Artur Avila

Artur Avila (born in 1979) is a Brazilian and French mathematician who works in the area of dynamical systems. In 2014 he was awarded Fields Medal, the most prestigious mathematical award. Avila works in Paris (CNRS) and Rio de Janeiro (IMPA).

Avila’s mathematical career was rapid. At the age of 16, he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad, he finished his undergraduate studies at the age of 19, and at the of 21 he obtained a PhD from IMPA (his PhD advisor was Welington de Melo). In 2008 he became the youngest research director (directeur de recherche) at CNRS.

Avila’s work had a strong impact on a number of areas including one-dimensional dynamics, flat biliards, partially hyperbolic dynamics, and spectral theory of Schroedinger operators. Among his coauthors are Giovanni Forni, Sebastien Gouezel, Svetlana Jitomirskaya, Raphael Krikorian, Welington de Melo, Carlos Gustavo Moreira, Mikhail Lyubich, Marcelo Viana, Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, and others.

One can find more information on Artur Avila’s mathematical work in a short note by Etienne Ghys.