W. V. D.

Hodge
Sir William Vallance Douglas Hodge FRS FRSE[2]
Sir
(/hɒdʒ/; 17 June 1903 – 7 July 1975) was a British
mathematician, specifically a geometer.[3][4]
W. V. D. Hodge
FRS FRSE

His discovery of far-reaching topological relations Born 17 June 1903

between algebraic geometry and differential geometry Edinburgh, UK
—an area now called Hodge theory and pertaining Died 7 July 1975 (aged 72)
more generally to Kähler manifolds—has been a major Cambridge, UK
influence on subsequent work in geometry.
Nationality British
Education George Watson's College

Life and career Alma mater University of Edinburgh

St John's College,
Hodge was born in Edinburgh in 1903, the younger Cambridge[1]
son and second of three children of Archibald James Known for Hodge conjecture
Hodge (1869–1938), a searcher of records in the Hodge dual
property market and a partner in the firm of Douglas Hodge bundle
and Company, and his wife, Jane (born 1875), daughter Hodge theory
of confectionery business owner William
[5][6][7] Awards Adams Prize (1936)
Vallance. They lived at 1 Church Hill Place in
Senior Berwick Prize (1952)
the Morningside district.[8]
Royal Medal (1957)
He attended George Watson's College, and studied at De Morgan Medal (1959)
Edinburgh University, graduating MA in 1923. With Copley Medal (1974)
help from E. T. Whittaker, whose son J. M. Whittaker Scientific career
was a college friend, he then enrolled as an affiliated Fields Mathematics
student at St John's College, Cambridge, in order to
Institutions Pembroke College,
study the Mathematical Tripos. At Cambridge he fell
Cambridge
under the influence of the geometer H. F. Baker. He
gained a Cambridge BA degree in 1925, receiving the Academic E. T. Whittaker
MA in 1930 and the Doctor of Science (ScD) degree in advisors

1950.[9] Doctoral Michael Atiyah

students Ian R. Porteous
In 1926 he took up a teaching position at the David J. Simms
University of Bristol, and began work on the interface
between the Italian school of algebraic geometry, particularly problems posed by Francesco Severi, and
the topological methods of Solomon Lefschetz. This made his reputation, but led to some initial
scepticism on the part of Lefschetz. According to Atiyah's memoir, Lefschetz and Hodge in 1931 had a
meeting in Max Newman's rooms in Cambridge, to try to resolve issues. In the end Lefschetz was
convinced.[2] In 1928 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir
Edmund Taylor Whittaker, Ralph Allan Sampson,
Charles Glover Barkla, and Sir Charles Galton Darwin.
He was awarded the Society's Gunning Victoria Jubilee
Prize for the period 1964 to 1968.[10]

In 1930 Hodge was awarded a Research Fellowship at St

John's College, Cambridge. He spent the year 1931–2 at
Princeton University, where Lefschetz was, visiting also
Hodge's home at 1 Church Hill Place,
Oscar Zariski at Johns Hopkins University. At this time
Edinburgh
he was also assimilating de Rham's theorem, and
defining the Hodge star operation. It would allow him to
define harmonic forms and so refine the de Rham theory.

On his return to Cambridge, he was offered a University Lecturer position in 1933. He became the
Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge, a position he held from 1936 to 1970.
He was the first head of DPMMS.

He was the Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge from 1958 to 1970, and vice-president of the Royal
Society from 1959 to 1965. He was knighted in 1959. Amongst other honours, he received the Adams
Prize in 1937 and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1974.

He died in Cambridge on 7 July 1975.

Work
The Hodge index theorem was a result on the intersection number theory for curves on an algebraic
surface: it determines the signature of the corresponding quadratic form. This result was sought by the
Italian school of algebraic geometry, but was proved by the topological methods of Lefschetz.

The Theory and Applications of Harmonic Integrals[11] summed up Hodge's development during the
1930s of his general theory. This starts with the existence for any Kähler metric of a theory of Laplacians
– it applies to an algebraic variety V (assumed complex, projective and non-singular) because projective
space itself carries such a metric. In de Rham cohomology terms, a cohomology class of degree k is
represented by a k-form α on V(C). There is no unique representative; but by introducing the idea of
harmonic form (Hodge still called them 'integrals'), which are solutions of Laplace's equation, one can get
unique α. This has the important, immediate consequence of splitting up

Hk(V(C), C)

into subspaces

Hp,q

according to the number p of holomorphic differentials dzi wedged to make up α (the cotangent space
being spanned by the dzi and their complex conjugates). The dimensions of the subspaces are the Hodge
numbers.
This Hodge decomposition has become a fundamental tool. Not only do the dimensions hp,q refine the
Betti numbers, by breaking them into parts with identifiable geometric meaning; but the decomposition
itself, as a varying 'flag' in a complex vector space, has a meaning in relation with moduli problems. In
broad terms, Hodge theory contributes both to the discrete and the continuous classification of algebraic
varieties.

