Skip Garibaldi — 2010 Outstanding Mathematics Alumnus
09-12-2010
Each fall, the Department of Mathematics and the College of Science recognize outstanding Purdue alumni.
The 2010 Outstanding Mathematics Alumnus was Skip Garibaldi of Emory University, where he is Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science and Winship Distinguished Professor of Mathematics (2009-12). He received a B.S. in mathematics/computer science from Purdue in 1992 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from University of California, San Diego in 1998.
Prof. Garibaldi studies linear algebraic groups, their representations, and their cohomology, mostly over arbitrary fields. In some sense, this encompasses the classical and exceptional groups; varieties on which those group act; and traditional algebraic objects like quadratic and hermitian forms, algebras with involution, and Lie algebras. Currently, his research centers on adapting techniques from classical representation theory over the complex numbers to prove new results about algebraic groups over arbitrary fields, including anisotropic groups and fields of bad characteristic.
Prof. Garibaldi gave a colloquium talk on Thursday, September 23 at 4:30 p.m. in MATH 175. Following the talk, a dinner was held in honor of Prof. Garibaldi and other outstanding alumni of the Department of Statistics and the Actuarial Science program. The College of Science hosted a reception for all CoS outstanding alumni on Friday, September 24.