Rate My Professor Arlie Petters

Arlie O. Petters serves as Provost of New York University Abu Dhabi. Prior to this appointment in September 2020, he was the Benjamin Powell Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Duke University, where he also held appointments as Professor of Physics and Economics and served as Dean of Academic Affairs for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Petters joined the Duke faculty in 1998 after serving as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University from 1993 to 1998 and as an Instructor of Pure Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1991 to 1993.

Petters earned a B.A. and M.A. in mathematics and physics from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1986 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT in 1991, with a specialization in mathematical physics. His research focuses on mathematical physics, particularly the mathematical theory of weak-deflection gravitational lensing, as well as applications in mathematical finance and entrepreneurship and innovation in STEM fields in developing nations. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and authored five books, including the monograph Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing and the textbook An Introduction to Mathematical Finance with Applications. Petters is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Career grant, and the first Blackwell-Tapia Prize in the Mathematical Sciences. He is also a member of Duke University’s Bass Society of Fellows and holds the honor of MBE.