Jean Dieudonné, Mathematician
Permanent professor at IHES between 1958 and 1964
Jean Dieudonné was a specialist in group theory, topology and functional analysis. He was the great “scribe” of French mathematics, writing the works of Bourbaki and Grothendieck.
Jean Dieudonné was notably a founding member of Bourbaki and the writer of the group. He was also a PhD advisor of Grothendieck at the University of Nancy and later convinced Léon Motchane to hire his brilliant student alongside him. They thus became the first two IHES professors.
Between 1959 and 1979 Dieudonné was the editor-in-chief of the Publications Mathématiques de l’IHES, which rapidly ranked among the best mathematics journals in the world. He devoted most of his time to properly write the famous Éléments de Géométrie Algébrique (“Elements of Algebraic Geometry”) in order to let Grothendieck focus on his seminars.
Jean Dieudonné left Bures for the new University of Nice in 1964 to found its department of mathematics. Between 1969 and 1982, he published there his Éléments d’analyse (Treatise on Analysis) in nine volumes; it is an imposing textbook containing many substantial exercises for students – and still in use today.
First Prize at Concours général de mathématiques (1923)
Grand prix of Académie des sciences (1944)
