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One of the key figures in proving Fermat's Last Theorem. He is currently the Chair of Princeton University's Mathematics Department.
In 1992 Andrew Wiles enlisted the help of Nick Katz, then another professor at Princeton, to aid him in the final steps of the proof.
In order to keep the proof secret while still allowing himself the time and facilities to
explain his work to Katz, Wiles created a lecture series that he offered as a boring-sounding class for graduate students, in which Katz enrolled. After the first few class periods, all students other than Katz had dropped the class, leaving the two to work on their own.
Through Katzs assistance and using countless techniques developed throughout the history of mathematics, Wiles was able to finish the proof and present it to the world at a
conference in Cambridge (Wiles home town) at the Isaac Newton Institute.
In order to verify the proof, a committee of six people was established (compared to the normal review board of three); it consisted of the top mathematicians in the world, including Nick Katz, who had helped Wiles with the proof. Upon examination of Wiles proof, Katz found an error that could not be corrected involving an assumption that was not verified.
Fortunately, Wiles and Richard Taylor were able to resurrect the proof with some different, discarded techniques that Wiles had used in his earlier attempts.
More info about Nick Katz (full name Nicholas M. Katz) is available at:
http://www.math.princeton.edu/~nmk/
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