José Adem (27 October 1921 – 14 February 1991) was a Mexican mathematician who worked in

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...

, and proved the Adem relations between Steenrod squares.

Life and education

Born José Adem Chahín in

Tuxpan Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census ...

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, (published his works as José Adem), Adem showed an interest in mathematics from an early age, and moved to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

in 1941 to pursue a degree in engineering and mathematics. He obtained his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in mathematics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1949. During this time met

Solomon Lefschetz Solomon Lefschetz (russian: Соломо́н Ле́фшец; 3 September 1884 – 5 October 1972) was an American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear o ...

, a famous algebraic topologist who was spending prolonged periods of time in Mexico. Lefschetz recognized Adem's mathematical talent, and sent him as a doctoral student to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

where he graduated in 1952. His dissertation, ''Iterations of the squaring operations in algebraic topology'', was written under the supervision of

Norman Steenrod Norman Earl Steenrod (April 22, 1910October 14, 1971) was an American mathematician most widely known for his contributions to the field of algebraic topology. Life He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and educated at Miami University and University of ...

and introduced what are now called the Adem relations. His brother is geophysicist Julián Adem, who obtained a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Brown University in 1953. Julián's son is topologist

Alejandro Adem Alejandro Adem, FRSC is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia and President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Previously he was Director of the Pacific Institute for ...

Career

Adem became a researcher at the Mathematics Institute of UNAM (1954–1961), and then head of the Mathematics Department at the

Instituto Politécnico Nacional The National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico ( es, Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México; ), abbreviated IPN, is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 171,581 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate level ...

(1961–1973). He was elected to El Colegio Nacional on 4 April 1960. In 1951 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1956, Adem started the second series of the Boletín de la Sociedad Matemática Mexicana.

Publications

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adem, Jose 1921 births 1991 deaths People from Tuxpan, Veracruz 20th-century Mexican mathematicians Topologists National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Princeton University alumni National Autonomous University of Mexico faculty Instituto Politécnico Nacional faculty Members of El Colegio Nacional (Mexico) Mexican expatriates in the United States