Schoen earns math award

Born and raised in rural Ohio, Richard Schoen grew up on a farm. But he harbored no dreams of working in the fields or tending to livestock.

He wanted to explore problem solving in a different field. He wanted to be like his two oldest brothers. He wanted to be a mathematician.

That’s exactly what he became.

Now, after working as a student, teacher and researcher for more than 40 years, the Fort Recovery native is being recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians in the world.

Schoen, the Excellence in Teaching Chair at the University of California, Irvine, is the winner of the 2017 Wolf Prize in Mathematics. He will be receiving the award June 11 at a ceremony at the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem.

“It’s a really big honor,” Schoen said. “When I look back at the list of people who won the Wolf Prize in math, it’s some of the most important mathematicians in the last 100 years; a lot of those people were my mathematic heroes when I was a student. To be counted in that group is a really big honor.”

The Wolf Prize is presented by Israel's Wolf Foundation to those who demonstrate outstanding international expertise in physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine and the arts. Awards in six categories are given annually. Schoen is one of two winners in mathematics, along with Charles Fefferman from Princeton University.

“The Wolf Prize is a highly prestigious Israeli award with a long standing international reputation, and considered to be the second most important science award in the world after the Nobel Prize,” said Michelle Levy, public relations for the Wolf Foundation.

Schoen is being honored for his research of Albert Einstein’s equations of relativity and gravity, in addition to his studies of differential geometry and curved spaces.

Schoen, the 10th of 13 children, said his passion for mathematics started at a young age.

“Both of my brothers, Hal and Jim, have a lot to do with my young interest in math,” he said. “They really sparked and supported my interest in the subject.”

Though both of his parents had little schooling, Schoen said his family greatly supported his educational growth.

Schoen also credits his success to his teachers at Fort Recovery High School, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1968.

“My high school teachers were important for me,” he said. “I had a math teacher, Ron Shoemaker, who took a big interested in me. He would get me out of study hall almost every day to work one-on-one. At the time, I didn’t quite know what to make of it but I think it really made me feel special and like he felt I had some mathematical ability.”

After high school, Schoen studied mathematics at the University of Dayton and was the third member of his family to receive a doctorate in math. After that, his career took him to teach and conduct research at Stanford, UC-Berkeley, New York University and Princeton before taking a position at UC-Irvine.

Mathematics has lead Schoen on multiple adventures, traveling throughout the year around the world to places like Zurich, Switzerland, where he recently spent his time teaching on sabbatical.

“Mathematics is a very international endeavor,” he said. “There are mathematicians all around the world and we all communicate and work on somewhat similar problems.”

Besides the research, Schoen said teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels has been one of his major contributions in the field. He has seen 40 of his students earn doctorate degrees in math, which Schoen takes pride in.

Are there any plans of retirement in the future for the 66-year-old mathematician?

“I really enjoy what I am doing and as long as I feel like I am making a positive contribution, I will probably stay on at least for more several years,” Schoen said.