Abhinav Kumar November 2022

Education

Harvard University Cambridge, USA

•
Ph.D. in Mathematics 2002 - 2006
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, USA
•
S.B. in Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science 1998 - 2002

Academic positions

• Infosys visiting professor, International Center for Theoretical Sciences (Bangalore), July 2019 - present.
• Visiting research scholar, Stony Brook University, September 2014 - present.
• Associate professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 2012 - June 2015.
• Assistant professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 2007 - June 2012.
• Postdoctoral researcher, Microsoft Research theory group, June 2006 - June 2007.

Grants and Fellowships

• Solomon Buchsbaum Research grant, MIT, 2013 - 2015.

• MIT India Innovation Fund grant, December 2012 - August 2014.
• NSF CAREER Grant, March 2010 - Feb 2015 (DMS-0952486).
• NSF Research Grant, 2008-2011 (DMS-0757765).
• Solomon Buchsbaum Research grant, MIT, 2007 - 2013.
• Clay Liftoff Fellowship, Clay Math Institute, 2006.
• Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Merit Fellowship, Harvard University, 2005-2006.
• William Lowell Putnam Fellowship, Harvard University, 2002-2006.

Publications and Preprints

1. Universal optimality of the E8 and Leech lattices and interpolation formulas, with H. Cohn, S. D. Miller, D.
Radchenko and M. Viazovska, Ann. of Math. 196 (2022), 983–1082, arXiv:1902.05438.
2. Inose’s construction and elliptic K3 surfaces with Mordell-Weil rank 15 revisited, with M. Kuwata,
Higher Genus Curves in Mathematical Physics and Arithmetic Geometry, 131–141, Contemp. Math. 703,
arXiv:1604.00738.
3. The sphere packing problem in dimension 24, with H. Cohn, S. D. Miller, D. Radchenko and M. Viazovska,
Ann. of Math. 185 (2017), 1017–1033, arXiv:1603.06518.
4. Algebraic models and arithmetic geometry of Teichmüller curves in genus two, with R. Mukamel,
Internat. Math. Res. Notices 22 (2017), 6894–6942, doi:10.1093/imrn/rnw193, arXiv:1406.7057.
 5. Real multiplication through explicit correspondences, with R. Mukamel,
LMS Journal of Comput. Math. (Special Issue A) (2016), 29–42, arXiv:1602.01924.
6. Orbit parametrizations for K3 surfaces, with M. Bhargava and W. Ho,
Forum of Math. Sigma, Vol. 4, e18, 86 pages, doi:10.1017/fms.2016.12, arXiv:1312.0898.

7. K3 surfaces associated with the product of two elliptic curves, with M. Kuwata,
Nagoya Math. J. 228 (2017), 124–185, arXiv:1409.2931.
8. Simplices and optimal codes in projective spaces, with H. Cohn and G. Minton,
Geom. Topol. 20 (2016), no. 3, 1289–1357, arXiv:1308.3188.

9. Examples of abelian surfaces with everywhere good reduction, with L. Dembélé,

Math. Annalen 364 (2016), no. 3, 1365–1392, arXiv:1309.3821.
10. Hilbert modular surfaces for square discriminants and elliptic subfields of genus 2 function fields,
Res. Math. Sci. 2: 24 (2015), arXiv:1412.2849.
11. K3 surfaces and equations for Hilbert modular surfaces, with N. D. Elkies,
Algebra Number theory 8 (2014), no. 10, 2297–2411., arXiv:1209.3527.
12. Formal duality and generalizations of the Poisson summation formula, with H. Cohn, C. Reiher and A.
Schürmann,
Discrete Geometry and Algebraic Combinatorics, 123–140, Contemp. Math. 422, arXiv:1306.6796.

13. Metacommutation of Hurwitz primes, with H. Cohn,

Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 143 (2015), no. 4, 1459–1469, arXiv:1307.0443.
14. Multiplicative excellent families of elliptic surfaces of type E7 or E8 , with T. Shioda,
Algebra Number Theory 7 (2013) , no. 7, 1613–1641, arXiv:1105.1715.
15. Elliptic fibrations on a generic Jacobian Kummer surface,
J. Algebraic. Geom. 23 (2014), 599-667, arXiv:1105.1715.
16. Using elimination theory to construct rigid matrices, with S. V. Lokam, V. M. Patankar and J. Sarma M. N.,
Comput. Complexity 23 (2014), no. 4, 531–563, arXiv:0910.5301.
17. Rigidity of spherical codes, with H. Cohn, Y. Jiao and S. Torquato,
Geom. Topol. 15 (2011), no. 4, 2235–2273, arXiv:1102.5060.
18. Point configurations that are asymmetric yet balanced, with H. Cohn, N. D. Elkies and A. Schürmann,
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 138 (2010), no. 8, 2863–2872, arXiv:0812.2579.
19. Ground states and formal duality relations in the Gaussian core model, with H. Cohn and A. Schürmann,
Physical Review E 80 (2009), 061116, arXiv:0911.2169.

20. Algorithmic design of self-assembling structures, with H. Cohn,

Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 106 (2009) no. 24, 9570–9575, arXiv:0906.3550.
21. Optimality and uniqueness of the Leech lattice among lattices, with H. Cohn,
Ann. of Math. 170 (2009), No. 3, 1003–1050. arXiv:math.MG/0403263.

