Richard P. Stanley (born 1944) is Norman Levinson Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1971 under the supervision of Gian-Carlo Rota. He is universally recognized as a leading expert in the field of combinatorics and its applications to a variety of other mathematical disciplines. He is perhaps most famous for his two-volume book Enumerative Combinatorics (Cambridge University Press), a far-reaching and authoritative treatise on enumerative methods that is widely regarded for its elegant exposition, usefulness as a reference, and creative exercises (in volume 2 readers are asked to prove that 66 different definitions of the Catalan numbers are equivalent). He is also the author of Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra (Birkhauser ) and well over 100 research articles in mathematics. He has served as thesis advisor to more than 30 doctoral students, many of whom (such as Ira Gessel , Bruce Sagan , and John Stembridge ) have had distinguished careers in combinatorial research. Among Professor Stanley's many distinctions are membership of the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1995) and the 2001 Leroy P. Steele Prize for mathematical exposition.

Richard Stanley's Homepage

A List of Richard Stanley's Doctoral Students