Person: Chevalley, Claude
Claude Chevalley had a major influence on the development of several areas of mathematics including Ring Theory and Group Theory.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- After graduating Chevalley continued his studies in Germany, studying under Artin at Hamburg during session 1931-32.
- In 1938 Chevalley went to the United States to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
- Chevalley had a major influence on the development of several areas of mathematics.
- Chevalley's theorem was important in applications made in 1954 to quasi-algebraically closed fields and applications made the following year to algebraic groups.
- Chevalley groups play a central role in the classification of finite simple groups.
- His name is also attached to Chevalley decompositions and to a Chevalley type of semi-simple algebraic group.
- But Chevalley's approach to Clifford algebras was quite new in the 1950s, at a time where universal algebra was blossoming and developing fast.
- Chevalley's exposition of the algebraic theory of spinors contains a number of interesting innovations.
- But Chevalley was an algebraist at heart, and gives no hint of the applications to theoretical physics.
- Many of Chevalley's texts have become classics and new editions continue to appear as do translations into several different languages.
- Chevalley also published Theory of Distributions (1951), Introduction to the theory of algebraic functions of one variable (1951), The algebraic theory of spinors (1954), Class field theory (1954), The construction and study of certain important algebras (1955), Fundamental concepts of algebra (1956) and Foundations of algebraic geometry (1958).
- Let us quote from reviews of some of these works to give some impression of the material Chevalley covers and the style of his writing.
- Chevalley's book is timely and it will be widely studied; the meaty exercises will invite a diligent reader to educate himself some more.
- He had written various pamphlets, and various notes; Catherine Chevalley will have to work hard to collect these things and we will publish them as part of his collected works.
- Chevalley was awarded many honours for his work.
- Chevalley was elected an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society in 1967.
Born 11 February 1909, Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. Died 28 June 1984, Paris, France.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
African, Bourbaki, Group Theory, Origin South Africa
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
