Robert V. Kohn

American mathematician (1953–2026)
Robert Vita Kohn
Kohn in 1984
Born(1953-10-05)October 5, 1953
DiedJanuary 12, 2026(2026-01-12) (aged 72)
Alma materHarvard University
Princeton University
Known forCaffarelli–Kohn–Nirenberg inequalities
AwardsSloan Research Fellow (1984)
ICM Plenary Lecturer (2006)
AMS Fellow (2012)
Leroy P. Steele Prize (2014)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsCourant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Doctoral advisorFrederick J. Almgren Jr.
Doctoral students

Robert Vita Kohn (October 5, 1953 – January 12, 2026) was an American mathematician who worked on partial differential equations, calculus of variations, mathematical materials science and mathematical finance. He was a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.[1]

Background

Kohn studied mathematics at Harvard University, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1974. He obtained his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1979, as a student of Frederick Almgren.[2][3]

Kohn died of cancer on January 12, 2026, at the age of 72.[4]

Work

Kohn is best known for his work on non-linear partial differential equations, including work with Louis Nirenberg and Luis Caffarelli in which they obtained partial results about the regularity of weak solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations.[5]

Honors

Kohn received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1984.[6] In 2006, he was a plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians, in Madrid (Energy driven pattern formation).[7] He was a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)[8]. He was a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[9] He was an elected member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com.
  2. ^ Robert Vita Kohn at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ "Robert V. Kohn CV" (PDF).
  4. ^ Professor Emeritus Robert Kohn (1953–2026)
  5. ^ Catrina, Florin; Wang, Zhi-Qiang. "On the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg Inequalities: Sharp Constants, Existence (and Nonexistence), and Symmetry of Extremal Functions" (PDF).
  6. ^ "Sloan Foundation". Archived from the original on 2016-10-22. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  7. ^ "International Mathematical Union web-site". Archived from the original on 2017-11-24. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  8. ^ "Fellows Directory | SIAM". Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  9. ^ "AMS :: Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". www.ams.org.
  10. ^ "Robert V. Kohn | American Academy of Arts and Sciences". www.amacad.org. July 1, 2025.
  • Robert V. Kohn website
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