Arlie Petters - Biography

Biography

Arlie Petters was raised by his grandparents in the rural community of Dangriga, Belize. His mother had immigrated to New York and married a U.S. citizen, with Arlie joining them when he was 13. He went to Canarsie High School in Brooklyn.

Petters earned a B.A./M.A. in Mathematics and Physics from Hunter College, CUNY in 1986 with a thesis on "The Mathematical Theory of General Relativity", and began his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mathematics in the same year. After two years of doctoral studies, he became an exchange scholar in the Princeton University Department of Physics in absentia from MIT. Petters earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1991 under advisers Bertram Konstant (MIT) and David Spergel (Princeton University). (See Research below.)

His specialties are in mathematical physics, geometry and probability theory. Petters teaches quantitative finance in the Fuqua School of Business and works with MBA students to promote social entrepreneurship in science and technology in Belize and the developing world. He currently holds the Benjamin Powell endowed Chair at Duke University.

Petters's work and life were profiled in the New York Times, on NOVA, and at Big Think.

Petters was the only signatory of the Group of 88 (who ran controversial ads during the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case) to apologize for the group's ads after all players were declared innocent.