David Gabai, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, is a leading mathematical researcher, having made fundamental contributions to the fields of foliations, 3- manifold topology, hyperbolic geometry and smooth 4-manifold topology, solving many long- standing open problems and opening up new areas of research.His recognitions include the Veblen Prize in Geometry from the American Mathematical Society, the Clay Research Prize from the Clay Foundation, membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellows of the American Mathematical Society. He has delivered two invited lectures at International Congresses of Mathematicians in addition to giving numerous named lectures.

 

He served seven years as Chair of the Princeton University Mathematics Department and served on the scientific advisory boards of the American Institute of Mathematics, the Simons Foundation’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences division, and The Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics. He has been called to serve as an editor on the two leading mathematics journals: the Annals of Mathematics and the Journal of the American Mathematical Society.

David is a proud member of the Class 131, graduating June 1972. He valued his time at Northeast and especially appreciated being treated as an individual and respected as a student. Following Northeast, he attended MIT receiving a BS in Mathematics and then a MA and Ph. D. from Princeton University. After Princeton he spent six years as an itinerant mathematician working at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Advanced Study, Institutdes Hautes Études Scientifiques and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley CA. He then spent 15 years at Caltech before returning to Princeton in 2001.

He has trained in Shotokan Karate for over 44 years. He has two kids and lives with his wife of 40 years in Princeton, New Jersey.