Barry Simon Credit: Bob Paz/Caltech

Professor Barry Simon is the (emeritus) IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Caltech. He has made deep contributions in both mathematics and physics, including work in the fields of analysis, functional analysis, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, Brownian motion, random matrix theory, nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, random and ergodic Schrödinger operators, orthogonal polynomials, and spectral theory. He has over 400 publications, more than 20,000 citations on MathSciNet, and a Google Scholar h-index of 114. He is the coauthor, with Michael Reed, of the foundational, four volume series, Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics, I–IV (1972–79). His five volume text, A Comprehensive Course in Analysis, was recently published by the AMS. He has had over 120 coauthors, and 30 graduate students. Simon received his BA, summa cum laude, in Physics from Harvard University in 1966, and his PhD in Physics from Princeton University in 1970. After graduating, he joined the faculty at Princeton as an Assistant Professor in Mathematics and Physics, and became a full Professor by 1976. Simon joined the faculty at Caltech as the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Visiting Scholar in 1980. He joined the faculty permanently at Caltech in 1981, and became the IBM Professor there in 1984. Simon spoke at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1974, and has given numerous other prestigious lectures in mathematics and physics since then. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (1981), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005), the American Mathematical Society (2013), and the US National Academy of Sciences (2019). He has served as vice president of the American Mathematical Society and of the International Association of Mathematical Physics. In 2012, he was given the Henri Poincaré Prize by the IMAP. The prize is awarded every three years in recognition of outstanding contributions in mathematical physics and accomplishments leading to novel developments in the field. In 2015, Simon was awarded the International János Bolyai Prize of Mathematics by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Simon was awarded the 2016 Leroy Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the AMS for his "tremendous impact on the education and research of a whole generation of mathematical scientists through his significant research achievements, highly influential books, and mentoring of graduate students and postdocs". In 2018, he was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics by the APS.

DeLong Lecture Series

This Lecture Series is funded by an endowment given by Professor Ira M. DeLong, who came to the University of Colorado in 1888 at the age of 33. Professor DeLong essentially became the mathematics department by teaching not only the college subjects but also the preparatory mathematics courses. Professor DeLong was a prominent citizen of the community of Boulder as well as president of the Mercantile Bank and Trust Company, organizer of the Colorado Education Association, and president of the charter convention that gave Boulder the city manager form of government in 1917. After his death in 1942 it was decided that the bequest he made to the mathematics department would accumulate interest until income became available to fund DeLong prizes for undergraduates and DeLong Lectureships to bring outstanding mathematicians to campus each year. The first DeLong Lectures were delivered in the 1962-63 academic year.

Previous DeLong Lecturers