Keller, 73, shares the honor and $100,000 award with Yakov Sinai, a professor at both Princeton University and Landau Institute of Theoretical Physics in Moscow.
Israel’s President Ezer Weizman will award the prizes in April in Israel.
Established in 1961 by the late Dr. Ricardo Wolf “to promote science and art for the benefit of mankind,” the Wolf Prize is often awarded for a specific achievement. Keller’s award marks a lifetime of contributions to math and science.
His work is based on sound waves, radio waves, earthquake waves, radar and sonar. The physical laws that govern the movement of each of these follow mathematical formulas.
“I had to make up methods to solve a variety of problems — differential equations which can be applied to many different questions,” Keller said.
Born in New Jersey, Keller received a B.A. and M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in mathematics from New York University. Since 1978 he has been a professor of mathematics and mechanical engineering at Stanford.
Among his many awards are the National Medal of Science and the von Karman Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is a member of the Royal Society, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Wolf Prize is of special meaning to Keller because “all the previous recipients are outstanding mathematicians,” he said. “It is a particularly prestigious honor to win the same prize as those whom I admire so much.”
Keller is officially retired from Stanford, but he is often at his lab “looking at waves in the earth and how they get scattered by rocks.
“It’s important in trying to understand earthquakes, and in prospecting for oil,” he said. “When I [performed work under contract] for the Defense Department, I got paid to study radar and sonar questions. As a professor I get to work on the fun problems.”