Spencer Bloch

Spencer Janney Bloch (born May 22, 1944) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic K-theory. Bloch is the R. M. Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Chicago.

Research Bloch introduced the Bloch group in 1978. He introduced Bloch's higher Chow group, a generalization of Chow groups, in 1986. He also introduced Bloch's formula in Algebraic K-theory.

Bloch and Kazuya Kato formulated the motivic Bloch–Kato conjecture relating Milnor K-theory and Galois cohomology in 1986 and the Bloch–Kato conjectures for special values of L-functions in 1990.

Awards and honors Bloch is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Mathematical Society.

He received a Humboldt Prize in 1996. He also received a 2021 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

At the International Congress of Mathematicians, he gave an invited lecture in 1978 and a plenary lecture in 1990. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1981–82.