Ken Ribet

Kenneth Alan Ribet, born on June 28, 1948 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American mathematician working in algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. He is known for the Herbrand-Ribet theorem and Ribet's theorem, which were key ingredients in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, as well as for his service as President of the American Mathematical Society from 2017 to 2019. He earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree from Brown University in 1969 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1973 under the supervision of John Tate. After teaching at Princeton University for three years and spending two years doing research in Paris, he joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978, where he is a professor of mathematics.