Jean-Paul Pier (July 5, 1933 – December 14, 2016) was a

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

ish mathematician, specializing in

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...

and the

history of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the History of mathematical notation, mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples ...

, particularly mathematical analysis in the 20th century.

Education and career

Jean-Paul Pier was a graduate student in Luxembourg and at the universities of Paris and Nancy. He earned a

University of Luxembourg The University of Luxembourg (French language, French: ''Université du Luxembourg''; German language, German: ''Universität Luxemburg''; Luxembourgish language, Luxembourgish: ''Universitéit Lëtzebuerg'') is a Public university, public researc ...

doctorate in

mathematical sciences The Mathematical Sciences are a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper. Statisti ...

and a French doctorate in

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 ...

. He also spent six months at the

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

Nuclear Research Center (1961) and a year at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

(1966-1967). He taught mathematics at the Lycée de Garçons in

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...

from 1956 to 1980. In 1971 he created the ''Séminaire de mathématiques'' at the Centre universitaire de Luxembourg (now the

). He was a professor at the Centre from its creation in 1974 until 1998, when he retired as

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. Pier was primarily responsible for the creation in January 1989 of the Luxembourg Mathematical Society, of which he was president from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1995 to 1998. He was during the academic year 1994–1995 a visiting professor at the

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

. Pier was the editor of two scholarly anthologies, which are standard works on the history of 20th-century mathematics. He organized several colloquia and conferences in Luxembourg. He was active internationally in various scientific bodies, including NATO Science for Peace and Security and

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Selected publications

* ''Amenable locally compact groups'', Wiley, 1984. * ''Amenable Banach algebras'', Longman, 1988. * ''L'Analyse harmonique. Son développement historique'', Masson, 1990. * ''Histoire de l'intégration, vingt-cinq siècles de mathématiques'', Masson, 1996. * ''Mathematical Analysis during the 20th century'', Oxford University Press, 2001 * ''Mathématiques entre savoir et connaissance'', Vuibert, 2006. * ''Development of Mathematics 1900-1950'', edited by Jean-Paul Pier, Birkhäuser, 1994. *
Development of Mathematics 1950-2000
', edited by Jean-Paul Pier, Birkhäuser, 2000. * ''Gabriel Lippmann. Commémoration par la section des sciences naturelles, physiques et mathématiques de l’Institut grand-ducal de Luxembourg du 150^e anniversaire du savant né au Luxembourg lauréat du prix Nobel en 1908'', J.-P. Pier et J. A. Massard, éditeurs, 1997. * ''Le Choix de la parole'', Lethielleux/DDB, 2009.

References

External links

Bibliothèque nationale de France

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pier, Jean-Paul 1933 births 2016 deaths University of Luxembourg alumni Luxembourgian mathematicians Historians of mathematics People from Esch-sur-Alzette