Richard Borcherds

Richard Borcherds
Borcherds in 1993
Born
Richard Ewen Borcherds

(1959-11-29) 29 November 1959
Cape Town, South Africa
NationalityBritish
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
Known forMonstrous moonshine theory
Borcherds algebra
Vertex algebras
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Institutions
ThesisThe leech lattice and other lattices (1984)
Doctoral advisorJohn Horton Conway
Doctoral studentsDaniel Allcock
Websitemath.berkeley.edu/~reb

Richard Ewen Borcherds (/ˈbɔːrərdz/; born 29 November 1959) is a British mathematician currently working in quantum field theory. He is known for his work in lattices, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras, for which he was awarded the Fields Medal in 1998. He is well known for his proof of monstrous moonshine using ideas from string theory.