Anand Pillay, the William J. Hank Family Professor of Mathematics, was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the newly established Simons Distinguished Visitor appointment at the Fields Institute in Toronto, Canada.
He will be a coordinating instructor for an advanced graduate course during a semester-long residency from July 1 to December 31, 2021. He will also collaborate with other researchers in the six-month Thematic Program on Trends in Pure and Applied Model Theory.
“Anand Pillay has been a pivotal figure in almost every major development in model-theoretic algebra for more than forty years. It is a great honor for the Fields Institute to have the opportunity to host him through the generous support of the Simons Foundation. His presence will generate activity and intellectual excitement for all of the participants,” Fields Institute Deputy Director, Deirdre Haskell said in a news release.
The Simons Distinguished Visitor program was created to gather the best minds in a particular area at Fields, with the Simons Distinguished Visitor serving as the anchor, according to the release.
“It is something which is very nice; an honor,” Pillay said. “They are also giving me some support to take students and postdocs with me; it will be a very nice semester.”
Pillay works in model theory, a branch of mathematical logic. He is interested in pure model theory as well as the connections between and interactions of model theory with other areas of mathematics including algebra, geometry and number theory.
Pillay came to the University of Notre Dame to teach in 1983, then went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he held the position of Swanlund Chair. He also worked at the University of Leeds before returning to Notre Dame in 2013.