In Memory of Professor Emeritus Shlomo Sternberg

It is with heavy hearts that we say farewell to Professor Emeritus Shlomo Zvi Sternberg, who passed away surrounded by friends and family in Israel on August 23, 2024. Shlomo joined the Harvard Department of Mathematics in 1959 and was named George Putnam Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics until his retirement in 2017.

“He is the most brilliant person I ever met, and as a former physicist I would never have become a member of this department without his support and guidance,” said Harvard math department Senior Lecturer Paul Bamberg. Paul was a student in Shlomo’s Math 55b course in the Spring of 1960.

As a mathematician, Shlomo was known for his work in geometry, particularly symplectic geometry and Lie theory. Throughout his life, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.