Rate My Professor Gustav Lehrer

Gustav Lehrer is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney. He obtained his BSc with Honours from the University of Sydney in 1967 and his PhD from the University of Warwick in 1971, with a thesis on the discrete series characters of linear groups supervised by J.A. Green. After serving as a temporary lecturer at the University of Warwick from 1971 to 1972 and as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham from 1972 to 1974, he returned to Australia to take up a lectureship at the University of Sydney in 1974. He progressed to Reader by 1990 and was appointed Professor of Pure Mathematics shortly thereafter. Lehrer held the position of Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney from 1991 to 1994 and served as Head of the Centre for Mathematics and its Applications at the Australian National University from 1996 to 1998. Throughout his career, he has been a visiting professor at prestigious institutions including ETH Zurich (1982-1984), the University of Aarhus (1984), the University of Essen (1986), the École Normale Supérieure (1987-1990), and the Science University of Tokyo (1988-1990). He has also contributed to leadership in Australian mathematics as a member of the Mathematical Sciences Sectional Committee of the Australian Academy of Science since 2007.

Lehrer's research focuses on the complex representation theory of finite groups of Lie type, with extensive links to geometry, topology, algebraic groups, invariant theory, Hecke algebras, and Lie algebras. Major contributions include the co-discovery of cellular algebras with J.J. Graham, the Howlett-Lehrer theory on the decomposition of characters induced from parabolic subgroups, the parametrization of characters of finite special linear groups, and the determination of the action of complex reflection groups on the cohomology of the complement of reflecting hyperplanes. He co-authored the book Unitary Reflection Groups with D.E. Taylor in 2009. Key publications encompass 'Cellular algebras' (1996, 1054 citations), 'The representation theory of affine Temperley-Lieb algebras' (1998, 193 citations), 'Induced cuspidal representations and generalised Hecke rings' (1980, 176 citations with R.B. Howlett), and 'The Brauer category and invariant theory' (2015, 97 citations with R. Zhang). His scholarly impact is evidenced by supervision of nine PhD students and receipt of prestigious awards, including the Medal of the Australian Mathematical Society (1988), Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science (1998), Humboldt Research Award (1999), Centenary Medal (2001), Hannan Medal (2015), George Szekeres Medal (2016, jointly), and appointment as Member of the Order of Australia (2016).