Aaron Brown

Professor of Mathematics
Northwestern University

Research

I work in smooth dynamics and smooth ergodic theory, with a particular focus on hyperbolic and nonuniformly hyperbolic systems. My current interests include:

• rigidity phenomena for smooth actions of higher-rank abelian groups and lattices, including measure rigidity and the Zimmer program;
• random dynamical systems and stationary measures, and connections among entropy, Lyapunov exponents, dimension, and the geometry of measures.

Publications

See my arXiv author page or MathSciNet author page.

Short CV

Education

• Ph.D. in Mathematics, Tufts University, 2011
• B.A., Oberlin College, 2004

Academic appointments

• Northwestern University, Professor, 2022–present
• Northwestern University, Associate Professor, 2019–2022
• University of Chicago, Assistant Professor, 2017–2019
• University of Chicago, L. E. Dickson Instructor, 2014–2017
• Pennsylvania State University, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and Instructor, 2011–2014

Selected honors and recognition

• Invited Speaker, International Congress of Mathematicians, 2022
• New Horizons in Mathematics Prize, 2022 (joint with Sebastián Hurtado)
• Frontiers of Science Award, International Congress of Basic Science, 2023 (joint with David Fisher and Sebastián Hurtado)
• Work with David Fisher and Sebastián Hurtado presented by Serge Cantat at Séminaire Bourbaki, 2017

Active grants

• NSF Standard Grant, Group Actions, Rigidity, and Invariant Measures, DMS-2400191, 2024–2027 (PI)
• NSF Research Training Group, Dynamics: Classical, Modern, and Quantum, DMS-2136217, 2022–2027 (co-PI)
• NSF conference grant, Midwest Dynamical Systems Conferences, 2025 and 2026, DMS-2537040, 2026–2028 (co-PI)

Prior grants

• NSF CAREER Award, Rigidity of Group Actions on Manifolds, DMS-1752675 and DMS-2020013, 2018–2025 (PI)
• NSF conference grant, Group Actions and Rigidity: Around the Zimmer Program, DMS-2349566, 2024–2025 (co-PI)
• NSF conference grant, Flexibility and Rigidity in Dynamical Systems, DMS-2154392, 2022–2023 (co-PI)
• NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, DMS-1104013, 2011–2013

Contact

Department of Mathematics
Northwestern University
Lunt Hall B4
awb@northwestern.edu
847-491-3738