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Dr. Ian Putnam
RSC Fellow, Academy of Sciences
Affiliation: University of Victoria
Keywords: C*-algebra, Dynamical systems, K-theory
Ian Fraser Putnam, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria, has made outstanding contributions to the theory of dynamical systems. He has shown that the orbits of such systems can be completely determined by algebraic methods – methods which he was instrumental in the development of. Putnam's analysis of the structure of the C*-algebra associated with a minimal homeomorphism of the Cantor set led to an overarching scheme for the classification of all amenable C*-algebras – the so-called Elliott program. Putnam's application of the C*-algebra classification to determine the orbit structure of the Cantor set dynamical system, in terms of the quite simple C*-algebra invariant, was a striking innovation. It has changed the face of dynamical systems theory.
Donald Fraser
RSC Fellow, Academy of Sciences
Affiliation: University of Toronto
Keywords: Inference, asymptotic, foundations, applications
D. A. S. Fraser graduated from the University of Toronto in 1946 after obtaining Honorable Mention as a member of the winning team in the Putnam Competition of that year. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1949. Since then he has been on the staff at Toronto with terms as visiting professor at Stanford, Princeton, Geneva, Wisconsin and Copenhagen. He has published 120 papers and five books on statistics. These significant contributions to statistical theory have been recognized by election to Fellowships in the Royal Statistical Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Statistical Association. He was recently offered a professorship at Princeton, which he declined, to the great advantage of Canadian students, thirty-five of whom have taken their Ph.D.s under his direction, with five now in progress. He therefore makes a great contribution to the study of statistics in Canada.