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Alexander Grothendieck
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Research
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By overconvergent
Posted Wed Nov 24, 2004 at 10:07:54 AM PDT
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The Notices of the AMS has recently had a two-part article on the life and works of the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, whose achievements in the field of algebraic geometry in the 1950s and 1960s revolutionised the field, before he sensationally left the world of research mathematics in the early 1970s.
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| Grothendieck's life story is eventful; he was born in Germany, his father was murdered by the Nazis, and his pacifist views caused him to leave the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques because it accepted a small amount of money from the French military.
His work in algebraic geometry helped unify several different strands of that subject; it remains important and useful to this day. His published mathematical works are available online here.
One of his most famous works outside algebraic geometry is his Récoltes et Semailles, Réflexions et témoignages sur un passé de mathématicien. This is partly autobiographical, partly mathematical (it lists areas that Grothendieck worked on, and that he feels had not been dealt with adequately by his students). It has never been formally published (the AMS Notices article speculates that this is because it is potentially libellous) but it is available at the Grothendieck Circle webpage in French, and a translation of part of it is available in English. |
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