Yakov B. Pesin

Yakov B. Pesin is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University, within the Eberly College of Science. He is also the Director of the Anatole Katok Center for Dynamical Systems and Geometry, a leading research hub in dynamical systems. He holds a tenured, full-time faculty position and is actively engaged in research and academic leadership.

• B.S./M.S. in Mathematics, Moscow State University (1970)
• Ph.D. in Mathematics, Gorky State University (1979)

Pesin's research is centered on dynamical systems, with profound contributions to nonuniform hyperbolicity theory (known as Pesin Theory), partial hyperbolicity, ergodic theory, dimension theory, and mathematical physics. His work underpins the mathematical understanding of deterministic chaos, particularly through the Pesin entropy formula, which links entropy to Lyapunov exponents. He has also made seminal advances in the study of SRB measures, geodesic flows, and coupled map lattices.

The trends in his recent publications (2016–2023) reveal a sustained focus on extending thermodynamic formalism to non-uniformly hyperbolic and partially hyperbolic systems, constructing SRB measures via geometric methods, analyzing equilibrium states, and exploring multifractal and dimensional properties of invariant measures. His collaborations span leading figures in the field, and his work appears in top-tier journals such as Annals of Mathematics, Communications in Mathematical Physics, and Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems.

Pesin has received numerous honors, including:

• Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (Inaugural Class, 2012)
• Member of Academia Europaea (2019)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023)
• Michael Brin Prize in Dynamical Systems

He has advised many PhD students and contributed significantly to mathematical education through the MASS program at Penn State. While specific student names are not listed in the provided texts, his role as a thesis advisor is explicitly mentioned. Pesin has also been invited to deliver distinguished lectures worldwide, including at SIAM and AMS meetings and the Bernoulli Lecture series. His research is supported by long-standing academic and collaborative networks rather than specific grant details mentioned here. He leads the Anatole Katok Center, which fosters interdisciplinary research in dynamics and geometry.