Prof. Chris King

Chris was born and raised in Stillorgan, Dublin. Chris demonstrated unusual academic prowess, especially in mathematics and physics. His parents prioritized education for their sons, sending them to the High School, one of Dublin’s best schools. There, Chris’ natural talent in mathematics and physics profited from rigorous pedagogy. In 1976, Chris achieved exceptional marks in his Leaving Certificate exam, winning a scholarship for top performance in the country in mathematics. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he pursued two full degrees concurrently, in Physics and Mathematics – an endeavor unprecedented at the time; equally so was to be awarded a First class honours degree and a Gold Medal in each discipline. At 21 he began graduate studies at Harvard University, completing his PhD in Mathematical Physics in 1984 with Professor Arthur Jaffe as his advisor. A post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University followed, and then a Visiting Professorship in Mathematics at Cornell University, and a sojourn at ETH Zurich.

In 1991 Chris joined Northeastern University’s Mathematics Department as an Assistant Professor where he enjoyed a career stretching over 30 years. He was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor followed by promotion to Full Professor. He served as Department Chair, and helped create Masters programs in Applied Mathematics and in Operations Research. His research contributions spanned the domains of Theoretical Physics, Applied Probability, Stability Theory, and application areas such as Quantum Information, Computer Networking, Smart Cities, and the study of Distributed Ledgers. While on sabbatical at Microsoft Research in 1998 he earned a patent on routers and methods for optimal routing table compression. In 2013 he was named an inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.