In double breakthrough, mathematician solves two long-standing problems

Pham Tiep, the Joshua Barlaz Distinguished Professor of Mathematics in the Rutgers School of Arts and Science's Department of Mathematics, has completed a proof of the 1955 Height Zero Conjecture posed by Richard Brauer, a leading German-American mathematician who died in 1977. Proof of the conjecture -- commonly viewed as one of the most outstanding challenges in a field of math known as the representation theory of finite groups -- was published in the September issue of the Annals of Mathematics.