Spencer Bloch

Not to be confused with André Bloch (mathematician).

Spencer Janney Bloch (born May 22, 1944; New York City^[1]) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic K-theory. Bloch is a R. M. Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Chicago.

Spencer Bloch
Bloch at Oberwolfach in 2004
Born	(1944-05-22) May 22, 1944 (age 80) New York City
Alma mater	Harvard College Columbia University
Known for	Bloch–Kato conjectures
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	Steven Kleiman
Doctoral students	Patrick Brosnan Caterina Consani Steven Zucker

Research

Bloch introduced the Bloch group in 1978.^[2] He introduced Bloch's higher Chow group, a generalization of Chow groups, in 1986.^[3] He also introduced Bloch's formula in Algebraic K-theory.^[4]

Bloch and Kazuya Kato formulated the motivic Bloch–Kato conjecture relating Milnor K-theory and Galois cohomology in 1986^[5] and the Bloch–Kato conjectures for special values of L-functions in 1990.^[6]

Awards and honors

Bloch is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences^[7] and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[8][9] and of the American Mathematical Society.^[10]

He received a Humboldt Prize in 1996.^[11] He also received a 2021 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement.^[12]

At the International Congress of Mathematicians, he gave an invited lecture in 1978^[13] and a plenary lecture in 1990.^[9][14] He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1981–82.^[15]