Henri Cartan

Infobox_Person
name = Henri Cartan


image_size = 250px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1904|7|8
birth_place = Nancy, France
death_date = death date and age|2008|8|13|1904|7|8
death_place = Paris, France
nationality = FRA
known_for = Algebraic topology
Bourbaki
occupation = Mathematician
spouse = Nicole Antoinette Weiss
parents = Élie Cartan
Marie-Louise Bianconi

Henri Paul Cartan (July 8, 1904 – August 13, 2008) was a son of Élie Cartan, and was, as his father was, a distinguished and influential French mathematician.citation | title = Décès du mathématicien Henri Cartan | newspaper=Le Figaro | date=2008-08-18 | url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/2008/08/18/01008-20080818ARTFIG00240-deces-du-mathematicien-henri-cartan-.php]

Cartan studied at the Lycée Hoche in Versailles, then at the ENS, receiving his doctorate in mathematics. He held academic positions at a number of French universities, spending the bulk of his working life in Paris.

Henri Cartan was known for work in algebraic topology, in particular on cohomology operations, killing homotopy groups and group cohomology. His seminar in Paris in the years after 1945 covered ground on several complex variables, sheaf theory, spectral sequences and homological algebra, in a way that deeply influenced Jean-Pierre Serre, Armand Borel, Alexander Grothendieck and Frank Adams, amongst others of the leading lights of the younger generation. The number of his official students was small, but includes Adrien Douady, Roger Godement, Max Karoubi, Jean-Pierre Serre and René Thom.

Cartan also was a founding member of the Bourbaki group and one of its most active participants. His book with Samuel Eilenberg "Homological Algebra" (1956) [Henri Cartan and Samuel Eilenberg, "Homological Algebra" ISBN 978-0-691-04991-5] was an important text, treating the subject with a moderate level of abstraction and category theory.

Cartan received numerous honours and awards including the Wolf Prize in 1980. From 1974 until his death he had been a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Royal Society of London, Russian Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, United States National Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences and other academies and societies.

Cartan died on 13 August, 2008 at the age of 104. His funeral took place the following Wednesday on 20 August in Die, Drome.

References

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External links

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* [http://www.academie-sciences.fr/membres/C/Cartan_Henri.htm Henri Cartan] at l'Académie des Sciences fr
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* [http://smf.emath.fr/VieSociete/Rencontres/JourneeCartan/NoticeCartan.html Biographical sketch and bibliography] by the Société Mathématique de France on the occasion of Cartan's 100th birthday. fr
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* (translations of above two articles from the SMF Gazette)