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Profile:Masaki Kashiwara

Masaki Kashiwara

Masaki Kashiwara

Program-Specific Professor

Research Fields

Mathematics, Algebraic Analysis, Representation Theory

Research Overview

Dr. Kashiwara's work in Mathematics extends from microlocal analysis, representation theory and combinatorics to homological algebra, symplectic geometry and integrable systems. Most well-known works of him are his contributions to the theory of D-modules and his creation of crystal basis theory. Introduced by Sato around 1960, algebraic analysis is a framework in which systems of linear differential equations are formulated as modules over the ring D of differential operators and are investigated with algebraic means such as rings, modules, sheaves and categories. Sato's idea of D-modules was greatly developed by Kashiwara, and has become a fundamental tool in many branches of mathematics. In the 1980s with Schapira he further introduced and developed microlocal sheaf theory. One of his early major results was his 1980 construction of the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence, a generalization of Hilbert's 21st problem about the existence of a linear differential equation on the projective line with prescribed monodromy. The Riemann-Hilbert correspondence, found a remarkable application to a problem in representation theory, called the Kazhdan-Lusztig conjecture.

Biography

1971 M.Sci., Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
1971-1974 Assistant, Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
1974-1977 Associate Professor, Nagoya University
1974 Ph.D., Kyoto University
1977-1978 Associate researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1978-1984 Associate Professor, Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
1984-2010 Professor, Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
2001-2003 Director of Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
2007-2009 Director of Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
2010- Project Professor, Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University
2019- Program-Specific Professor, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS)

Honors

Iyanaga Prize of Mathematical Society of Japan (1981), Asahi Prize (1988), Japan Academy Prize (1988), Member of the Japan Academy (2007), Fujihara Award (2008), Chern Medal (2018), Kyoto Prize (2018), The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star (2020) , Frontiers of Science Award (2023) , Kyoto Prefecture Culture Prize for Outstanding Contribution(2024)