John Friedlander

John Friedlander is a Canadian mathematician whose research centres on analytic number theory, the study of whole numbers and prime numbers by means of analysis and sieve methods. He took a bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto in 1965, a master's degree at the University of Waterloo in 1966 and a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in 1972. After lecturing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1974 to 1976 he joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1977, where he chaired the mathematics department from 1987 to 1991, and he has also spent several years at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is known for long collaborations with number theorists such as Enrico Bombieri, William Duke, Andrew Granville and above all Henryk Iwaniec. With Iwaniec he proved in 1997 that infinitely many primes have the form a squared plus b to the fourth power, by strengthening Bombieri's asymptotic sieve. His honours include fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Mathematical Society, the Jeffery-Williams Prize and, with Iwaniec, the Joseph L. Doob Prize for their book Opera de Cribro.