Donald Saari

Donald Saari, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Economics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), is a leading figure in the Mathematics department. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Purdue University (1967), following a postdoctoral position as Research Staff Astronomer in the Department of Astronomy at Yale University (1967-1968). Saari's academic career includes over 30 years at Northwestern University, where he advanced from Assistant Professor (1968-1970) to Associate Professor (1970-1974), Full Professor of Mathematics (1974-2000), Professor of Economics (1988-2000), Chair of the Mathematics Department (1981-1984), and Arthur and Gladys Pancoe Professor of Mathematics (1995-2000), a position he holds emeritus. Since joining UCI in 2000, he has served as Distinguished Professor in both Mathematics and Economics departments, with a courtesy appointment in Logic and Philosophy of Science. He directed the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences from 2003 and remains Director Emeritus.

Saari's research interests encompass dynamical systems and their applications to the physical and social sciences, including celestial mechanics, the Newtonian n-body problem, voting theory, social choice, decision theory, evolutionary game theory, mathematical economics, and statistics. His seminal contributions are captured in key books such as Geometry of Voting (Springer-Verlag, 1994), Basic Geometry of Voting (Springer-Verlag, 1995), Chaotic Elections! A Mathematician Looks at Voting (AMS, 2001), Decisions and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Collisions, Rings, and Other Newtonian N-Body Problems (AMS, 2005), and Disposing Dictators, Demystifying Voting Paradoxes (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He has also co-authored NRC reports on curricular effectiveness (2004) and astrodynamics standards (2012). Saari's impact is evidenced by major awards, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2001), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004), Guggenheim Fellowship (1988-1989), Chauvenet Prize from the Mathematical Association of America (1995), foreign membership in the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2009) and the Russian Academy of Sciences (2016), and several honorary doctorates (Purdue 1989, Université de Caen 1998, Michigan Technological University 1999, University of Turku 2009). Additionally, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (1998-2005), held various editorial positions, and was honored with international conferences such as "Saarifest" (2005) and dedicated volumes like Celestial Mechanics: Dedicated to Donald Saari (AMS, 2002).

Professional Email: dsaari@uci.edu