Mori Shigefumi

Mori Shigefumi, (born February 23, 1951, Nagoya, Japan), Japanese mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his work in algebraic geometry.

Mori attended Kyōto University (B.A., 1973; M.A., 1975; Ph.D., 1978) and held an appointment there until 1980, when he went to Nagoya University. From 1990 to 2016 he was a professor at the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Kyōto, and he also served as director of the institute (2011–14). He subsequently moved to Kyōto’s Institute for Advanced Study.

Mori was awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Kyōto in 1990. In 1979 Mori proved Hartshorne’s conjecture, an unsolved problem in algebraic geometry. His most important work focused on the problem of classification of algebraic varieties—solution sets of systems of algebraic equations in some number of variables—in algebraic geometry. The problem of a full classification of algebraic varieties of dimension three was regarded as very difficult, and Mori developed new and powerful techniques to apply to the problem. These problems remain open for higher-dimensional algebraic varieties, although a number of specific results are known.

Mori’s publications include, with Herbert Clemens and János Kollár, Higher Dimensional Complex Geometry (1988).