Andrew Sutherland (mathematician) Last updated August 01, 2025  Education and career Sutherland earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from MIT in 1990. [ 1]      Following an entrepreneurial career in the software industry he returned to MIT and completed his doctoral degree in mathematics in 2007 under the supervision of Michael Sipser  and Ronald Rivest , winning the George M. Sprowls prize for his thesis. [ 1]     [ 16]      He joined the MIT mathematics department as a Research Scientist in 2009. He was promoted to Principal Research Scientist in 2012, and then to Senior Research Scientist in 2024. [ 1]    
He is one of the principal investigators in the Simons Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory, and Computation, a large multi-university collaboration involving Boston University , Brown , Harvard , MIT, and Dartmouth College , [ 17]     and he currently serves as an Associate Editor of Mathematics of Computation , Editor in Chief of Research in Number Theory , [ 18]     Managing Editor of the L-functions and Modular Forms Database, [ 19]     and President of the Number Theory Foundation . [ 20]    
Contributions Sutherland has developed or improved several methods for counting points on elliptic curves  and hyperelliptic curves , that have applications to elliptic curve cryptography , hyperelliptic curve cryptography , elliptic curve primality proving , and the computation of L-functions . [ 21]     [ 22]     [ 23]     [ 24]      These include improvements to the Schoof–Elkies–Atkin algorithm   [ 25]     [ 26]     that led to new point-counting records [ 27]    , and average polynomial-time algorithms for computing zeta functions  of hyperelliptic curves over finite fields , developed jointly with David Harvey. [ 28]     [ 29]     [ 30]    
Much of Sutherland's research involves the application of fast point-counting algorithms to numerically investigate generalizations of the Sato-Tate conjecture  regarding the distribution of point counts for a curve (or abelian variety ) defined over the rational numbers (or a number field ) when reduced modulo prime numbers of increasing size. [ 21]     [ 31]     [ 32]     [ 33]    .  It is conjectured that these distributions can be described by random matrix  models using a "Sato-Tate group" associated to the curve by a construction of Serre . [ 34]     [ 35]      In 2012 Francesc Fite, Kiran Kedlaya , Victor Rotger and Sutherland classified the Sato-Tate groups that arise for genus 2 curves and abelian varieties of dimension 2, [ 14]     and in 2019 Fite, Kedlaya, and Sutherland announced a similar classification to abelian varieties of dimension 3. [ 36]    
In the process of studying these classifications, Sutherland compiled several large data sets of curves and then worked with Andrew Booker  and others to compute their L-functions  and incorporate them into the L-functions and Modular Forms Database. [ 12]     [ 37]     [ 38]      More recently, Booker and Sutherland resolved Mordell's question regarding the representation of 3 as a sum of three cubes. [ 39]     [ 40]     [ 41]    
Recognition Sutherland was named to the 2021 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to number theory, both on the theoretical and computational aspects of the subject". [ 42]      He was selected to deliver the Arf Lecture  in 2022. [ 43]     and the Beeger Lecture  in 2024. [ 44]    
References  1    2    3    4    5      Andrew Sutherland  , MIT, retrieved April 23,  2025   ↑     Klarreich, Erica (November 19, 2013), "Together and Alone, Closing the Prime Gap" ,  Quanta Magazine     ↑     Grolle, Johann (March 17, 2014), "Atome der Zahlenwelt" ,  Der Spiegel     ↑      "Notices of the American Mathematical Society (front cover)" ,  Notices of the AMS   , 62  (6), American Mathematical Society , June 2015  ↑     Castryck, Wouter; Fouvry, Étienne; Harcos, Gergely; Kowalski, Emmanuel; Michel, Philippe; Nelson, Paul; Paldi, Eytan; Pintz, János ; Sutherland, Andrew V.; Tao, Terence ; Xie, Xiao-Feng (2014). "New equidistribution results of Zhang type" .  