Robert Bryant

Robert Bryant is the Phillip Griffiths Distinguished Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at Duke University. He received his B.S. from North Carolina State University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979, advised by Robert B. Gardner. After completing his doctorate, Bryant joined Rice University as Assistant Professor from 1979 to 1981, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1981–1982 and Professor from 1982 to 1986, and held the Noah Harding Professorship from 1986 to 1988. He moved to Duke University in 1987 as Arts and Sciences Professor of Mathematics (1987–1988), then became the Juanita M. Kreps Professor of Mathematics from 1988, and Phillip Griffiths Distinguished Professor since 2013. Bryant has held significant leadership roles, including Chair of the Duke Mathematics Department from 2021 to 2024, President of the American Mathematical Society from 2015 to 2017, and Chair of various university and national committees such as the Academic Council of Arts and Sciences at Duke and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences.

Bryant's research centers on differential geometry and the geometry of partial differential equations, with specific interests in exterior differential systems, conservation laws for PDEs, Riemannian geometry including calibrations and holonomy theory, Finsler geometry, projective geometry, and systems of PDEs from geometric problems. Notable publications include the book Exterior Differential Systems (Springer-Verlag, 1991, with S.-S. Chern, R. B. Gardner, H. L. Goldschmidt, and P. A. Griffiths), "Metrics with exceptional holonomy" (Annals of Mathematics, 1987), "Characteristic cohomology of differential systems I" (Journal of the AMS, 1995, with P. A. Griffiths), and "An introduction to Lie groups and symplectic geometry" (IAS/Park City Mathematics Series, 1995). He has received major awards such as election to the National Academy of Sciences (2007), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2002), Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2013), AAAS Fellow (2021), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1982–1984), and Presidential Young Investigator Award (1984–1989). Bryant has served in editorial roles including Editor of the Journal of Differential Geometry (1988–1993) and on the Mathematical Reviews Editorial Committee (2024–2028), and as a trustee for MSRI and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.

Professional Email: bryant@math.duke.edu