Robert Zimmer

For the German philosopher and essayist, see Robert Zimmer (philosopher).

Robert Jeffrey Zimmer (born November 5, 1947) is an American mathematician and academic administrator. From 2006 until 2021, he served as the 13th president of the University of Chicago and as the Chair of the Board for Argonne National Lab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,^[1] and the Marine Biological Laboratory.^[2] He then served as chancellor of the University of Chicago until July 2022. As a mathematician, Zimmer specializes in geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry.

Robert Zimmer
3rd Chancellor of the University of Chicago
In office September 1, 2021 – July 7, 2022
Preceded by	Himself (as President)
13th President of the University of Chicago
In office July 1, 2006 – August 31, 2021
Preceded by	Don Michael Randel
Succeeded by	A. Paul Alivisatos
Personal details
Born	Robert Jeffrey Zimmer (1947-11-05) November 5, 1947 (age 75)
Spouse(s)	Terese Schwartzman (divorced) Shadi Bartsch
Children	3 sons
Education	Brandeis University (BA) Harvard University (MA, PhD)

Education and work experience

Zimmer graduated from New York's Stuyvesant High School in 1964.^[3] He matriculated to Brandeis University as an undergraduate, earning his B.A., summa cum laude, in 1968.^[4] He conducted his mathematics graduate study at Harvard University, receiving his master's degree in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1975 under the supervision of George Mackey.^[5] Zimmer taught at the United States Naval Academy from 1975 to 1977, and moved to the mathematics department of the University of Chicago in 1977. From 1981 to 1983, Zimmer was a professor in the mathematics department of University of California, Berkeley.^[4] He was on the mathematics faculty and held several administrative positions at the University of Chicago, including Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, Deputy Provost, and Vice President for Research and Argonne National Laboratory before he moved to Brown University as provost in 2002.^[4] He returned to the University of Chicago as president in 2006.

University of Chicago presidency

As president, Zimmer pushed for major academic initiatives at Chicago,^[6] including increased financial aid for students in the undergraduate College and the elimination of loans from financial aid packages;^[7] increased funding for doctoral students, particularly in humanities and social sciences;^[8] the University of Chicago's first engineering program, which began as the Institute for Molecular Engineering^[9] and is now the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering; new programs and facilities in the arts;^[10] and the establishment of the Becker-Friedman Institute for Research in Economics,^[11] the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society, and the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge.^[12] During Zimmer's presidency, the University of Chicago expanded its presence locally with the launch of the Urban Education Institute^[13] and globally with the launch of the Center in Beijing,^[14] the Center in Delhi,^[15] and the Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex | The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong.^[16]

Under Zimmer's administration applications to the undergraduate College increased from under 10,000 in 2006^[17] to over 32,000 in 2018.^[18] The University adopted a policy of meeting full financial need of its undergraduate students with no loan expectations, creating the capacity for them to graduate debt-free.^[19] Recent efforts to increase access to the University include UChicago Promise, which provides aid and college guidance to students in the city of Chicago; the Neubauer Family Adelante Programs, which offers financial support for students engaged in Hispanic/Latino communities; the UChicago Emerging Rural Leaders Program, which offers on-campus programming, mentoring, and financial aid for students from rural communities; and the Office for Military-Affiliated Communities, which supports programs and partnerships for recruitment, enrollment and other services for veterans and their dependents.^[20]

During Zimmer's tenure the University of Chicago received six gifts of $100 million or more (totaling 8.5M): an anonymous $100 million donation to fund the undergraduate Odyssey scholarship program;^[21] a $300 million donation to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business;^[22] a $100 million donation to establish The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Pearson Global Forum at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies;^[23] a $150 million for the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics; $100 million for the Duchossois Family Institute: Harnessing the Microbiome and Immunity for Human Health; and a $100 million donation to initially establish and fund the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

In 2014, Zimmer formed the Committee on Freedom of Expression whose report came to be known as the Chicago principles — a set of guidelines intended to demonstrate The University of Chicago's commitment to freedom of speech.^[24] The Chicago Principles were adopted by more than 65 colleges and universities.^[25] As Zimmer noted in an address to the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2017, the work of faculty and students to confront new and different ideas through education and research "only happens at the highest level in an environment of rigor, questioning, and free and open discourse."^[26] Zimmer also spoke on the importance of these ideas in the keynote address at the University of Vienna's Academic Freedom in the Digital Age conference.^[27]