Further developments by others led in particular to an idea of mixed Hodge structure on singular
varieties, and to deep analogies with étale cohomology.

Hodge conjecture
The Hodge conjecture on the 'middle' spaces Hp,p is still unsolved, in general. It is one of the seven
Millennium Prize Problems set up by the Clay Mathematics Institute.

Exposition
Hodge also wrote, with Daniel Pedoe, a three-volume work Methods of Algebraic Geometry, on classical
algebraic geometry, with much concrete content – illustrating though what Élie Cartan called 'the debauch
of indices' in its component notation. According to Atiyah, this was intended to update and replace H. F.
Baker's Principles of Geometry.

Family
In 1929 he married Kathleen Anne Cameron.[12]

Publications
Hodge, W. V. D. (1941), The Theory and Applications of Harmonic Integrals (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=-8k8AAAAIAAJ), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-35881-
1, MR 0003947 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0003947)
Hodge, W. V. D.; Pedoe, D. (1994) [1947], Methods of Algebraic Geometry, Volume I (Book
II), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-46900-5[13]
Hodge, W. V. D.; Pedoe, Daniel (1994) [1952], Methods of Algebraic Geometry: Volume 2
Book III: General theory of algebraic varieties in projective space. Book IV: Quadrics and
Grassmann varieties. (https://books.google.com/books?id=bJwbn3RSWhwC), Cambridge
Mathematical Library, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-46901-2, MR 0048065
(https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0048065)[14]
 Hodge, W. V. D.; Pedoe, Daniel (1994) [1954], Methods of Algebraic Geometry: Volume 3 (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=XeX_p8pHCAIC), Cambridge University Press,
ISBN 978-0-521-46775-9[15]

See also
List of things named after W. V. D. Hodge

References
1. Hodge biography - University of St Andrews (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biogr
aphies/Hodge.html)
2. Atiyah, M. F. (1976). "William Vallance Douglas Hodge. 17 June 1903 -- 7 July 1975".
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 22: 169–192.
doi:10.1098/rsbm.1976.0007 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.1976.0007).
S2CID 72054846 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:72054846).
3. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "W. V. D. Hodge" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Hodge.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
4. W. V. D. Hodge (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=18583) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
5. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (https://
web.archive.org/web/20160112063055/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biogr
aphical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-
902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/bi
ographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF) on 12 January 2016.
6. "William Hodge - Biography" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hodge).
7. "Hodge, Sir William Vallance Douglas (1903–1975), mathematician" (https://www.oxforddnb.
com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31241).
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31241 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F31241). ISBN 978-
0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/
subscribe#public) required.)
8. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1903-4
9. The Annual Register of the University of Cambridge for the year 1968-69
10. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (https://
www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF). The
Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
11. Struik, D. J. (1944). "Review: W. V. D. Hodge, The theory and applications of harmonic
integrals" (http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183505582). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 50 (1):
43–45. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1944-08054-3 (https://doi.org/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-194
4-08054-3).
12. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (https://
www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) (PDF). The
Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
13. Coxeter, H. S. M. (1949). "Review: Methods of algebraic geometry. By W. V. D. Hodge and
D. Pedoe" (http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1949-55-03/S0002-9904-1949-09193-0/S0002-
9904-1949-09193-0.pdf) (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 55 (3, Part 1): 315–316.
doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1949-09193-0 (https://doi.org/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1949-0919
3-0).
14. Coxeter, H. S. M. (1952). "Review: Methods of algebraic geometry. Vol. 2. By W. V. D.
Hodge and D. Pedoe" (http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1952-58-06/S0002-9904-1952-0966
1-0/S0002-9904-1952-09661-0.pdf) (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 58 (6): 678–679.
doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1952-09661-0 (https://doi.org/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1952-0966
1-0).
15. Samuel, P. (1955). "Review: Methods of algebraic geometry. Vol. III. Birational geometry. By
W. V. D. Hodge and D. Pedoe" (http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1955-61-03/S0002-9904-1
955-09910-5/S0002-9904-1955-09910-5.pdf) (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 61 (3, Part 1):
254–257. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1955-09910-5 (https://doi.org/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1
955-09910-5).

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