Sergey Fomin

For the Uzbekistani tennis player, see Sergey Fomin (tennis). For the Soviet mathematician, see Sergei Fomin.

Sergey Vladimirovich Fomin (Сергей Владимирович Фомин) (born 16 February 1958 in Saint Petersburg, Russia) is a Russian American mathematician who has made important contributions in combinatorics and its relations with algebra, geometry, and representation theory. Together with Andrei Zelevinsky, he introduced cluster algebras.

Sergey Fomin
Born	(1958-02-16) 16 February 1958 (age 67) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Saint Petersburg State University (Ph.D., M.Sc)
Known for	Cluster algebras
Awards	Leroy P. Steele Prize (2018)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Michigan MIT (1992–2000)
Thesis	Rates of Convergence in Multidimensional Central Limit Theorem  (1982)
Doctoral advisor	Anatoly Vershik Leonid Osipov

Biography

Fomin received his M.Sc. in 1979 and his Ph.D. in 1982 from St. Petersburg State University under the direction of Anatoly Vershik and Leonid Osipov.^[1] Previous to his appointment at the University of Michigan, he held positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1992 to 2000, at the St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and at the Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University. Sergey Fomin studied at the 45th Physics-Mathematics School and later taught mathematics there.^[2]

Research

Fomin's contributions include

• Discovery (with A. Zelevinsky) of cluster algebras.
• Work (jointly with A. Berenstein and A. Zelevinsky) on total positivity.
• Work (with A. Zelevinsky) on the Laurent phenomenon, including its applications to Somos sequences.

Awards and honors

• Simons Fellow (2019) ^[3]
• Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research (2018).^[4]
• Invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (Hyderabad, 2010).^[5]
• Robert M. Thrall Collegiate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan.
• Fellow (2012) of the American Mathematical Society.^[6]
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2023.^[7]

Selected publications

• Fomin, S.; Zelevinsky, A. (2003). "Y-systems and generalized associahedra". Annals of Mathematics. 158 (3): 977–1018. arXiv:math/0505518. doi:10.4007/annals.2003.158.977. S2CID 5153512.
• Fomin, S.; Zelevinsky, A. (2003). "Cluster algebras II: Finite type classification". Inventiones Mathematicae. 154 (1): 63–121. arXiv:math/0208229. Bibcode:2003InMat.154...63F. doi:10.1007/s00222-003-0302-y. S2CID 14540263.
• Fomin, S.; Zelevinsky, A. (2002). "Cluster algebras I: Foundations". Journal of the AMS. 15: 497–529.
• Fomin, S.; Gelfand, S.; Postnikov, A. (1997). "Quantum Schubert Polynomials". Journal of the AMS. 10: 565–596.