Richard S. Hamilton

Richard Hamilton
Hamilton in 1982
Born	(1943-01-10) January 10, 1943 (age 81) Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University (BA) Princeton University (PhD)
Known for	Convergence theorems for Ricci flow Dirichlet problem for harmonic maps and harmonic map heat flow Earle–Hamilton fixed-point theorem Gage–Hamilton–Grayson theorem Li–Yau inequalities for Ricci flow and other geometric flows Maximum principle for parabolic systems Nash–Moser theorem Ricci flow with surgery in four dimensions for positive isotropic curvature
Awards	Veblen Prize (1996) Clay Research Award (2003) Leroy P. Steele Prize (2009) Shaw Prize (2011)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Cornell University University of California, San Diego Columbia University University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Thesis	Variation of structure on Riemann surfaces  (1969)
Doctoral advisor	Robert Gunning
Doctoral students	Martin Lo

Richard Streit Hamilton (born 10 January 1943) is an American mathematician who serves as the Davies Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University. He is known for contributions to geometric analysis and partial differential equations. Hamilton is best known for foundational contributions to the theory of the Ricci flow and the development of a corresponding program of techniques and ideas for resolving the Poincaré conjecture and geometrization conjecture in the field of geometric topology. Grigori Perelman built upon Hamilton's results to prove the conjectures, and was awarded a Millennium Prize for his work. However, Perelman declined the award, regarding Hamilton's contribution as being equal to his own.