Jacob Palis was born inUberaba, Minas Gerais. His father was aSyrian immigrant, and his mother was ofLebanese ancestry. The couple had eight children (five men and three women), and Jacob was the youngest. His father was a merchant, owner of a large store, and supported and funded the studies of his children. Palis said that he already enjoyed mathematics in his childhood.[9][10]
At 16, Palis moved to Rio de Janeiro to study engineering at theUniversity of Brazil – nowUFRJ. He was approved in first place in the entrance exam, but was not old enough to be accepted; he then had to take the university's entry exam again a year later, at which again he obtained first place. He completed the course in 1962 with honours and receiving the award for the best student.[10]
He was a member of theNorwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[19] In 2010, he was awarded theBalzan Prize for his fundamental contributions in the mathematical theory of dynamical systems that has been the basis for many applications in various scientific disciplines, such as in the study of oscillations.[20][21] He was also a recipient of the 1988TWAS Prize.[22]
Moduli of Stability and Bifurcation Theory, Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Helsinki, 1978 (835–839).
Stability of Parameterized Families of Gradient Vector Fields, withF. Takens, Annals of Mathematics 118, 1983 (383–421).doi:10.2307/2006976
Cycles and Measure of Bifurcation Sets for Two-Dimensional Diffeomorphisms, with F. Takens, Inventiones Mathematicae 82, 1985 (397–422).doi:10.1007/BF01388862
Homoclinic Orbits, Hyperbolic Dynamic and Fractional Dimensions of Cantor Sets (Lefschetz Centennial Conference) Contemporary Mathematics - American Mathematical Society, 58, 1987 (203–216).
Hyperbolicity and Creation of Homoclinic Orbits, with F.Takens, Annals of Mathematics 125, 1987 (337–374).doi:10.2307/1971313
On the C1 Omega-Stability Conjecture, Publications Math. Institut Hautes Études Scientifiques, 66, 1988 (210–215).
Bifurcations and Global Stability of Two-Parameter Families of Gradient Vector Fields with M. J. Carneiro, Publications Math. Institut Hautes Études Scientifiques 70, 1990 (103–168).
"Homoclinic Tangencies for Hyperbolic Sets of Large Hausdorff Dimension", withJ. C. Yoccoz,Acta Mathematica172, 1994, pp. 91–136.
High Dimension Diffeomorphisms Displaying Infinitely Many Sinks, withM. Viana, Annals of Mathematics 140, 1994 (207–250).doi:10.2307/2118546
Nonuniformily hyperbolic horseshoes unleashed by homoclinic bifurcations and zero density of attractors, with J.-C. Yoccoz, C R Ac Sc Paris., 2001.doi:10.1016/S0764-4442(01)02139-5
Books published
Geometric Theory of Dynamical Systems, with W. de Melo. Springer-Verlag, 1982; also published in Portuguese, Russian and Chinese.
Hyperbolicity and Sensitive-Chaotic Dynamics at Homoclinic Bifurcations, Fractal Dimensions and Infinitely Many Attractors, with F. Takens. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993; Second Edition, 1994.
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