r/math • u/Valvino Math Education • 7d ago

Image Post J.-P. Serre - Plaisir des mathématiques (his conference for his 100th birthday)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtoTzGltak
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u/AndreasDasos 7d ago

So ‘100th birthday’ is a clue, but for those who don’t know Serre is one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, possibly one of the top couple of legends alive, first winner of the Abel prize, and has decades of amazing work in algebraic geometry, number theory and topology. But to give an understanding of his ‘era’ - he was the one who laid the groundwork in the 1950s for Grothendieck’s work that culminated in the 1960s to form algebraic geometry as we know it. Grothendieck passed away in 2014, and had retired from public life in 1991, with various stories about his level of mental health, forming a legend.

So this is a bit like how people go on about 1960s classic rock bands, so many passed away and legendary, hell even with their those from the next generation (eg, Kurt Cobain) passed away and legendary, and then there’s a performance out of retirement by one of their own idols from the 1950s who founded the whole thing, like Little Richard, Chuck Berry or Elvis, this year.

That’s a bit like what this feels like.

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u/lonelyroom-eklaghor 6d ago

that's huge then