Lifetime achievement award for emeritus math professor

Frederick Gehring, the T. H. Hildebrandt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, received one of the highest distinctions in his field from the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Jan. 13.

(Photo by File Photo/D.C. Goings, U-M Photo Services)

Gehring is a recipient of the 2006 AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement, an annual award that honors those who have made outstanding contributions to research in mathematics. The prize was awarded at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio.

"For over fifty years F. W. Gehring has been a leading figure in the theory of quasiconformal mappings," the AMS prize citation states. "Largely because of Gehring's work, the theory of quasiconformal mappings has influenced many other parts of mathematics, including complex dynamics, function theory, partial differential equations, and topology ... Gehring's mathematics is characterized by its elegance and simplicity and by its emphasis on deceptively elementary questions which later become surprisingly significant."

Gehring also is described as a person of incredible energy and enthusiasm, who has trained 29 doctoral students—many of whom hold faculty positions at research institutions—and has mentored more than 40 postdoctoral fellows.

Gehring joined U-M in 1955 and served three terms as chair of mathematics. Among his honors are the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award (1981), Henry Russel Lecturer (1990), and the Sokol Faculty Award (1994). He was invited three times to address the International Congress of Mathematicians and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989.

Gehring retired in 1996. A year later the Frederick and Lois Gehring Chair in Mathematics was endowed.