Algebra and Number Theory   . 8 : 2067– 2199. arXiv : 1402.0811   . doi : 10.2140/ant.2014.8.2067   . MR     3294387 .  ↑      Polymath, D.H.J.  (2014). "Variants of the Selberg sieve" . Research in the Mathematical Sciences . 1  (12). arXiv : 1407.4897   . doi : 10.1186/s40687-014-0012-7   .  ↑      "International team launches vast atlas of mathematical objects" , MIT News , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , May 10, 2016  ↑     Grolle, Johann (May 14, 2016), "Befreundete Kurven" ,  Der Spiegel     ↑     Miller, Sandi (September 10, 2019), "The answer to life, the universe, and everything: Mathematics researcher Drew Sutherland helps solve decades-old sum-of-three-cubes puzzle, with help from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." " , MIT News , Massachusetts Institute of Technology  ↑     Lu, Donna (September 6, 2019), "Mathematicians crack elusive puzzle involving the number 42" , New Scientist   ↑     Linkletter, Dave (December 27, 2019), "The 10 Biggest Math Breakthroughs of 2019" , Popular Mechanics   1    2     Barrett, Alex (April 20, 2017), "220,000 cores and counting: Mathematician breaks record for largest ever Compute Engine job" ,  Google Cloud Platform     ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2019). "Sato-Tate distributions". Analytic methods in arithmetic geometry . Contemporary Mathematics. Vol.  740. American Mathematical Society . pp.  197– 258. arXiv : 1604.01256   . doi :10.1090/conm/740/14904 . MR     4033732 .  1    2     Fité, Francesc; Kedlaya, Kiran ; Sutherland, Andrew V; Rotger, Victor (2012). "Sato-Tate distributions and Galois endomorphism modules in genus 2" .  Compositio Mathematica   . 149  (5): 1390– 1442. arXiv : 1110.6638   . doi : 10.1112/S0010437X12000279   . MR     2982436 .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V., Sato-Tate distributions in genus 2  , MIT  , retrieved February 13,  2020   ↑      Andrew Victor Sutherland  , Mathematics Genealogy Project  , retrieved February 13,  2020   ↑      "Principal Investigators" , Simons Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory, and Computation , Brown University, retrieved February 14,  2020   ↑      Research in Number Theory Editors  , Springer  , retrieved February 13,  2020   ↑      LMFDB Editorial Board  , The L-functions and Modular Forms Database, retrieved February 13,  2020   ↑      Number Theory Foundation home page  , Number Theory Foundation  , retrieved February 13,  2020   1    2      Kedlaya, Kiran S. ; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2008). "Computing L-series of hyperelliptic curves". Algorithmic Number Theory 8th International Symposium (ANTS VIII) . Lecture Notes in Computer Science . Vol.  5011. Springer . pp.  312– 326. arXiv : 0801.2778   . doi :10.1007/978-3-540-79456-1_21 .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2011). "Structure computation and discrete logarithms in finite abelian p-groups" .  Mathematics of Computation   . 80  (273): 477– 500. arXiv : 0809.3413   . doi : 10.1090/S0025-5718-10-02356-2   .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2011). "Computing Hilbert class polynomials with the Chinese remainder theorem" .  Mathematics of Computation   . 80  (273): 501– 538. arXiv : 0903.2785   . doi : 10.1090/S0025-5718-2010-02373-7   .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2012). "Accelerating the CM method" . LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics . 15 : 317– 325. arXiv : 1009.1082   . doi : 10.1112/S1461157012001015   .  ↑     Bröker, Reinier; Lauter, Kristin ; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2012). "Modular polynomials via isogeny volcanoes" .  Mathematics of Computation   . 81  (278): 1201– 1231. arXiv : 1001.0402   . doi : 10.1090/S0025-5718-2011-02508-1   .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2013). "On the evaluation of modular polynomials". Algorithmic Number Theory 10th International Symposium (ANTS X) . Open Book Series. Vol.  1. Mathematical Sciences Publishers . pp.  312– 326. arXiv : 1202.3985   . doi : 10.2140/obs.2013.1.531   .