Under Zimmer's guidance, the University of Chicago sent a letter to incoming freshmen in August 2016 telling them that “we do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”^[28]

An Associated Press report found Zimmer to be the highest-paid college president in the United States in 2011, with total compensation of $3.4 million in that year.^[29]

On August 13, 2020, Zimmer announced that he would step down as president at the conclusion of the 2020-2021 academic year and that he would shift to the role of chancellor.^[30] Zimmer originally had planned to serve through 2022, but acknowledged that brain surgery he had undergone in May 2020 had accelerated his transition.^{[citation needed]} On July 7, 2022, he stepped down from his role as chancellor to focus on his health.^[31]

Mathematical work

Zimmer's work centers on group actions on manifolds and more general spaces, with applications to topology and geometry. Much of his work is in the area now known as the "Zimmer Program" which aims to understand the actions of semisimple Lie groups and their discrete subgroups on differentiable manifolds.^[32]

Crucial to this program is "Zimmer's cocycle superrigidity theorem", a generalization of Grigory Margulis's superrigidity theorem. Like Margulis's work, which greatly influenced Zimmer, it uses ergodic theory as a central technique in the case of invariant measures.^[33] It led to many results within the Zimmer Program, although many of the main conjectures remain open.^[5] In addition to Margulis, Zimmer was greatly influenced by the work of Mikhail Gromov on rigid transformation groups and he extended and connected Gromov's theory to the Zimmer Program.^[32]

Zimmer collaborated with a number of mathematicians to apply the ideas from the Zimmer Program to other areas of mathematics. His collaboration with Alexander Lubotzky applied some of these ideas to arithmetic results on fundamental groups of manifolds.^[34] In collaboration with François Labourie and Shahar Mozes, cocycle superrigidity ideas were applied to the basic problem of the existence of compact locally homogeneous spaces of certain types.^[35] His collaboration with Amos Nevo concerned actions with stationary measure and provided certain basic structure theorems for such actions of higher rank semisimple groups.^[36] Zimmer's earlier work provided a proof of a conjecture of Alain Connes on orbit equivalence of actions of semisimple groups, and introduced the basic notion of amenable group action.^[37]

Personal life

He was married to Terese Schwartzman, former director of strategic initiatives for the university's Urban Education Institute, but they separated in September 2009 and later divorced. They have three grown sons.^[3] In October 2011, he married University of Chicago Classics professor Shadi Bartsch.^[38]

Honors

• Zimmer is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[39]
• Zimmer received an honorary Doctorate from Tsinghua University (April 2011)^[40] and Colby College (September 2014).^[41]
• In 2012 Zimmer became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.^[42]
• In 2017 Zimmer received the 13th annual Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.^[43]
• In 2021 Zimmer received an honorary degree from his alma mater Brandeis University.^[44]

