Robert Morris receives award at the Congress of the Americas.

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Robert Morris, an associate researcher at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), received the MCA Prize last Monday (June 24th). This prize is awarded every four years to five outstanding mathematicians from countries in the Americas. The award announcement took place during the Congress of Mathematicians of the Americas, held in Montreal, Canada.

Morris was recognized for his influential work in combinatorics and probability, and for his important contributions to the fields of extreme combinatorics, Ramsey theory, random graphical processes, and percolation.

To win the prize, the mathematician must have defended their doctoral thesis no more than 12 years ago and hold a prominent position in research institutes in one or more American countries. Winners also receive US$1,000 and give a lecture at the Congress on their respective fields of expertise.

Brazilian Umberto Hryniewicz, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), was also awarded the MCA Prize this year for his work in the area of symplectic dynamics. The other three winners are Héctor H. Pastén Vásquez, from the University of Harvard (USA); Vlad Vicol, from the University of Princeton (USA); and Pablo Shmerkin, from the University of Torcuato Di Tella and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas ( Conicet ), from Argentina.

Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, who was in Montreal to promote the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2018, praised Morris's achievement.

"Robert has been making invaluable contributions to Discrete Mathematics. The Mathematical Congress of the Americas award is a more than deserved recognition of the quality of his research," he said.

Robert Morris works in the field of Combinatorics and Probability. He was a researcher at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, United Kingdom. He earned his doctorate from the University of Memphis (USA) and completed postdoctoral studies in Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and at IMPA.

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