Jeremy Kahn, professor of mathematics, will receive an award from the Clay Mathematics Institute, the organization announced on Monday. Kahn and Vladimir Markovic, mathematics professor at the California Institute of Technology, will be honored at a research conference in June at Oxford University. The institute is recognizing Kahn and Markovic for their work in hyperbolic geometry. “You should imagine a cloth stretched tight, with very little bending, in a three-dimensional space. The cloth is not attached to anything — it just hangs in space — and you can't ball it up because of the way it follows the curves of the space in which it hangs,” Kahn said. Kahn learned of the award in a phone call from Markovic but couldn’t quite believe it.  “We spent a while talking about whether this award was for real, but we couldn’t imagine anyone making it up. I think it may take until the ceremony for me to believe that it’s real,” Kahn joked. Kahn will receive a plaque and funds for continued research. More about the Clay Research Award