We are pleased to announce that the article "Isomonodromy Deformations at an Irregular Singularity with Coalescing Eigenvalues", published in 2019 in Duke Mathematical Journal, has received the 2026 Frontiers of Science Award in Mathematics.
The article is co-authored by Boris Dubrovin and Davide Guzzetti, both professors of mathematics at SISSA, together with Giordano Cotti, a former SISSA alumnus. Professor Dubrovin was at SISSA from 1993 until 2019, when he sadly passed away.
The award has been granted in recognition of the exceptionally high scientific value of the article, which constitutes an important contribution to the monodromy theory of linear ordinary differential equations with rational coefficients depending on parameters. The paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of both isomonodromic and non-isomonodromic deformations in the presence of an essential singularity when the leading coefficient exhibits a coalescence of eigenvalues while remaining diagonalizable. The results have already found significant applications in geometry, quantum cohomology, and the theory of Painlevé equations.
The Frontiers of Science Award, inaugurated in 2023 by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS), recognizes outstanding research papers in mathematics, physics, and theoretical computer science. The official award ceremony will take place in Beijing in August 2026. Previous SISSA recipients of the award include Fabio Cavalletti (2024), and Massimiliano Berti, Alberto Maspero, Francesco Benini, and Mario Collura (2025).