The KWG PhD Prize is organized annually by the Royal Dutch Mathematical Society (KWG) and includes a monetary award and an exchange trophy. Formerly known as the Philips Mathematics Prize, this year marked its 20th edition. Each year, four to six candidates are shortlisted to present at the NMC based on the quality of their PhD research. A jury of mathematicians from various fields then selects a winner for the best presentation.
Alain works on the NWO Vidi project “Formalizing Diophantine Algorithms”, under the supervision of Dr. Sander Dahmen. His research focuses on formalization of computational algebraic number theory.
Formalization involves encoding mathematical definitions and proofs into a formal language, allowing every logical step to be rigorously verified by a computer. Alain's research centers on algebraic number theory, a branch of mathematics that studies number fields—finite field extensions of the rational numbers. Computations involving these objects appear in various contexts, such as in solving Diophantine equations or in cryptographic applications. Alain works on formalizing key results and developing tools to rigorously verify fundamental computations in algebraic number theory.