Raphaël Salem (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Ραφαέλ Σαλέμ; November 7, 1898 in

Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(now

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

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) – June 20, 1963 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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) was a

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 ...

after whom are named the

Salem number In mathematics, a Salem number is a real number, real algebraic integer \alpha > 1 whose conjugate roots all have absolute value no greater than 1, and at least one of which has absolute value exactly 1. Salem numbers are of interest in Di ...

s and

Salem–Spencer set In mathematics, and in particular in arithmetic combinatorics, a Salem-Spencer set is a set of numbers no three of which form an arithmetic progression. Salem–Spencer sets are also called 3-AP-free sequences or progression-free sets. They have ...

s, and whose widow founded the Salem Prize.

Biography

Raphaël Salem was born in Saloniki to Emmanuel and Fortunée Salem. His father was a well-known lawyer who dealt with international problems. Raphaël was brought up in a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family who followed the traditions of their ancestors. At age 15, the family moved to

and Salem attended the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...

for two years. Believing that he would follow in his father's footsteps, Salem entered the Law Faculty of 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 ...

. His interests, though, were not in law but rather in mathematics and engineering. Soon thereafter, Salem started taking mathematics courses with

Hadamard Jacques Salomon Hadamard (; 8 December 1865 – 17 October 1963) was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. Biography The son of a tea ...

all the while continuing his studies for law. In 1919, he received his law degree. He then began working for a doctorate in law, but quickly decided to change direction to science, which he had been studying for years in parallel to his work in law. After receiving his '' licence ès sciences'' from the Sorbonne, Salem then worked for a degree in engineering. In 1921, he received the degree of Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures from the

École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

. Having completed his studies in law, science and engineering, Salem then went into banking and started working for Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas in 1921. In his free time, he worked on Fourier series, a topic which interested him throughout his life. In the spring of 1939, Salem collaborated with the young Polish mathematician

Józef Marcinkiewicz Józef Marcinkiewicz (; 30 March 1910 in Cimoszka, near Białystok, Poland – 1940 in Kharkiv, USSR) was a Polish mathematician. Life and career He was a student of Antoni Zygmund; and later worked with Juliusz Schauder, Stefan Kaczmarz ...

, and he continued to write mathematics papers while working for the bank. With a deteriorating political situation in

and the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in September 1939, Salem was called up for military duty. He was attached to the Deuxième Bureau of the General Staff of the French Army. He was sent to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to assist the Head of the Franco-

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Coordination Committee and then demobilised in June 1940. Salem left England in the autumn of 1940 and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

where he settled in

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Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. In 1941, he was appointed as a lecturer in mathematics at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, where he was rapidly promoted and became an assistant and associate professor. In 1958, he was appointed as Professor at the Sorbonne and lived in Paris until his death in 1963. In 1967, Éditions Hermann published Salem's ''Oeuvres mathématiques'', edited by his collaborators

Antoni Zygmund Antoni Zygmund (December 26, 1900 – May 30, 1992) was a Polish-American mathematician. He worked mostly in the area of mathematical analysis, including harmonic analysis, and he is considered one of the greatest analysts of the 20th century. ...

and Jean-Pierre Kahane. After Salem's death, his widow established the Salem Prize, an international prize given to young researchers for outstanding contributions to Fourier series.

Personal

In 1923 Salem married a young woman named Adriana and the couple had three children: a daughter and two sons. His father died in

in 1940 while his mother, his sister, his sister's husband, and his sister's son, were all arrested and deported to a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

concentration camp where they all died. Salem's older son survived the war and he enlisted in the free French Forces and took part in Allied landings in the South of France in 1944. By this time his surviving family had managed to escape from France and they relocated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Along with his interest in mathematics, Salem also loved music and playing the violin, preferring to play in quartets. He was also interested in the arts and literature; he enjoyed sports, especially skiing and horseback riding.

Books

''Essais sur les séries trigonométriques''
Paris, Hermann 1940 * ''Algebraic Numbers and Fourier Analysis'', Boston, Heath, 1963 * ''Œuvres mathématiques de Raphaël Salem'', Paris, Hermann, 1967 * with Jean-Pierre Kahane: ''Ensembles parfaits et séries trigonométriques'', Paris, Hermann, 1963, 1994

References

Salem biography by ''J. J. O'Connor'' and ''E. F. Robertson'' at St.Andrews University

External links

Laboratoire de Mathématiques Raphaël Salem at Université de Rouen, France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salem, Raphael 20th-century French mathematicians 20th-century Greek mathematicians École Centrale Paris alumni University of Paris alumni Greek emigrants to France Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Academic staff of the University of Paris 1898 births 1963 deaths Greek people of French descent Jews from Thessaloniki Lycée Condorcet alumni Jewish scientists Scientists from Thessaloniki