Jeffrey Lagarias
American mathematician

Jeffrey Clark Lagarias (born November 16, 1949) is a mathematician and professor at the University of Michigan.
Education
While in high school in 1966, Lagarias studied astronomy at the Summer Science Program.
He completed an S.B. and S.M. in Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. The title of his thesis was "Evaluation of certain character sums". He was a Putnam Fellow at MIT in 1970. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT for his thesis "The 4-part of the class group of a quadratic field", in 1974. His advisor for both his masters and Ph.D. was Harold Stark.
Career
In 1974, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories and eventually became a member of technical staff. From 1995 to 2004, he was a Technology Consultant at AT&T Research Laboratories. In 2004, he moved to the University of Michigan as a professor of mathematics.
The public source identifies “Jeffrey Lagarias” as american mathematician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jeffrey, Lagarias and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Jeffrey Lagarias”, the useful work is to connect “american mathematician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1686462. VIAF identifies the subject as 111685861. The Library of Congress control number is n90708470. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1966, 1972 and 1970.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Jeffrey Lagarias”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Jeffrey Lagarias primary sources, Jeffrey Lagarias archive and Jeffrey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jeffrey Lagarias”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Jeffrey Lagarias” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.