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# Personal Profile of Dr. Robert L. Bryant

Dr. Robert L. Bryant
Professor
Department of Mathematics

Biography
 A North Carolina native, Robert Bryant received his PhD in mathematics in 1979 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working under Robert B. Gardner. After serving on the faculty at Rice University for seven years, he moved to Duke University in 1987, where he held the Juanita M. Kreps Chair in Mathematics until moving to the University of California at Berkeley in July 2007. He has held numerous visiting positions at universities and research institutes around the world. He visited MSRI during the 2001–02 academic year as a Clay Mathematics Visiting Professor, and he was in residence at MSRI during the Fall 2003 term as a co-organizer of the program in Differential Geometry. His research interests center on exterior differential systems and the geometry of differential equations as well as their applications to Riemannian geometry, special holonomy, and mathematical physics. In addition to his teaching and research in differential geometry, he served as the Program Chair of the Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii Section of the Mathematical Association of America, 2008-2011. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Duke Mathematical Journal, Communications in Analysis and Geometry, and the Journal of the AMS. He has served as the director of the Park City/IAS Mathematics Institute, as a Vice President of the American Mathematical Society, and on the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Education Foundation. He currently serves on the International Committee for the National Mathematics Center of Nigeria, on the Board of Directors of the Banff International Research Station, and as an ‘external member’ of the Conseil d’Administration de l’Institut Henri Poincaré. He served on the Board of Trustees of the MSRI beginning in 1999, becoming the Chair of the Board in 2001 and serving in that capacity until the end of his term in 2004. He became the fifth Director of MSRI on August 1, 2007 and served in that capacity for 6 years, until July 31, 2013, when he returned to Duke University as Professor. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Current/Future Committee Membership
Name Office Start Date End Date

Past Committee Membership
Name Office Start Date End Date
Board of Trustees Chair (4/1/01 - 4/1/04) Apr 01, 1999 Apr 01, 2003
Board of Trustees Chair (4/1/01 - 4/1/04) Apr 01, 2003 Apr 01, 2004
Board of Trustees Ex-officio Trustee (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Capital Campaign Committee Jun 05, 2001 Apr 01, 2004
Committee of Academic Sponsors Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Committee on Public Understanding Ex officio, Director Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Committee on Trustees BoT Chair Mar 01, 2003 Apr 01, 2004
Committee on Trustees Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Committee on Women in Mathematics Ex officio, Director Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Corporate Partners Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Development Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Directorate Director Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Education Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Educational Advisory Committee Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Endowment Campaign Committee Ex officio, Director Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Evaluation Committee Mar 01, 2003 Apr 01, 2004
Evaluation Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Finance Committee Apr 01, 2001 Apr 01, 2004
Finance Committee Ex officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Human Resources Advisory Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Investment Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Recompetition Committee Ex-officio (Director) Sep 01, 2007 Jul 08, 2010
Scientific Advisory Committee Ex-officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
Steering Committee BoT Chair (4/1/01 - 4/1/04) Apr 01, 2001 Apr 01, 2004
Steering Committee Ex officio (Director) Aug 01, 2007 Jul 31, 2013
1. # WorkshopExterior Differential Systems and the Method of Equivalence

May 05, 2008
Monday
 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM Riemannian Foliations in Space Forms Robert Bryant (Duke University)
2. # WorkshopMSRI's 25th Anniversary Celebration

Jan 29, 2008
Tuesday
 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM Panel Discussion MSRI: Past, Present, and Future Alejandro Adem (University of British Columbia), Lenore Blum (Carnegie Mellon University), Robert Bryant (Duke University), Tony Chan (University of California, Los Angeles), David Eisenbud (MSRI - Mathematical Sciences Research Institute), Calvin Moore (University of California, Berkeley), Alvin Thaler (Hunter College, CUNY)
3. # WorkshopComputation and Complex Systems

Oct 12, 2007
Friday
 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM Panel -Enabling Cooperation with Mathematical Scientists Robert Bryant (Duke University), Daryl Chrzan, Robert Grossman, Richard Karp (University of California, Berkeley), Stuart Russell, Horst Simon, Katherine Yelick (University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory)
4. # WorkshopVon Neumann Symposium on Complex Geometry, Calibrations, and Special Holonomy

Aug 11, 2003
Monday
 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Holonomy 1 Robert Bryant (Duke University)
Aug 12, 2003
Tuesday
 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM Holonomy 2 Robert Bryant (Duke University)
Aug 13, 2003
Wednesday
 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM Holonomy 3 Robert Bryant (Duke University)
Aug 14, 2003
Thursday
 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM Holonomy 4 Robert Bryant (Duke University)
Aug 16, 2003
Saturday
 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM Closed ${\rm G}_2$ structures Robert Bryant (Duke University)
5. # WorkshopFinsler Geometry

Jun 07, 2002
Friday
 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM The generality of Finsler metrics of constant flag curvature and some exotic holonomy groups Robert Bryant (Duke University)
6. # WorkshopIntroductory Workshop in Inverse Problems and Integral Geometry

Aug 20, 2001
Monday
 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM The X-ray transform in Finsler geometry Robert Bryant (Duke University)
7. # WorkshopThe Panorama Of Mathematics, A conference in honor of S. S. Chern

Sep 14, 2000
Thursday
 01:30 PM - 04:10 PM On the Geometry of Differential Equations Robert Bryant (Duke University)