Joseph Harris

Biography

Joe Harris is the Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He received the Ph.D. from Harvard in 1977, and was on the faculty at M.I.T. and Brown University before returning to Harvard in 1988. Together with Professor Gross, he developed the courses Magic of Numbers and Fat Chance, intended to introduce non-mathematically inclined students to number theory and probability. Harris' research is in the field of Algebraic Geometry, the study of the geometry of solutions to polynomial equations. He is a member of the National Academy of Science.