Jean-Marie Souriau
Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Jean-Marie Souriau (3 June 1922, Paris – 15 March 2012, Aix-en-Provence) was a French mathematician. He was one of the pioneers of modern symplectic geometry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Education and career
Souriau started studying mathematics in 1942 at École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 1946 he was a research fellow of CNRS and an engineer at ONERA. His PhD thesis, defended in 1952 under the supervision of Joseph Pérès and André Lichnerowicz, was entitled "Sur la stabilité des avions" (On the stability of planes).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Between 1952 and 1958 he worked at Institut des Hautes Études in Tunis, and since 1958 he was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Provence in Marseille.<ref name=":1" /> In 1981 he was awarded the Prix Jaffé of the French Academy of Sciences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Research
Souriau contributed to the introduction and the development of many important concepts in symplectic geometry, arising from classical and quantum mechanics.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In particular, he introduced the notion of moment map,<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> gave a classification of the homogeneous symplectic manifolds (now known as the Kirillov–Kostant–Souriau theorem), and investigated the coadjoint action of a Lie group, which led to the first geometric interpretation of spin at a classical level.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He also suggested a program of geometric quantization<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and developed a more general approach to differentiable manifolds by means of diffeologies.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Souriau published more than 50 papers in peer-review scientific journals,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as three monographs, on linear algebra,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> on relativity<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and on geometric mechanics.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He supervised 10 PhD students.<ref name=":0"/>
References
External links
- Jean-Marie Souriau official website (the website hosts copies of many of Souriau's works)
- Ray F. Streater: Souriau
- Patrick Iglesias-Zemmour: Souriau (in French)
- In Memoriam Conference 2012: Web site
- "Structure des Systèmes Dynamiques" Anniversary Conference 2019
- Interview of Jean-Marie Souriau by Laurence Honnorat on YouTube (in French)