Paul Norbury

Professor Paul Norbury is a Professor of Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, with a focus on pure mathematics. He obtained his PhD from Stanford University in 1994, supervised by Ralph Louis Cohen. Norbury's research specializations include geometry, mathematical physics, algebraic geometry, gauge theory, and moduli spaces. He is a key member of the Algebraic Geometry group within the School and has supervised nine PhD students at the University of Melbourne, such as Norman Do in 2010, Yi Huang in 2014, Joseph Chan in 2017, and Michael Swaddle in 2022. His work has been supported by Australian Research Council grants, where he served as Chief Investigator.

Norbury has authored numerous influential publications in leading journals. Key works include 'Gromov–Witten invariants of ℙ¹ and Eynard–Orantin invariants' (2014), 'A new cohomology class on the moduli space of curves' (2023, awarded the Gavin Brown Prize by the Australian Mathematical Society), 'Weil–Petersson volumes and cone surfaces' (2009), 'Orbifold Hurwitz numbers and Eynard–Orantin invariants' (2017), 'Quantum spectral curve for the Gromov–Witten theory of the complex projective line' (2017), and recent papers such as 'From double-scaled SYK correlators to Weil–Petersson volumes' (2025, with Norman Do), 'Super volumes and KdV tau functions' (2024, with Alexander Alexandrov), and 'Polynomial relations among kappa classes on the moduli space of curves' (2024, with Maxim Kazarian). These contributions advance understanding in enumerative geometry, topological recursion, and volumes of moduli spaces, bridging algebraic geometry and mathematical physics. Norbury received the Gavin Brown Prize in recognition of outstanding and innovative research exemplified by his 2023 paper published in Geometry & Topology.

Professional Email: norbury@unimelb.edu.au