French mathematical seminars have been an important type of institution combining research and exposition, active since the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1909 to 1937, the Séminaire Hadamard gathered many participants (f. i.

André Weil André Weil (; ; 6 May 1906 – 6 August 1998) was a French mathematician, known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry. He was one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century. His influence is du ...

) around the presentation of international research papers and work in progress. The Séminaire Julia focussed on yearly themes and impulsed the Bourbaki movement. The Séminaire Nicolas Bourbaki is the most famous, but is atypical in a number of ways: it attempts to cover, if selectively, the whole of

pure mathematics Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications ...

, and its talks are now, by convention, reports and surveys on research by someone not directly involved. More standard is a working group organised around a specialist area, with research talks given and written up "from the horse's mouth". Historically speaking, the Séminaire Cartan of the late 1940s and early 1950s, around

Henri Cartan Henri Paul Cartan (; 8 July 1904 – 13 August 2008) was a French mathematician who made substantial contributions to algebraic topology. He was the son of the mathematician Élie Cartan, nephew of mathematician Anna Cartan, oldest brother of c ...

, was one of the most influential. Publication in those days was by means of the duplicated ''exemplaire'' (limited distribution and not peer-reviewed). The seminar model was tested, almost to destruction, by the SGA series of

Alexander Grothendieck Alexander Grothendieck, later Alexandre Grothendieck in French (; ; ; 28 March 1928 – 13 November 2014), was a German-born French mathematician who became the leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. His research ext ...

Notable seminars

* Séminaire Bourbaki, still current, general;

Nicolas Bourbaki Nicolas Bourbaki () is the collective pseudonym of a group of mathematicians, predominantly French alumni of the École normale supérieure (Paris), École normale supérieure (ENS). Founded in 1934–1935, the Bourbaki group originally intende ...

* Séminaire Brelot-Choquet-Deny (from 1957),

potential theory In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of harmonic functions. The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics when it was realized that the two fundamental forces of nature known at the time, namely g ...

; Marcel Brelot, Gustave Choquet, Jacques Deny * Séminaire Cartan,

homological algebra Homological algebra is the branch of mathematics that studies homology (mathematics), homology in a general algebraic setting. It is a relatively young discipline, whose origins can be traced to investigations in combinatorial topology (a precurs ...

sheaf theory In mathematics, a sheaf (: sheaves) is a tool for systematically tracking data (such as sets, abelian groups, rings) attached to the open sets of a topological space and defined locally with regard to them. For example, for each open set, the d ...

several complex variables The theory of functions of several complex variables is the branch of mathematics dealing with functions defined on the complex coordinate space \mathbb C^n, that is, -tuples of complex numbers. The name of the field dealing with the properties ...

;

and his students * Séminaire Châtelet-Dubreil, Dubreil, Dubreil-Pisot, from 1951,

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

* Séminaire Chevalley,

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which uses abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, to solve geometry, geometrical problems. Classically, it studies zero of a function, zeros of multivariate polynomials; th ...

, late 1950s * Séminaire Delange-Pisot, then Delange-Pisot-Poitou, from 1959,S´eminaire Delange-Pisot
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number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

* Séminaire Ehresmann,

differential geometry Differential geometry is a Mathematics, mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of Calculus, single variable calculus, vector calculus, lin ...

and

category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory ...

;

Charles Ehresmann Charles Ehresmann (19 April 1905 – 22 September 1979) was a German-born French mathematician who worked in differential topology and category theory. He was an early member of the Bourbaki group, and is known for his work on the differentia ...

* Séminaire Grothendieck, from 1957, became Grothendieck's Séminaire de Géométrie Algébrique * Séminaire Janet, differential equations * Séminaire Kahane * Séminaire Lelong,

* Séminaire Schwartz,

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

;

Laurent Schwartz Laurent-Moïse Schwartz (; 5 March 1915 – 4 July 2002) was a French mathematician. He pioneered the theory of Distribution (mathematics), distributions, which gives a well-defined meaning to objects such as the Dirac delta function. He was awar ...

References

External links

2003 list of ongoing seminarsNumdam (seminars)
History of mathematics {{France-stub

Notable seminars

See also

References

External links