Dustin Clausen joins IHES as a permanent professor

Press release – 17 April 2023

Dustin Clausen is joining the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) as a permanent professor in mathematics starting on April 17, 2023.

He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard university, and obtained his PhD in 2013 from MIT, working on Arithmetic Duality in Algebraic K-theory, under the supervision of Jacob Lurie. He then spent five years as a postdoc in Copenhagen, followed by two years in Bonn, first as a postdoc at the University of Bonn, and then as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics. He moved back to Denmark in 2020 to work as an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.

His research interests are in algebraic K-theory, finding connections between number theory and homotopy theory.

During the past few years, Dustin Clausen has worked in collaboration with mathematician and Fields medalist Peter Scholze, on developing an important new, general theory of analytic geometry, combining algebra and topology, which they called Condensed mathematics. One of the first projects that Dustin Clausen will be working on once he arrives at the Institute will be to write up their latest results. He explains: “I feel very privileged to be joining IHES.  I believe that its quiet and calm environment will give me an excellent setting to carry on my research and do some much-needed writing.”

As part of his role as a professor at the University of Copenhagen, he has also enjoyed teaching and will consider giving lectures during his time at the Institute. “Students are a wonderful distraction to me and I love the fact that at IHES, I will be free to choose to teach if I want to.”

It is during the months that Clausen spent in France as a junior year high school student, that his passion for mathematics blossomed. “I discovered a different way of approaching math, one in which we were not only asked to solve problems but also to develop full proofs starting from axioms. It was more challenging, and I really enjoyed it.” By joining IHES, he is also coming back to where his interest for mathematics started.

Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, says: “We are very happy to welcome Dustin as a permanent professor at IHES. His talent as a mathematician will make him an invaluable member of our group of permanent professors and the Institute will benefit tremendously from his presence.”