Lucien Szpiro | |
|---|---|
 Szpiro at theMathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach | |
| Born | (1941-12-23)23 December 1941 Paris, France |
| Died | 18 April 2020(2020-04-18) (aged 78) Paris, France |
| Alma mater | Paris-Sud University |
| Known for | Szpiro's conjecture |
| Awards | Prix Doistau–Blutel (1987) Fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society (2012) Member of the Academia Europaea |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | CUNY Graduate Center French National Centre for Scientific Research |
| Doctoral advisor | Pierre Samuel |
| Doctoral students | Ahmed Abbes Emmanuel Ullmo Shou-Wu Zhang |
Lucien Szpiro (23 December 1941 – 18 April 2020) was a French mathematician known for his work innumber theory,arithmetic geometry, andcommutative algebra. He formulatedSzpiro's conjecture and was a Distinguished Professor at theCUNY Graduate Center and an emeritusDirector of Research [fr] at theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research.
Lucien Szpiro was born on 23 December 1941 in Paris, France.[1] Szpiro attendedParis-Sud University where he earned hisDoctor of Philosophy underPierre Samuel.[1][2] His doctoral work was heavily influenced by the seminars ofMaurice Auslander,Claude Chevalley, andAlexander Grothendieck.[1] He earned hisDoctorat d'État (DrE) in 1971.[1]
From 1963 to 1965, Szpiro worked as an assistant high school teacher in Paris.[1][3] From 1965 to 1969, he was an assistant professor (maître assistant) at theUniversity of Paris.[1][3] From 1969 to 1999, Szpiro worked at the CNRS, initially as anattaché atParis Diderot University before rising to the rank of a distinguished professor (Directeur de Recherche de Classe Exceptionnelle) atParis-Sud University.[3] In 1999, he became an emeritus professor (Directeur de Recherche émérite) at the CNRS and moved to the CUNY Graduate Center as a Distinguished Professor.[1][3][4] He also held visiting positions at several institutions includingColumbia University and theInstitute for Advanced Study.[3][5]
Szpiro was the editor-in-chief ofAstérisque from 1991 to 1993 and an editor of theBulletin de la Société Mathématique de France from 1984 to 1990.[1] He was also head of the commission that oversaw theSociété mathématique de France libraries.[6]
Szpiro advised 17 doctoral students, includingAhmed Abbes,Emmanuel Ullmo, andShou-Wu Zhang.[1][2]
In the 1970s, Szpiro's research in commutative algebra led to his proof of the Auslander zero divisor conjecture.[7] Together with Christian Peskine, he developed theliaison theory of algebraic varieties.[7]
In the 1980s, Szpiro's research interests shifted to Diophantine geometry, first overfunction fields and then overnumber fields.[7] TheInstitut des hautes études scientifiques described Szpiro as being "the first to realise the importance of a paper by Arakelov for questions of Diophantine geometry", which ultimately led to the development ofArakelov theory as a tool of modernDiophantine geometry exemplified byGerd Faltings's proof of theMordell conjecture.[4][7] Szpiro also showed the link between thepositivity of thedualising sheaf of a curve and theBogomolov conjecture.[7]
In 1981, Szpiro formulated a conjecture (now known as Szpiro's conjecture) relating the discriminant of anelliptic curve with itsconductor.[8] His conjecture inspired theabc conjecture,[9] which was later shown to be equivalent to a modified form of Szpiro's conjecture in 1988.[10] Szpiro's conjecture and its equivalent forms have been described as "the most important unsolved problem inDiophantine analysis" byDorian Goldfeld,[11] in part to its large number of consequences in number theory includingRoth's theorem, theMordell conjecture, theFermat–Catalan conjecture, andBrocard's problem.[12][13][14][15]
After moving to the CUNY Graduate Center in 1999, Szpiro began working on new research inalgebraic dynamics.[4][7]
In 1987, Szpiro received thePrix Doistau–Blutel from theFrench Academy of Sciences "for his work in Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry and for his contribution to G. Faltings’ proof of theMordell conjecture."[4] In 2012 he became a fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.[16] He was aMember of the Academia Europaea.[3]
Szpiro died on 18 April 2020 in Paris, France, fromcardiac arrest.[17][7]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of September 2025 (link)Lucien Szpiro, responsable de la commission des bibliothèques de la SMF, estime que le cout de l'operation serait de 100 000 francs par an pour un reseau ne contenant que des listes de livres et de preprints.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)