Marcel Berger (14 April 1927 – 15 October 2016) 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 ...
, doyen of French
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 a former director of the
Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques
The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics (also with a small theoretical biology g ...
(IHÉS), France.
Biography
After studying from 1948 to 1951 at the
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, Berger obtained in 1954 his PhD from the
University of Paris
The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
, with thesis written under the direction of
André Lichnerowicz
André Lichnerowicz (; January 21, 1915, Bourbon-l'Archambault – December 11, 1998, Paris) was a French differential geometer and mathematical physicist. He is considered the founder of modern Poisson geometry.
Biography
His grandfather Jan f ...
. From 1958 to 1964 he taught at the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...
and had visiting positions at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
and the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. From 1964 to 1966 he taught at the
University of Nice
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". Univ ...
, after which he joined the
University of Paris VII. From 1985 to 1993 he served as director of the IHÉS.
Formerly residing in Le Castera in
Lasseube, Berger was instrumental in
Mikhail Gromov's accepting positions both at the University of Paris and at the IHÉS.
Awards and honors
*1956
Prix Peccot,
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 ...
*1962 Prix Maurice Audin
*1969 Prix Carrière,
Académie des 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 ...
*1978
Prix Leconte, Académie des Sciences
*1979 Prix Gaston Julia
*1979–1980 President of the
French Mathematical Society
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
.
*1991
Lester R. Ford Award
''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an expositor ...
Selected publications
*Berger, Marcel: Sur les groupes d'holonomie homogène des variétés à connexion affine et des variétés riemanniennes. (French) Bull. Soc. Math. France 83 (1955), 279–330.
*Berger, Marcel: Les espaces symétriques noncompacts. (French) Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (3) 74 1957 85–177.
*Berger, M.: Les variétés riemanniennes homogènes normales simplement connexes à courbure strictement positive. (French) Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa (3) 15 1961 179–246.
*Berger, Marcel; Gauduchon, Paul; Mazet, Edmond: Le spectre d'une variété riemannienne. (French) Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol. 194 Springer-Verlag, Berlin-New York 1971.
*
*
*Berger, Marcel: Systoles et applications selon Gromov. (French)
ystoles and their applications according to GromovSéminaire Bourbaki, Vol. 1992/93. Astérisque No. 216 (1993), Exp. No. 771, 5, 279–310.
*Berger, Marcel
Riemannian geometry during the second half of the twentieth century Reprint of the 1998 original. University Lecture Series, 17. American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2000. x+182 pp.
*
*
*
*
* Berger, M.: What is... a
Systole
Systole ( ) is the part of the cardiac cycle during which some chambers of the heart contract after refilling with blood. Its contrasting phase is diastole, the relaxed phase of the cardiac cycle when the chambers of the heart are refilling ...
? Notices of the AMS 55 (2008), no. 3, 374–376
online text*
*
*
See also
*
Arthur Besse
*
Berger's inequality for Einstein manifolds
*
Berger–Kazdan comparison theorem
*
Musical isomorphism
In mathematics—more specifically, in differential geometry—the musical isomorphism (or canonical isomorphism) is an isomorphism between the tangent bundle \mathrmM and the cotangent bundle \mathrm^* M of a Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian ...
*
Parametrix
*
Quaternion-Kähler manifold
*
Spin(7)-manifold
*
Symmetric space
In mathematics, a symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold (or more generally, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) whose group of isometries contains an inversion symmetry about every point. This can be studied with the tools of Riemannian geome ...
*
Systolic geometry
In mathematics, systolic geometry is the study of systolic invariants of manifolds and polyhedra, as initially conceived by Charles Loewner and developed by Mikhail Gromov, Michael Freedman, Peter Sarnak, Mikhail Katz, Larry Guth, and ...
References
Further reading
*
Claude LeBrun
Claude R. LeBrun (born 1956) is an American mathematician who holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Stony Brook University. Much of his research concerns the Riemannian geometry of 4-manifolds, or related topics in compl ...
(Editor and Translator).
Marcel Berger Remembered, ''
Notices of the American Mathematical Society
''Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' is the membership journal of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), published monthly except for the combined June/July issue. The first volume was published in 1953. Each issue of the magazine ...
'', December 2017, Volume 64, Number 11, pp. 1285–1295.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Marcel
1927 births
2016 deaths
University of Paris alumni
20th-century French mathematicians
21st-century French mathematicians
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
French geometers
Differential geometers
French textbook writers