or so that you have published, researchers also commend your synthesis of the principal problems of the moment, such as your work on the theory of Hodge and your "variations on an Abel theorem". Finally, the book you have written with J. Harris on the principles of algebraic geometry is the foundational work that all young researchers have been waiting for.

The depth and breadth of your ideas, the range of fields you have addressed, and your exceptional personal influence have attracted numerous highly talented researchers to your work: your bibliography includes collaborative works with some of the most prominent mathematicians, including S.S. Chern, P. Deligne, and D. Sullivan, among others. Since 1972, you have served as a professor at Harvard University, where you have mentored numerous researchers, including CARLSON, CLEMENS, HARRIS, and SCHMID. It is clear that you are highly dedicated to your research team.

A career such as yours has opened the doors to some of the world's leading universities, including PRINCETON, HARVARD, and BERKELEY, and has already been crowned with prestigious prizes.
In 1972, you were awarded the LEROY P. STEELE PRIZE, and in 1979, the DANNIE HEINEMAN PREIS from the GOTTINGEN Academy of Sciences. This prize was also presented in 1973 to the esteemed mathematician I. R. Safarevic, and, in 1975, to the distinguished physicist P. W. Anderson, who was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize.
Finally, in 1979, you were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Today, you are back in Angers, where, a year ago, you participated in the Algebraic Geometry Days. I am pleased to see that our modest university, despite its limited research teams and mounting challenges, has the privilege of counting one of the great mathematicians of our time among its Honorary Doctors."

The University of Angers awarded Professor Phillip A. Griffiths the Doctor Honoris Causa title on October 2, 1980