Geometry and Quantum Theory (GQT)

Wilberd van der Kallen

Wilberd van der Kallen studied mathematics (and undergraduate physics) at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht. There he also obtained his PhD in 1973 under professor Springer. He is a member of the Utrecht Mathematics Department since 1969. He has worked for some time in algebraic K-theory. His current interest involves representation theory of algebraic groups. He has repeatedly visited Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, USA) and the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (Mumbay, India).

The main research interest of van der Kallen is in representations of reductive algebraic groups like the group of n by n matrices of determinant one. An important tool in his work has been the method of Frobenius splittings from algebraic geometry. Van der Kallen has conjectured connections between invariant theory, a topic from the nineteenth century, and the homological algebra of the represesentations of reductive algebraic groups.

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