Dr. Ian Morrsion, Professor of Mathematics. One of the most striking features of algebraic geometry, the area in which Dr. Morrison works, is that the collection of all the varieties (as the objects he studies are known) with suitable properties can often itself be studied as a variety, called the moduli space of the collection. That such moduli spaces exist is very counterintuitive: Varieties come equipped with fine algebraic and topological data that make them very rigid and special while collections of varieties are, a priori, equipped with no such data. In fact, the data implied by the term moduli space is easily seen to be unique if it exists and the hard foundational problem is to construct it. Once this is done, the beautiful interplay between the study of the varieties in the collection and the study of the its moduli space provides a powerful tool for understanding both. His research monograph with Joe Harris, “Moduli of Curves,” is devoted to constructing moduli spaces and working out this interplay for algebraic curves.