Solomon Lefschetz

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Solomon Lefschetz
Paul A. Smith
Norman Steenrod
Arthur Harold Stone
Clifford Truesdell
Albert W. Tucker
John Tukey
Henry Wallman
Shaun Wylie[3]
Other notable studentsSylvia de Neymet

Solomon Lefschetz

ForMemRS (Russian: Соломо́н Ле́фшец; 3 September 1884 – 5 October 1972) was a Russian-born American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ordinary differential equations.[3][1][4][5]

Life

He was born in Moscow, the son of Alexander Lefschetz and his wife Sarah or Vera Lifschitz, Jewish traders who used to travel around Europe and the Middle East (they held Ottoman passports)[citation needed]. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Paris. He was educated there in engineering at the École Centrale Paris, but emigrated to the US in 1905.

He was badly injured in an industrial accident in 1907, losing both hands.

University of Nebraska and University of Kansas, moving to Princeton University
in 1924, where he was soon given a permanent position. He remained there until 1953.

In the application of topology to algebraic geometry, he followed the work of

homology theory, was in the long term very influential (one could say that it was one of the sources for the eventual proof of the Weil conjectures, through SGA 7 also for the study of Picard groups of Zariski surface). In 1924 he was awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize for his work in mathematical analysis. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1925 and the American Philosophical Society in 1929.[9][10]

The

cohomology theory in the 1930s, he contributed to the intersection number approach (that is, in cohomological terms, the ring structure) via the cup product and duality on manifolds. His work on topology was summed up in his monograph Algebraic Topology (1942). From 1944 he worked on differential equations
.

He was editor of the Annals of Mathematics from 1928 to 1958. During this time, the Annals became an increasingly well-known and respected journal, and Lefschetz played an important role in this.[11]

In 1945 he travelled to Mexico for the first time, where he joined the Institute of Mathematics at the

National University of Mexico as a visiting professor. He visited frequently for long periods, and during 1953–1966 he spent most of his winters in Mexico City.[11] He played an important role in the foundation of mathematics in Mexico, and sent several students back to Princeton. His students included Emilio Lluis, José Adem, Samuel Gitler, Santiago López de Medrano, Francisco Javier González-Acuña and Alberto Verjovsky.[2]

Lefschetz came out of retirement in 1958, because of the launch of

nonlinear differential equations.[12] The RIAS mathematics group stimulated the growth of nonlinear differential equations through conferences and publications. He left RIAS in 1964 to form the Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.[13]

Selected works

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 122747688
    .
  2. ^ a b "Mathematics in Mexico" (PDF). Sociedad Matematica Mexicana.
  3. ^ a b c Solomon Lefschetz at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1973-13256-2
    .
  5. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Solomon Lefschetz", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  6. ^ Mathematical Apocrypha: Stories and Anecdotes of Mathematicians and the Mathematical, p. 148, at Google Books
  7. OCLC 245921866 – via ProQuest
    .
  8. ^ "Quelques remarques sur la multiplication complexe by S. Lefschetz" (PDF). Compte rendu du Congrès international des mathématiciens tenu à Strasbourg du 22 au 30 Septembre 1920. 1921. pp. 300–307. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-29.
  9. ^ "Solomon Lefschetz". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  10. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  11. ^
    Spencer, Donald; Whitehead, George (1992). "Solomon Lefschetz 1884-1972" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2014-12-22.
  12. ^ Allen, K. N. (1988, January). Undaunted genius. Clark News, 11(1), p. 9.
  13. ^ About LCDS (Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems @ Brown University)
  14. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1925-04116-6
    .
  15. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1930-05017-x
    .
  16. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1931-05201-0
    .
  17. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1963-10915-5
    .
  18. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1958-10212-8
    .

External links

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