The 2005 André Aisenstadt Prize was awarded to Ravi Vakil of Stanford University. After completing his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the University of Toronto in 1992, Dr. Vakil obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1997 under the supervision of Joe Harris. Dr. Vakil then spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University, and three years at MIT as a Moore Instructor, before becoming an Assistant Professor at Stanford in 2001.

Dr.Vakil works in algebraic geometry, investigating the enumerative geometry of projective algebraic curves. His most spectacular work has been done in the last years, in his study of degenerations in a Grassmannian, to solve several old problems in Schubert calculus. One of his conclusions is that all Schubert problems are enumerative over the real numbers. This has been a major goal in the area of real enumerative geometry for at least two decades, and Dr. Vakil has given a complete solution.

The exceptional work of Ravi Vakil was recognized by several prizes and honors, including a NSF Career Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Centennial Fellowship and a G. de B. Robinson Prize

It is with great pleasure that the CRM awards the 2005 André Aisenstadt Mathematics Prize to Dr. Ravi Vakil in recognition of research achievement in mathematics. The Prize will be awarded at a ceremony to be held on April 29, 2005 at the CRM.