Tim Austin
University of California, Los Angeles
2020 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize
For multiple contributions to ergodic theory, most notably the solution of the weak Pinsker conjecture.
Comments
I have had an unusually fortunate career so far, carried by a wave of connected opportunities that gathered quite early in my life, sustained and guided by many different people and institutions. They all deserve my heartfelt gratitude. My parents were unfailingly encouraging once I had discovered an interest in mathematics as a teen. In high school, college and graduate school, I experienced firsthand the benefits of able and engaged teachers in environments with plentiful resources. Subsequent career support from the Clay Mathematics Institute, Brown University, New York University, University of California, Los Angeles and the Simons Foundation has been open-handed and largely unconditional because of several trusting decisions by key people at those institutions. And the ergodic theory community itself has been overwhelmingly welcoming and generous to me as a new member.