Jacques-Louis Lions (; 2 May 1928 – 17 May 2001) was a French

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who made contributions to the theory of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to ho ...

s and to

stochastic control Stochastic control or stochastic optimal control is a sub field of control theory that deals with the existence of uncertainty either in observations or in the noise that drives the evolution of the system. The system designer assumes, in a Bayesi ...

, among other areas. He received the

SIAM Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

's John von Neumann Lecture prize in 1986 and numerous other distinctions.Jacques-Louis Lions
Casinapioiv.va. Retrieved on 9 May 2016.
isces.org Lions is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.

Biography

Lions was born in

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional ) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Re ...

in southern France. He attended

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in Paris in 1947 after being part of the French Résistance in 1943 and 1944. Lions received his PhD under

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 ...

. He became a professor of mathematics at the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, and the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

. In 1966 he sent an invitation to Gury Marchuk, the soviet mathematician to visit Paris. This was hand delivered by Général De Gaulle during his visit to

Akademgorodok Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky City District, Novosibirsk, Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and abou ...

in June of that year. He joined the prestigious

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

as well as the French Academy of Sciences in 1973. In 1979, he was appointed director of the Institut National de la Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (

INRIA The National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) () is a French national research institution focusing on computer science and applied mathematics. It was created under the name French Institute for Research in Comp ...

), where he taught and promoted the use of numerical simulations using finite elements integration. Throughout his career, Lions insisted on the use of mathematics in industry, with a particular involvement in the French space program, as well as in domains such as energy and the environment. This eventually led him to be appointed director of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

) from 1984 to 1992. Lions was elected President of the

International Mathematical Union The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports the International ...

in 1991 and also received the

Japan Prize is awarded to individuals whose original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind. As of 2024, the Japan Prize h ...

and the

Harvey Prize The Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion in Haifa. The prize has become a ...

that same year. In 1992, the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

awarded him an honorary doctoral degree. He was elected president of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1996 and was also a Foreign Member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(ForMemRS) and numerous other foreign academies. He has left a considerable body of work, among this more than 400 scientific articles, 20 volumes of mathematics that were translated into English and Russian, and major contributions to several collective works, including the 4000 pages of the monumental ''Mathematical analysis and numerical methods for science and technology'' (in collaboration with Robert Dautray), as well as the ''Handbook of numerical analysis'' in 7 volumes (with Philippe G. Ciarlet). His son Pierre-Louis Lions is also a well-known mathematician who was awarded a

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of Mathematicians, International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place e ...

in 1994. Both father and son have received honorary doctorates from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in 1986 and 1995 respectively.

Books

*with Enrico Magenes: ''Problèmes aux limites non homogènes et applications.'' 3 vols., 1968, 1970 *''Contrôle optimal de systèmes gouvernés par des équations aux dérivées partielles.'' 1968 *with L. Cesari: ''Quelques méthodes de résolution des problèmes aux limites non linéaires.'' 1969 *with Robert Dautray: ''Mathematical analysis and numerical methods for science and technology.'' 9 vols., 1984/5; translated from ''Analyse mathématique et calcul numérique pour le sciences et le techniques'' by Ian Sneddon *as editor with Philippe Ciarlet: ''Handbook of numerical analysis.'' 7 vols. *with Alain Bensoussan, Papanicolaou: ''Asymptotic analysis of periodic structures.'' North Holland 1978 *with Roland Glowinski and Raymond Trémolières: ''Numerical analysis of variational inequalities'', North Holland 19812011 pbk edition
* * *with John E. Lagnese: ''Modelling Analysis and Control of Thin Plates.''

References

External links

Obituary on SIAM
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lions, Jacques-Louis 1928 births 2001 deaths People from Grasse École Normale Supérieure alumni 20th-century French mathematicians 21st-century French mathematicians French mathematical analysts Officers of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Royal Society Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Partial differential equation theorists Nancy-Université alumni Presidents of the International Mathematical Union CNES presidents

Biography

Books

See also

References

External links