Ravi Vakil's homepage

I am a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, the Robert K. Packard University Fellow in Undergraduate Education (2008-2013), and the David Huntington Faculty Scholar. I was the 2009 Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturer at Mathfest. I have received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship, a Frederick E. Terman fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, the presidential award PECASE, and the Brown Faculty Fellowship. I have received the Coxeter-James Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society, and André-Aisenstadt Prize from the CRM in Montréal. (This may give you a clue that I am Canadian.)

New: Check out mathoverflow.net. (New link as of July 2010: You can read about the site here.) I am a supporter of this site.

• Teaching:
  • Throughout the 2010-2011 academic year, I will post notes on the foundations of algebraic geometry here, in what might be some sort of worldwide online reading course. They are based on my notes for last year's class at Stanford, Math 216 (Foundations of algebraic geometry).
  • In fall 2010, I will teach Math 120 (Modern Algebra), and Math 210A (the first quarter of graduate algebra --- the new improved Conrad-ized version).
  • In winter 2011, I will teach Math 245 (topics in algebraic geometry).
  • In fall 2009, I taught Math 120 (Modern Algebra).
  • Here are some older teaching links. From 2001 until 2007, I coordinated the William Lowell Putnam competition at Stanford, and in conjunction with that I ran a weekly Polya problem-solving seminar for talented undergraduates, as well as a Masterclass for experts --- more information here. The Polya seminar was led by Kannan Soundararajan in 2008, and by Matt Kahle in 2009. Matt Kahle's webpage for the seminar is here.
• The Department of Mathematics, including directions. Searchable and printable campus maps. The first link shows the math department.
• Some publications and preprints.
• I co-organize the Stanford Algebraic Geometry Seminar and the Berkeley-Stanford Algebraic Geometry Colloquium.
• I serve on the editorial boards of Advances in Mathematics, Algebra and Number Theory, Canadian Journal of Mathematics, Canadian Mathematical Bulletin, Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, Gokova Geometry and Topology Journal, the Mathematical Intelligencer (I edit a column with Michael Kleber), and FOCUS.

For students

• I am the faculty advisor for the Stanford Math Circle (for high school students). For more information, or to sign up, click here. Dana Paquin is the new director.
• For high school students: the Stanford Math Circle (see above), the Stanford University Math Camp, the Berkeley Math Circle, the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), and other summer programs outside the Bay Area.
• Research Experiences for Undergraduates and other information for talented undergrads.
• Fun Math Facts at Harvey Mudd. The canonical mathematical competitions page, by Kiran Kedlaya. Mathematical Mayhem (a journal I co-founded, now part of Crux Mathematicorum). More links here.
• Letters of recommendation (not just for students).

• Conferences in algebraic geometry.
• The Western Algebraic Geometry Symposium (WAGS).
• Algebraic geometry at Stanford. (Click here to find out how to join our mailing list.)
• If you are thinking of doing your Ph.D. with me, read this.
• Some computer programs of interest to algebraic geometers. Also, Frank Sottile has created some animations illustrating some of the ideas behind the geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule (see #15, #17, and #27 here). Click on the picture on the right to see them.

• mathoverflow.net. (You can read about the site here.) I am a supporter of this site.
• Great writing in mathematics.

Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Stanford CA USA 94305
phone: 650-725-6284 fax: 650-725-4066 E-mail: vakil@math.you-know-where.edu