Dr. David Corwin

Department of Mathematics
Faculty of Natural Sciences

Photo: Shay Shmueli, BGU

My life before BGU: 

I was born in Cambridge, MA, USA, grew up in a town outside of Boston. My high school was Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, my undergrad was at Princeton University, and my grad school (PHD, since in the US you don’t get a master’s degree if you’re doing a PHD) was at MIT. In all cases, I studied mathematics (but in undergrad in the US, unlike in Israel, we study many other things too, including humanities). After that, I did a 3-year postdoc at UC Berkeley, then a 3-month postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Germany, and now I’m at BGU!
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My research:

My research touches on the type of question that is simple to state but at the same time difficult to solve: Given a polynomial equation in multiple variables, does it have rational number solutions? This is known as the question of Diophantine equations, and it goes back to ancient Greek times. I use a number of methods from modern algebra (Galois theory, algebraic geometry, and algebraic topology) to answer questions about Diophantine equations. 

​Why BGU?

I would say that I came in a large part because there’s already a strong research group in my particular area. Otherwise, I’ve heard that the University is “up-and-coming.” I also know that David Ben-Gurion cared a lot about settling the Negev - I don’t know the history of the University though..​

Photo: Shay Shmueli, BGU​

Something that do​esn’t appear on my CV:

I love learning different languages and can have conversations in quite a few languages. I have a particular interest right now in comparative linguistics. Other things: I like cooking Japanese and Thai food, and I love trying interesting kinds of cheese.

When I grow up:

I thought I would be an “inventor” until I realized at age 8 that that’s not a profession. Then I decided I would be a theoretical physicist or cosmologist. At about age 11, I realized I wanted to become a mathematician.​

If I were not a researcher, I w​ould…

Be in politics.

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In brief​​​: 

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