Welcoming a new director for the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics
September 15, 2026
Dear Stony Brook faculty and staff,
I'm pleased to announce that Ludmil Katzarkov, an international leader and researcher of advanced geometry, took the helm of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University this fall.
Ludmil is well known for his work, and its far-reaching implications, in geometry, number theory, and physics. He has worked in the following areas: uniformization, where he was instrumental in proving Shafarevich's conjecture in the nilpotent, linear and quasiprojective case; and homological mirror symmetry, where he proved this string theory-induced conjecture in many cases. He also used ideas from homological mirror symmetry to prove the nonrationality of generic four-dimensional cubic.
Ludmil previously served as the Executive Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the America and the scientific director of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences in Sofia, Bulgaria. Before that, he was a professor at the University of Miami and the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics was founded in 2010 with a gift of $60 million from the Simons Foundation to Stony Brook and established through the vision and generous support of world-renowned mathematician Jim Simons and Marilyn Simons. The Center is devoted to furthering fundamental knowledge in mathematics and theoretical physics by bringing together researchers from both disciplines in an environment that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration. The Center's senior faculty over the years have received some of the most prestigious prizes in math and physics, including the Fields Medal, Breakthrough Prize, Shaw Prize, and New Horizons in Math and Physics Prizes, among many others.
Please also join me in thanking Luis Álvarez-Gaumé, who has served as the Simons Center director since 2016. In keeping with Simons Center operations, the directorship rotates between a physicist and mathematician. Luis will remain a core professor in the Simons Center and then transition to an appointment at the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Sincerely,
Carl
Carl W. Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President