Trevor Wooley receives London Mathematical Society’s Senior Berwick Prize

08-17-2026

Purdue University mathematician Trevor Wooley has been awarded the 2026 Senior Berwick Prize by the London Mathematical Society (LMS), recognizing his influential work in number theory and, specifically, a 2019 paper that advanced understanding of a longstanding problem in mathematics. 

Wooley, the Andris A. Zoltners Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, was recognized for his paper, “Nested efficient congruencing and relatives of Vinogradov’s mean value theorem,” published in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society in 2019. The LMS announced the award recipients July 3 at its Summer General Meeting. 

The Senior Berwick Prize recognizes an outstanding mathematical research paper published in an LMS journal. 

This is a wonderful recognition of Trevor’s contributions to mathematics and his continued impact on the field,” said Irena Swanson, Head of the Department of Mathematics. “His work has advanced our understanding of fundamental questions in number theory and demonstrates the depth and reach of mathematical research at Purdue.

Advancing a longstanding mathematical problem
At the heart of Wooley’s research is Vinogradov’s mean value theorem, a problem in number theory that dates to the work of Russian mathematician Ivan Vinogradov in the 1930s.

In broad terms, the theorem concerns the behavior of certain mathematical sums (Fourier series) involving powers of numbers. Understanding these sums has implications for a range of problems in number theory, including questions about how numbers can be represented as sums of powers.

Wooley’s 2019 paper developed a “nested” version of a technique he calls efficient congruencing. The approach allowed him to establish the main conjecture in Vinogradov’s mean value theorem for all exponents, extending earlier results and providing a flexible method that can be applied in other mathematical settings. 

The work builds on Wooley’s long-standing contributions to analytic number theory. His research has included major advances on Waring’s problem, which asks how many kth powers are needed to represent every positive integer as a sum of such powers. His work on efficient congruencing also played a central role in resolving questions surrounding Vinogradov’s mean value theorem. 

A career of mathematical achievement
Wooley joined Purdue in 2019 after serving as a professor of mathematics at the University of Bristol, where he also served as head of pure mathematics. Earlier in his career, he was a professor at the University of Michigan, where he chaired the Department of Mathematics from 2002-05.

His research has earned numerous honors, including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Salem Prize, the Fröhlich Prize and the Junior Berwick Prize from the London Mathematical Society. He also has twice delivered invited 45-minute lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians, in 2002 and 2014 — a rare distinction in the mathematical community. 

More recently, Wooley was named a 2025 Simons Fellow in Mathematics and selected as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study for the 2025-26 academic year. 

The Senior Berwick Prize adds another distinction to a career defined by persistent work on some of mathematics’ most challenging questions — work that continues to expand what mathematicians can understand and prove.

About the Mathematics Department at Purdue University
The Department of Mathematics is one of seven departments making up Purdue's College of Science. The Department has an international reputation as an outstanding center for mathematical research and education. Over 70 professors are actively involved in research in many areas of mathematics, including visiting scholars and through a vibrant graduate program. The Department offers Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The department is located in the Math Building at 150 N. University Street in West Lafayette, Indiana. Learn more at math.purdue.edu.

 

Written by: Alisha Willett, Senior Communications Specialist, amwillet@purdue.edu

Contributors: Trevor Wooley, twooley@purdue.edu

                        Irena Swanson, iswanso@purdue.edu