Professor Pappas will work in arithmetic geometry specifically the theory of bad reduction of Shimura varieties concentrating on the case of Hilbert Modular varieties. He will also study the Galois structure of DeRham cohomology groups of arithmetic varieties. This project falls into the general area of arithmetic geometry a subject that blends two of the oldest areas of mathematics: number theory and geometry. This combination has proved extraordinarily fruitful - having recently solved problems that withstood generations. Among its many consequences are new error correcting codes. Such codes are essential for both modern computers (hard disks) and compact disks.
