Michael Harris

Michael Howard Harris (born 1954) is an American mathematician known for his work in number theory. He is a professor of mathematics at Columbia University and professor emeritus of mathematics at Université Paris Cité. In 2025, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Early life and education Harris was born in Kingsessing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania He received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1973. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University under the supervision of Barry Mazur in 1976 and 1977 respectively.

Career Harris was a faculty member at Brandeis University from 1977 to 1994. He became a professor of mathematics at Columbia University in 2013. He has held visiting positions at various institutions, including Bethlehem University, the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Oxford University, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Work Research Harris's research focuses on arithmetic geometry, automorphic forms, L-functions, and motives. The Sato–Tate conjecture and its generalization to all totally real fields was proved by Laurent Clozel, Harris, Nicholas Shepherd-Barron, and Richard Taylor under mild assumptions in 2008, and completed by Thomas Barnet-Lamb, David Geraghty, Harris, and Taylor in 2011.

Mathematics without Apologies Harris wrote the book Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation, published in 2015.

Silicon Reckoner Since 2021, Harris has written the newsletter Silicon Reckoner exploring questions and issues related to the mechanization of mathematics and artificial intelligence.

Recognition Harris received the Sophie Germain Prize (2006), the Grand Prix Scientifique de la Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca (2009), Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019),