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Joe Harris (mathematician)

Joe Harris (mathematician) is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Joe Harris (mathematician) rather than just read about it. In short: Joseph Daniel Harris (born August 17, 1951) is the Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He specializes in the field of algebraic geometry.

Joe Harris (mathematician) — main illustration
Joe Harris (mathematician) — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Joe Harris (mathematician) belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Joe Harris (mathematician) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Joe Harris (mathematician) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joseph Daniel Harris (born August 17, 1951) is the Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He specializes in the field of algebraic geometry. After earning an AB from Harvard College he continued at Harvard to study for a PhD under Phillip Griffiths.

Work During the 1980s, he was on the faculty of Brown University, moving to Harvard in 1988. He served as chair of the department at Harvard from 2002 to 2005. His work is characterized by its classical geometric flavor: he has claimed that nothing he thinks about could not have been imagined by the Italian geometers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that if he has had greater success than them, it is because he has access to better tools. Harris is well known for several of his books on algebraic geometry, notable for their informal presentations:

Principles of Algebraic Geometry ISBN 978-0-471-05059-9, with Phillip Griffiths Geometry of Algebraic Curves, Vol. 1 ISBN 978-0-387-90997-4, with Enrico Arbarello, Maurizio Cornalba, and Phillip Griffiths William Fulton, Joe Harris. (1991), Representation Theory, A First Course, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 129, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0979-9, ISBN 978-0-387-97495-8, MR 1153249, with William Fulton Harris, Joe (1992). Algebraic Geometry, A First Course. Springer Science. ISBN 978-0-387-97716-4. David Eisenbud, Joe Harris. (2000), The Geometry of Schemes, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 197, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-98638-8, MR 1730819, with David Eisenbud David Eisenbud, Joseph Harris (2016) (14 April 2016). 3264 and All That: A Second Course in Algebraic Geometry. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107602724.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Moduli of Curves ISBN 978-0-387-98438-4, with Ian Morrison. Fat Chance: Probability from 0 to 1, with Benedict Gross and Emily Riehl, 2019 As of 2018, Harris has supervised 50 PhD students, including Lucia Caporaso, Brendan Hassett, James McKernan, Rahul Pandharipande, Zvezdelina Stankova, and Ravi Vakil.

References

Illustrations

Joe Harris (mathematician) illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Joe Harris (mathematician)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Joe Harris (mathematician) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Joe Harris (mathematician) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Joe Harris (mathematician) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Joe Harris (mathematician)

In research
Joe Harris (mathematician) appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Joe Harris (mathematician) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Joe Harris (mathematician) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Joe Harris (mathematician) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Joe Harris (mathematician) in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Joe Harris (mathematician) means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Joe Harris (mathematician) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Joe Harris (mathematician) in simple terms?

Joseph Daniel Harris (born August 17, 1951) is the Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He specializes in the field of algebraic geometry.

Why does Joe Harris (mathematician) matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Joe Harris (mathematician)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Joe Harris (mathematician).

Tags

  • 1951 births
  • 20th-century American mathematicians
  • 21st-century American mathematicians
  • Algebraic geometers
  • Brown University faculty
  • Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni
  • Harvard College alumni
  • Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
  • Harvard University Department of Mathematics faculty
  • Living people

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