Nominations for President Nomination of Eric Friedlander

I am very pleased to support the nomination of Eric Fried-lander for the position of president of the American Mathematical Society. Eric has had an extremely distinguished career in our profession spanning almost four decades. Beyond a sterling research record his career is characterized by numerous and wide-ranging contributions to the mathematical enterprise. In my opinion his contributions to mathematics and his past experience serving the mathematical community make him exceptionally qualified for the role of president of the Society. Eric received his doctorate in mathematics in 1970 from MIT, where he studied with Michael Artin. After spending some years at Princeton University, he went to Northwestern University in 1975 as an associate professor. He was promoted to professor in 1980 and became the Henry S. Noyes Professor of Mathematics in 1999. Subsequently, he succumbed to the allure of Southern California and starting in September of 2008 he became Dean's Professor of Mathematics at the University of Southern California. Beginning with his thesis and throughout his career, Eric developed a unique blend of algebraic geometry and algebraic topology that made him a leader in a number of diverse fields, especially algebraic K-theory, cohomol-ogy of algebraic groups, representation theory, and cohomology theories for algebraic varieties. He is the author of numerous papers and monographs, including three papers in the Annals of Mathematics, ten papers in Inventiones Mathematicae, and two books in the Annals of Mathematical Studies. For this work, Eric has earned a number of important honors, including a Humboldt prize and invitations to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians. In 2005, he became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The president plays many crucial roles in the gover-nance of the Society. He or she presides over the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees which sets our policy and has the fiduciary responsibility for the financial well-being of the AMS. Eric's years of exemplary service on the Board (which I have had the opportunity to observe first-hand) have prepared him well to accept this responsibility. The president is also called on to enhance our presence in Washington, in conjunction with our Washington office, and to represent the mathematical research community to members of Congress and other government officials. Eric's past service on the Committee on Science Policy of the AMS has familiarized him with this aspect of the Soci-ety's activities and his outgoing nature leads me …