Jean-Pierre Serre, one of the greatest mathematicians, turns 100 today
Jean-Pierre Serre is 100 years old today
Jean-Pierre Serre, born on 15 September 1926, is a French mathematician renowned for his work in algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and algebraic number theory. A member of Bourbaki and a Fields Medalist, he has had a profound influence on modern mathematics. Today marks his 100th birthday.
I had no idea one could make a living by being a mathematician. It was only later I discovered one could get paid for doing mathematics!
- jesuslop
I'm reading and liking his book just called "Trees" (some bites), it is about group actions on trees, written in the '80. It talks about the modular group among others, the tree action also being used in Shai Haran work on the "real" prime (if the AIs let us dream the old way about classic problems). Serre et al graph of groups idea is very categorical. He could well have been present in the very seminars when Grothendiek was breweing what is now called the Grothendiek construction (absurdly, since G was a serial constructor). That wraps that graph of groups thing.
- andrenarchy
The European Mathematical Society just published an interview with Serre on the occasion of his birthday: https://euromathsoc.org/news/ems-magazine-no.-141:-celebrati...
- jey
> I did not like, and did not understand, epsilons and deltas.
It's nice to have this perspective validated by someone like Serre! I felt like I was missing something when I first encountered that formalism. In fact, all of my introductory calculus classes sucked and turned me off of math for a few years.