See also

• Zimmer's conjecture
• Paul Alivisatos

References

1. "Fermi Research Alliance Board of Directors". Fermi Research Alliance, LLC. 2014. from the original on 2018-09-01. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
2. "MBL Officers and Trustees". Marine Biological Laboratory. 2014-04-12. from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
3. Yoe, Mary Ruth. "Back to the future - Mathematician Robert J. Zimmer will return to the quads this July as Chicago's next president. And it all adds up". from the original on 2007-08-19. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
4. "Zimmer elected 13th President of University". chronicle.uchicago.edu. from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
5. Lipkin, Michael Lipkin (2010-03-05). "The Zimmer Program". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
6. Rachowin, Blake (2007-01-23). "Zimmer projects major reforms at faculty meeting". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
7. "Alum gives U. Chicago $100M for low-income scholarships". USA Today. 2007-05-31. from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
8. "President Zimmer announces additional $50 million in aid for graduate students in Social Sciences, Humanities" (Press release). 2007-02-07. from the original on 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
9. Coryne, Harunobu (2011-04-05). "Molecular Engineering Director named". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
10. Henning, Joel (2012-09-11). "Where Theory and Practice Make Perfect". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
11. "Becker Friedman Institute established at University of Chicago". University of Chicago News Office. 2011-06-17. from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
12. Catlin, Jon (2012-10-09). "Sosc prof leads collegium to bring foreign scholars to campus". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
13. Haederle, Michael. "Chicago Charter Schools Aim to Lift Urban Education". 2011-08-23: Pacific Standard. from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2013-01-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
14. Mack, Kristen (2010-04-28). "U. of C. will open Beijing center". Chicago Tribune. from the original on 2015-06-10. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
15. "University of Chicago opens centre in Delhi". The Economic Times. 2014-03-30. from the original on 2014-04-05. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
16. Chiu, Peace (2018-09-26). "University of Chicago unveils sleek Hong Kong complex on site of former Victoria Road Detention Centre". The Economic Times. from the original on 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
17. Rachowin, Blake (2007-02-20). "College sees record number of applications". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2011-12-26. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
18. Grieve, Pete (2018-05-03). "Acceptance Rate Plummets to 7.2 Percent for Class of 2022". Chicago Maroon. from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
19. "UChicago Empower Initiative Adds Diversity to Student Body". WTTW News. 2019-08-08. from the original on 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
20. "UChicago offers new resource for military-affiliated students, faculty and staff". University of Chicago Communications. 2018-11-07. from the original on 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
21. Cohen, Jodi S. (2007-05-31). "A $100 million mystery". Chicago Tribune. from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
22. Guth, Robert (2008-11-07). "Chicago Business School Gets Huge Gift". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
23. Glanton, Dahleen (2015-09-30). "U. of C. gets $100 million donation to study global conflict". Chicago Tribune. from the original on 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
24. "Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression" (PDF). University of Chicago Office of the Provost. 2015-01-01. (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
25. "Chicago Statement: University and Faculty Body Support". Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). 2019-11-06. from the original on 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
26. "Chicago Humanities Festival Address". University of Chicago Office of the President. 2017-07-29. from the original on 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
27. "Academic Freedom in the Digital Age". University of Vienna ("Universität Wien"). 2019-09-16. from the original on 2019-12-19. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
28. Why the University of Chicago Opposes ‘Trigger Warnings’ 2019-05-11 at the Wayback Machine by Douglas Belkin in the Wall Street Journal 2019-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, 20 February 2017
29. "Top 10 earning private college presidents in 2011". The Guardian. AP Foreign. December 15, 2013. from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
30. "University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer to transition into role as chancellor in 2021 | University of Chicago News". news.uchicago.edu. from the original on 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
31. "Robert J. Zimmer steps down from position as University of Chicago chancellor". news.uchicago.edu. from the original on 2022-07-07. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
32. Farb, Benson; Fisher, David (2011). Geometry, Rigidity, and Group Actions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780226237909. from the original on 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
33. Karl E. Petersen; Spatzier, R. J. (1995). Karl E. Petersen; Ibrahim Salama (eds.). Ergodic theory and its connection with harmonic analysis : proceedings of the 1993 Alexandria conference. Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 164, 183. ISBN 978-0521459990. from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
34. Lubotzky, Alexander; Robert J. Zimmer. "Arithmetic structure of fundamental groups and actions of semisimple Lie groups" (PDF). Preprint. (PDF) from the original on 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2013-01-25. 1997/98
35. Labourie, Francois; Shahar Mozes; Robert J. Zimmer (1995). "On manifolds locally modelled on non-riemannian homogeneous spaces". Geometric and Functional Analysis. 5 (6): 955–65. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.7.7971. doi:10.1007/BF01902217. S2CID 14099412.
36. Nevo, Amos; Robert Zimmer (November 1999). "Homogenous projective factors for actions of semi-simple Lie groups". Inventiones Mathematicae. 138 (2): 229–252. Bibcode:1999InMat.138..229N. doi:10.1007/s002220050377. S2CID 121268089.
37. Furman, Alex (2010-08-08). "A Survey of Measured Group Theory". arXiv:0901.0678 [math.DS].
38. "Chicago Maroon". from the original on 2011-10-17. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
39. (PDF). Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2011-11-11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-05-27. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
40. Sy, Mark (2011-04-27). "President of the University of Chicago Receives Honorary Doctorate from Tsinghua". Tsinghua News Center. from the original on 2016-02-13. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
41. "Colby Announces Inauguration Details, Honorary Degree Recipients". Colby Office of Communication. 2014-09-04. from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
42. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 2018-08-25 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2013-09-01.
43. "ACTA Announces Robert Zimmer as 2017 Philip Merrill Award Recipient". American Council of Trustees and Alumni. 2017-05-11. from the original on 2019-12-15. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
44. "Celebrating Our 2021 Honorary Degree Recipients". Brandis University. 2021-05-23. from the original on 2021-07-24. Retrieved 2021-05-23.

External links

• Office of the President of the University of Chicago
• Argonne National Laboratory Board of Governors
• Robert Jeffrey Zimmer at the Mathematics Genealogy Project