Youngest mathematician ever received the Fields Medal.
Jean is remembered and honored for being the youngest mathematician ever to receive the Fields Medal. That was at age twenty-seven, an honor of which many can only dream. He was born and raised in France, and his math skills were so impeccable that he grew to be one of the greatest experts in the field. Many of the theorems that we use today are as a result of his hard work. Most of his work revolved around algebra, and he came up with various formulae and solutions that have proved to be indispensable over the years. Aside from being honored with a Fields Medal, he also holds an Abel Medal.
John’s parents were both pharmacists who worked in Bages in France. As a young child, he developed a great interest in his parents’ line of work, and he developed skills in science. They put him through prestigious schools where his abilities could be nurtured such as the Lycee de Nimes and the Ecole Normale. He succeeded, not just because of his parents’ efforts, but also because of his exceptional mind.
He studied hard and got a doctorate from the Sorbonne which enabled him to hold high positions in science centers in Paris. He went ahead to teach science in College de France, a position he held until he retired in 1994. During his work, he came across a professor known as Josiane who he married and with whom he had a daughter.
Jean’s amazing skills in science began showing when he was a child. By the time he joined college, he had acquired so much knowledge that he stood out from the other students in his class. He worked on various subjects related to algebra, coming up with new theories over time. He also worked with other math experts such as Cartan to come up with the Eilenberg-MacLane spaces.
Over time, he changed his focus and got more involved with algebraic geometry. This change was in the fifties, and he worked together with Alexander Grothendieck. Their work got its motivation from Weil conjectures. As 1960 approached, he got interested in theories about numbers and groups. His most significant contributions involved Galois cohomology. Thanks to his tremendous work over the years, he won many awards ranging from the Steele Award all the way to the Wolf Prize. Jean is indeed one of the greatest minds in the Math Field.