22. Counterintuitive ground states in soft-core models, with H. Cohn,

Physical Review E 78 (2008), 061113, arXiv:0811.1236.
23. K3 surfaces associated with curves of genus two,
Internat. Math. Res. Notices 2008, no. 6, Art. ID rnm165, 26 pp., arXiv:math.AG/0701669.

24. Uniqueness of the (22, 891, 1/4) spherical code, with H. Cohn,
New York J. Math. 13 (2007), 147–157, arXiv:math.MG/0607448.
25. Universally optimal distribution of points on spheres, with H. Cohn,
J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007), no. 1, 99–148.
26. The D4 root system is not universally optimal, with H. Cohn, J. H. Conway and N. D. Elkies,
Experiment. Math. 16 (2007), 313–320, arXiv:math.MG/0607447.
27. The densest lattice in twenty-four dimensions, with H. Cohn,
Electron. Res. Announc. Amer. Math. Soc. 10 (2004), 58–67, arXiv:math.MG/0408174.

28. A proof of Pieri’s formula using generalized Schensted insertion algorithm for RC-graphs, with M. Kogan,
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 130 (2002), 2525-2534, arXiv:math.CO/0010109.

Other Awards and Honors

• Jon A. Bucsela Prize for top undergraduate student in Mathematics, MIT, 2002.
• Joel Matthew Orloff Award for outstanding scholarship in physics, MIT, 2002.

• Member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi honor societies (2002-present).
• William Lowell Putnam Undergraduate Mathematics Competition: 18th place in 1998,
Putnam Fellow in 1999 and 2000, 16th place in 2001.
• Boston Area Undergraduate Physics contest: 2nd place in 1999, 3rd place in 2000, 4th place in 2001.

• International Math Olympiad: Silver medal in 1997, Gold medal in 1998.

• Indian Institute of Technology Joint entrance examination, 1998: first place,
out of approximately 125,000 candidates.
• Indian National Talent Search scholar, 1996.

Recent Talks

1. Sphere packing, lecture series, ICTS Bangalore, 2019.

2. Sphere packing, energy minimization, and modular forms, colloquium, ICTS Bangalore, 2019.

3. Sphere packing, energy minimization, and modular forms, colloquium, TIFR, 2019.
4. Sphere packing, lattice packing, and related problems, Workshop on Computational Challenges in the Theory
of Lattices, ICERM, 2018.
5. Sphere Packings: Old and New, Stony Brook Math Day, 2018.

6. Twenty-four dimensional cannonballs and magic functions, Center for Communications Research, 2018.
7. Twenty-four dimensional cannonballs and magic functions, USC math colloquium, 2018.
8. Sphere packing, New York math circle, 2017.
9. Twenty-four dimensional cannonballs and magic functions, Stony Brook math colloquium, 2016.

10. Moduli spaces of genus 2 curves with split Jacobians through K3 surfaces,
Workshop on Explicit Methods for Modularity of K3 Surfaces and Other Higher Weight Motives,
ICERM, 2015.
11. Moduli spaces of reducible Jacobians of genus 2 curves via Hilbert modular surfaces of square discriminant,
Harvard Number Theory seminar, 2015.
12. Lattices, packings, and energy minimization,
Workshop on Crystals, Quasicrystals and Random Networks, ICERM, 2015.
13. Moduli spaces of abelian surfaces via elliptic K3 surfaces with Shioda-Inose structure,
Arithmetic and Algebraic Geometry (Shioda 75), Tokyo, 2015.
14. Moduli spaces of K3 surfaces, Johns Hopkins math colloquium, 2015.

Students

• Tathagata Sengupta, Ph.D. August 2011. Thesis topic: “Supersingular K3 surfaces”

• Gregory Minton, Ph.D. September 2013. Thesis topic: “Computer-Assisted Proofs in Geometry and Physics”
• UROP (undergraduate research) students at MIT: Benjamin Filippenko, Maja Rudolph, Daniel Fremont,
Eben Freeman, Kyle Miller, Fan Wei, David Rush, Siyao Xu, Qinxuan Pan, Hansheng Diao.

Professional Activities and Service

• Member of editorial board of Contributions to Discrete Mathematics, 2011-present.

• Referee for International Math Research Notices, Journal of Combinatorial Theory A,
SIAM Journal of Discrete Math, American Math Monthly, Journal of Mathematical Physics,
Duke Math Journal, Proceedings of the AMS, LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics,
Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, Transactions of the AMS, Physical Review E., Inventiones Math.,
Forum of Mathematics Sigma, Theory of Computing, Mathematics and Computing, Journal of the AMS.
• Member of MIT graduate admissions committee, 2011 and 2012.

• Thesis committee member and reader for Chris Davis (2009), Ronen Mukamel (2011),
Jennifer Balakrishnan (2011), Catherine Lennon (2011).
• Reviewed grant proposals for NSA and NSF, served on NSF panel.
• Member of the American Mathematical Society.

• Served as interviewer for Mehta Fellowship candidates (for admission to PROMYS), 2015–present.