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V., Genus 1 point counting records over prime fields   , retrieved February 14,  2020   ↑     Harvey, David; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2014). "Computing Hasse-Witt matrices of hyperelliptic curves in average polynomial time" . LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics . 17 : 257– 273. arXiv : 1402.3246   . doi : 10.1112/S1461157014000187   .  ↑     Harvey, David; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2016). "Computing Hasse-Witt matrices of hyperelliptic curves in average polynomial time, II". Frobenius distributions: Lang-Trotter and Sato-Tate conjectures . Contemporary Mathematics. Vol.  663. pp.  127– 148. arXiv : 1410.5222   . doi :10.1090/conm/663/13352 .  ↑     Harvey, David; Massierer, Maike; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2016). "Computing L-series of geometrically hyperelliptic curves of genus three" . LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics . 19 : 220– 234. arXiv : 1605.04708   . doi : 10.1112/S1461157016000383   .  ↑      Kedlaya, Kiran S. ; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2009). "Hyperelliptic curves, L-polynomials, and random matrices". Arithmetic, Geometry, Cryptography and Coding Theory . Contemporary Mathematics. Vol.  487. American Mathematical Society . pp.  119– 162. doi :10.1090/conm/487/09529 .  ↑     Fité, Francesc; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2014). "Sato-Tate distributions of twists of y 2 = x 5 − x {\displaystyle y^{2}=x^{5}-x}   and y 2 = x 6 + 1 {\displaystyle y^{2}=x^{6}+1}  " . Algebra and Number Theory . 8 : 543– 585. arXiv : 1203.1476   . doi : 10.2140/ant.2014.8.543   .  ↑     Fité, Francesc; Lorenzo Garcia, Elisa; Sutherland, Andrew V. (2018). "Sato-Tate distributions of twists of the Fermat and the Klein quartics" . Research in the Mathematical Sciences . 5  (41). arXiv : 1712.07105   . doi : 10.1007/s40687-018-0162-0   .  ↑      Katz, Nicholas M. ; Sarnak, Peter  (1999). Random matrices, Frobenius eigenvalues, and monodromy . American Mathematical Society.  ↑      Serre, Jean-Pierre  (2012). Lectures on N X ( p ) {\displaystyle N_{X}(p)}  . Research Notes in Mathematics. CRC Press .  ↑     Fité, Francesc; Kedlaya, Kiran S. ; Sutherand, Andrew V. (2021). "Sato–Tate groups of abelian threefolds: A preview of the classification". Arithmetic, Geometry, Cryptography and Coding Theory . Contemporary Mathematics. Vol.  770. pp.  103– 129. arXiv : 1911.02071   . doi :10.1090/conm/770/15432 . ISBN     978-1-4704-6426-4  . S2CID     207772885 .  ↑      Booker, Andrew R ; Sisjling, Jeroen; Sutherland, Andrew V.; Voight, John; Yasaki, Dan (2016). "A database of genus 2 curves over the rational numbers" . LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics . 19 : 235– 254. arXiv : 1602.03715   . doi : 10.1112/S146115701600019X   .  ↑     Sutherland, Andrew V. (2019). "A database of nonhyperelliptic genus-3 curves over Q {\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} }  ". Thirteenth Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium (ANTS XIII) . Open Book Series. Vol.  2. Mathematical Sciences Publishers . arXiv : 1806.06289   . doi : 10.2140/obs.2019.2.443   .  ↑     Honner, Patrick (November 5, 2019), "Why the Sum of Three Cubes Is a Hard Math Problem" , Quanta Magazine   ↑     Dunne, Edward (18 September 2019), "3" , AMS Blogs , American Mathematical Society    ↑     Lu, Donna (September 18, 2019), "Mathematicians find a completely new way to write the number 3" , New Scientist   ↑      2021 Class of Fellows of the AMS  , American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2020-11-02    ↑      Arf Lectures  , Middle East Technical University, retrieved 2020-11-17    ↑      Beeger Lecture  , Nederlands Mathematische Congres, retrieved 2024-04-03   This page is based on this 
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