Two University of Chicago faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences: Alexander Beilinson, the David and Mary Winton Green University Professor of Mathematics; and Douglas W. Diamond, the Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance. They are among the 84 new members the academy announced May 2.
Beilinson is a mathematician who has done pioneering work in algebraic geometry, geometric representation theory and mathematical physics. His “Beilinson Conjectures” serve as a guiding influence in the field of arithmetic geometry, while Beilinson has made substantial contributions to geometric representation theory. Beilinson’s work with Vladimir Drinfeld, the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor at UChicago, is critical to geometric Langlands theory.
Beilinson’s honors include the Ostrowski Prize and Moscow Mathematical Society Prize and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A member of the UChicago faculty since 1998, Beilinson is one of eight University professors, selected for internationally recognized eminence in their field and potential for high impact across the University.
Considered the father of modern banking theory, Diamond changed the way people view banks. His pioneering research laid the groundwork for how central bankers, regulators, policymakers and academics approach modern finance. A UChicago faculty member since 1979, Diamond is known for his research into financial intermediaries, financial crises and liquidity. His research agenda for the past 30 years has been to explain what banks do, why they do it and the consequences of these arrangements.
His groundbreaking work on bank runs and financial crises earned him the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications in 2015. He received the Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance in 2012. Diamond is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Finance Association.