Nicolae Popescu

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Nicolae Popescu
Born(1937-09-22)22 September 1937
Died29 July 2010(2010-07-29) (aged 72)
NationalityRomania
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
Known forContributions to abelian category theory, non-Artinian rings/semi-Artinian rings and modules, Gabriel–Popescu theorem
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, Category theory
InstitutionsInstitute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy
University of Bucharest
ThesisKrull–Remak–Schmidt Theorem and Theory of Decomposition (1967)
Doctoral advisorGheorghe Galbură [ro]
Doctoral studentsAdrian Ioviță
Alexandru Zaharescu

Nicolae Popescu (Romanian: [nikoˈla.e poˈpesku]; 22 September 1937 – 29 July 2010) was a Romanian mathematician and professor at the University of Bucharest. He also held a research position at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy, and was elected corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy in 1997.[1]

He is best known for his contributions to

abelian categories. From 1964 to 2007 he collaborated with Pierre Gabriel on the characterization of abelian categories; their best-known result is the Gabriel–Popescu theorem, published in 1964.[2] His areas of expertise were category theory, abelian categories with applications to rings and modules, adjoint functors, limits and colimits, the theory of sheaves, the theory of rings, fields and polynomials, and valuation theory. He also had interests and published in algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, K-theory, class field theory, and algebraic function theory
.

Biography

Popescu was born on September 22, 1937, in

D. Phil.
degree (Doctor Docent) in 1972, also by the University of Bucharest.

While still a student, Popescu focused on

mathematical biology
.

Academic positions

Popescu was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Bucharest in 1968 where he taught graduate students until 1972. Starting in 1964 he also held a research appointment at the

Romanian Revolution
.

Publications

Between 1962 and 2008 Popescu published more than 102 papers in peer-reviewed mathematics journals, several monographs on the theory of sheaves, and several books on abelian category theory and abstract algebra, including

  • Popescu, Nicolae (1968). Elemente de teoria algebrică a numerelor [Elements of the Algebraic Theory of Numbers] (in Romanian). Universitatea București.
  • Popescu, Nicolae; Radu, Alexandru (1971). Teoria categoriilor și a fasciculelor [Category Theory and Sheaves] (in Romanian). Editura Științifică.
  • Popescu, Nicolae (1971). Categorii abeliene [Abelian Categories] (in Romanian). Editura Academiei. .
  • Popescu, Nicolae (1973). Abelian categories with applications to rings and modules. London Mathematical Society Monographs. Vol. 3. London: Academic Press. .
  • Popescu, Nicolae; Popescu, Liliana (1979). Theory of categories. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague; Sijthoff & Noordhoff International Publishers, Alphen aan den Rijn. .

In a Grothendieck-like, energetic style, he initiated and provided scientific leadership to several seminars on category theory, sheaves and abstract algebra which resulted in a continuous stream of high-quality mathematical publications in international, peer-reviewed mathematics journals by several members participating in his Seminar series.

Personal life

Popescu died in Bucharest on July 29, 2010.[4] He is survived by his wife, Professor Dr. Elena Liliana Popescu, and their three children, one of whom, Dan Cristian Popescu [ro], is a politician.[3]

Recognition

In 1971 Popescu received the Simion Stoilow Prize in Mathematics of the Romanian Academy. He was elected President of the Romanian Mathematical Society in 1990[4] and corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy in 1997. On the 80th anniversary of his birthday, the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at the University of Bucharest and the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy organized a conference in his memory.[9]

Notes